John Brown Russwurm

John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851) was an American abolitionist born in Jamaica to an English father and enslaved mother. He came as a child to the United States with his father and was schooled here, becoming the first African American to graduate from Bowdoin College. As a young man, Russwurm moved from Portland, Maine, to New York City, where he was a founder with Samuel Cornish of the abolitionist newspaper, Freedom's Journal, the first paper owned and operated by African Americans.

Russwurm became supportive of the American Colonization Society's efforts to develop a colony for African Americans in Africa, and he moved in 1829 to what became Liberia. In 1836 Russwurm was selected as governor of Maryland in Africa, a small colony set up nearby by the Maryland State Colonization Society. He served there until his death in 1851. The colony was annexed to Liberia in 1857.

Early years

Russwurm was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica in 1799, the mixed-race son of an Englishmerchant father and an unknown black slave mother. The family stayed in Jamaica until 1807, when Russwurm was sent to Quebec.

John Brown (biography)

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.

Du Bois highlights the moment in Brown's childhood when he first became radicalized against the slavery.

It was this moment that Brown pledged to destroy slavery. Du Bois describes Brown as a biblical character: fanatically devoted to his abolitionist cause but also a man of rigid social and moral rules. Du Bois simultaneously describes Brown as a revolutionary, prophet and martyr and declares him to "a man whose leadership lay not in his office, wealth or influence, but in the white flame of his utter devotion to an ideal."

John Brown (Queensland politician)

John Innes Brown (c1881 – 3 December 1949) was a Blacksmith and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Early days

Brown was born at Glasgow, Scotland, to John Brown, and his wife Janet (née Kidston). Arriving with his family in 1889, he attended South Brisbane State School before commencing work in the family business as a blacksmith at Coorparoo.

Brown was a founding member of the Thompson Estate Harriers Athletic Club in 1900, and the team he captained went on to represent Queensland in the first inter-state Cross Country Championships in Sydney in 1905. In 1915 he was awarded life membership of the club.

Political career

Brown entered politics in 1919 as an alderman on the Coorparoo Shire Council, rising to be its chairman. In 1928 he became an alderman on the Brisbane City Council, remaining there until 1936.

At the 1935 Queensland state election, Brown, representing the ALP, won the seat of Logan by convincingly defeating the long-serving member, Reginald King. He held the seat until the state election in 1944 when he was defeated by future Queensland Treasurer, Tom Hiley.

John Brown (Texas politician)

John “Red” Brown (1786–1852) was a politician in the Republic of Texas and early statehood Texas who served briefly as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives during the First Texas Legislature. Brown was also one of the founders of the Democratic Party in Texas.

Brown was probably born in Ireland on 30 August 1786. He moved to Texas in 1836 to near Nacogdoches. Early Texas census records list him as an Irishman and a farmer. Brown represented Nacogdoches County in the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas from 1841 to 1842.

Brown was elected to the First Texas Legislature after annexation of Texas into the United States. On 3 March 1846, Speaker William Crump was given a leave of absence, Brown was elected Speaker of the House pro tempore. On 9 March 1846, Brown resigned as Speaker pro tempore, and the House elected Edward Thomas Branch.

He was a founder of Henderson County when it was formed from Nacogdoches County in 1846. Brown served as a notary public and a ferry operator, and received a license to operate a toll-bridge over Kickapoo Creek near Old Normandy (present-day Brownsboro, which was named for John Brown). On 27 April 1846, Brown helped to found the Texas Democratic Party in Austin. Brown served as a commissioner to help locate the state penitentiary in 1848. In 1850, Brown was one of the commissioners that selected Athens as the seat of Henderson County.