John Brown, Battle of Black Jack (Earle, 2008)

The battles of Black Jack (where Brown, now a wanted man and outnumbered two to one, captured the man deputized to catch him) and Osawatomie in June and August of 1856, sealed John Brown’s fame as a fearsome guerilla fighter. Brown continued to evade capture, but a force of 250 men killed his son Frederick and burned the free-state town of Osawatomie to the ground. His son Jason later recalled that, while watching the flames, his father said, "God sees it. I have only a short time to live - only one death to die, and I will die fighting this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry the war into Africa.” By “Africa” Brown meant that he would next attack slavery where slavery already existed: in the South itself.