In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown attempted to raid a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia; Brown's objective was to seize weapons and foment a large-scale slave revolt in the American South. The raid failed; Brown was captured, tried for treason, and executed by hanging in Charles Town, Virginia, on December 2, 1859. While many Americans disagreed with Brown's actions, some abolitionists in the North saw Brown's raid as a justified-if-misguided attempt to address a moral wrong. This view was quickly reflected in the art and culture of the abolitionist movement, with Brown oftentimes being portrayed as a Christlike martyr.