July 3, 1850. John Brown stocked an old barn with guns and ammunition. He was ready to strike his first blow at slavery.

Jacob Lawrence; Ives-Sillman, Inc.; Founders Society of the Detroit Institute of Arts; Sirocco Screenprinters, July 3, 1850. John Brown stocked an old barn with guns and ammunition. He was ready to strike his first blow at slavery.

Jacob Lawrence, artist

1917–2000

Ives-Sillman, Inc., designer

1958–1978

Founders Society of the Detroit Institute of Arts, publisher

founded 1919

Sirocco Screenprinters, printer

founded 1950

July 3, 1850. John Brown stocked an old barn with guns and ammunition. He was ready to strike his first blow at slavery., 1974–1977

Where object was made: New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Material/technique: Domestic Etching paper; screen print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 511 x 353 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 20 1/8 x 13 7/8 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 657 x 510 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 7/8 x 20 1/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 32 1/4 x 24 1/4 x 1 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Gift of Jeff and Mary Weinberg

Accession number: 2020.0068.19

Not on display

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Jacob Lawrence and The Legend of John Brown

Brown spent years preparing an assault on the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day West Virginia). He stockpiled weapons, intending to arm newly freed men who would join his crusade. These weapons included rifles and carbines, known as “Beecher’s Bibles” in honor of the abolitionist New England minister Henry Ward Beecher, who financed arms for Free-Staters in Kansas. Brown also commissioned hundreds of pikes, weapons with long wooden shafts ending in a pointed steel head, for freed men who had not used rifles before.