John Brown, the celebrated abolitionist and hero of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, became a national leader in the abolitionist movement while living in Springfield. Indeed, Springfield's role in the abolitionist movement was far greater than the city's population at the time, (approximately 20,000 before the separation of Chicopee). In 1836, Springfield's American Colonization Society was its first radical abolitionist group. Nearly all Springfielders – from its wealthiest merchants to its influential newspaper publisher – supported abolitionism. In 1846, Brown moved into this progressive climate and set up a wool commission. Brown began attending church services at the traditionally black Sanford Street Church (now St. John's Congregational Church.) In Springfield, Brown spoke with Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, while learning about the successes of Springfield's Underground Railroad. Also, in Springfield, Brown met many of the contacts he would need in later years to fund his work in Bleeding Kansas. In 1850, in response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, John Brown formed his first militant anti-slavery organization in Springfield: "The League of Gileadites." Brown founded the group by saying, "Nothing so charms the American people as personal bravery. [Blacks] would have ten times the number [of whites friends than] they now have were they but half as much in earnest to secure their dearest rights as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their white neighbors..." The League of Gileadites protected slaves who escaped to Springfield from slaver-catchers. After the foundation of Brown's organization in 1850, a slave was never again "captured" in the city. As of 2011, St. John's Congregational Church – one of the Northeast's most prominent black congregations, now celebrating its 167th year in existence – still displays John Brown's Bible.