Question: John Brown, was an American abolitionist who believed and advocated that armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States, Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during which series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern" elements in Kansas?

Context articles: Bleeding Kansas
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
Harriet Tubman
John Brown's Body
John Brown (biography)
Silas Soule
Battle of Osawatomie
John Brown (abolitionist)
Thaddeus Hyatt
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern" elements in Kansas.
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harper's Ferry) was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
 Brown's party of 22 was defeated by a company of U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Israel Greene.
 Colonel Robert E. Lee was in overall command of the operation to retake the arsenal.
 John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom he had met in his transformative years as an abolitionist in Springfield, Massachusetts, to join him in his raid, but Tubman was prevented by illness, and Douglass declined, as he believed Brown's plan would fail.
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross;  1822 March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War.
 Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
 She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era was an active participant in the struggle for women's suffrage.
"John Brown's Body" (originally known as "John Brown's Song") is a United States marching song about the abolitionist John Brown.
 The song was popular in the Union during the American Civil War.
 The tune arose out of the folk hymn tradition of the American camp meeting movement of the late 18th and early 19th century.
 According to an 1890 account, the original John Brown lyrics were a collective effort by a group of Union soldiers who were referring both to the famous John Brown and also, humorously, to a Sergeant John Brown of their own battalion.
 Various other authors have published additional verses and/or claimed credit for originating the John Brown lyrics and tune.
John Brown is a biography written by W. E. B. Du Bois about the abolitionist John Brown.
 Published in 1909, it tells the story of John Brown, from his Christian rural upbringing, to his failed business ventures and finally his "blood feud" with the institution of slavery as a whole.
 Its moral symbolizes the significance and impact of a white abolitionist at the time, a sign of threat for white slave owners and those who believed that only blacks were behind the idea of freeing slaves.
Silas Stillman Soule (July 26, 1838 – April 23, 1865) was an American abolitionist, Kansas Territory Jayhawker, anti-slavery militant, and a friend of John Brown and Walt Whitman.
 Later, during the American Civil War, he joined the Colorado volunteers, rising to the rank of Captain in the Union Army.
The Battle of Osawatomie took place on August 30, 1856 when 250-400 Border Ruffians led by John W. Reid attacked the town of Osawatomie.
 Reid was intent on destroying the free state settlement and then moving on to Topeka and Lawrence to do more of the same.
 John Brown first learned of the raiders when they shot his son Frederick.
 With 40 or so men, Brown tried to defend the town against the pro-slavery partisans, but had to withdraw; the town of Osawatomie was then looted and burned.
 This was one event in series of clashes between abolitionists and pro-slavery Missourians in what has been known as Bleeding Kansas.
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist who believed and advocated that armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.
 Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856.
 Dissatisfied with the pacifism of the organized abolitionist movement, he said, "These men are all talk.
 What we need is action—action!"
 During the Kansas campaign, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie.
 He and his supporters killed five supporters of slavery in the Pottawatomie massacre of May 1856 in response to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces.
Thaddeus Hyatt (July 21, 1816 – July 25, 1901) was an American abolitionist and inventor.
 In his opposition to slavery, Hyatt organized the efforts of abolitionists in Kansas to have the territory admitted to the Union as a free-state and campaigned for the federal government to aid Kansans afflicted by drought.
 Hyatt befriended John Brown and provided Brown with financial support; following the raid on Harpers Ferry, Hyatt was investigated by a committee of the United States Senate.
 When Hyatt refused to comply with a Congressional subpoena and cooperate with the Senate investigation, the Senate voted to jail the recalcitrant abolitionist.
 As an inventor, Hyatt was a wealthy man, profiting from his invention of iron-and-glass vault covers for sidewalks and pavements.
 Hyatt also innovated and patented several designs for reinforced concrete floors.
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1845) was a pamphlet by American abolitionist Lysander Spooner advocating the view that the United States Constitution prohibited slavery.
 This view was advocated in contrast to that of William Lloyd Garrison who advocated opposing the constitution on the grounds that it supported slavery.
 In the pamphlet, Spooner shows that none of the state governments of the slave states specifically authorized slavery, that the U.S. Constitution contains several clauses that are contradictory with slavery, that slavery was a violation of natural law, and that the "intentions" of the Constitutional Convention have no legal bearing on the document they created.
 Thus, Spooner's position is one that employs "original meaning"-styled textualism and rejects "original intent"-styled originalism.