John Brown, also known as Fed, was born into slavery in Virginia. As a child, he was separated from his family, and was sold and purchased by three different masters. Brown suffered from many acts of cruelty from his masters: he lost partial use of one eye after being kicked in the face repeatedly by an overseer. He was also used in a number of gruesome experiments performed by a doctor who was seeking...
On a typical day in a New Orleans slave pen, John Brown got called up to the flogging room—a room dedicated to punishment for slaves who misbehaved on the auction block. Here, slaves were beaten repeatedly with a long leather paddle, known as a “flog”. The “flog” delivered punishment equivalent to the whip, but did not leave wounds that could jeopardize the price of a slave. When his name...