9 May is the birthday of John Brown (1800 - 1859), the famous American abolitionist who attempted to raid Harper’s Ferry and use the guns to arm slaves and start a massive slave revolt.
There has been much discussion over his flag. We know he had one, and it is even depicted in a picture of him, but due to the poor quality of the picture, we don’t know what it looked like.
The closest flag we know of is a 20-star abolitionist flag that originated in Ohio. We know it was tied to the abolitionist movement due to the number of stars - it only included stars to represent the free states in the Union. The closest tie it has to John Brown is the fact that it came from an area in which his sons lived. However, it is quite possible that Brown himself never saw this flag in his life.
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