In 1859, John Brown, a settler from Kansas Territory, invaded the state of Virginia with plans to raid the Harpers Ferry arsenal and incite a slave rebellion. Among his small band of insurgents were several young men who had also carried out vigilante violence in Kansas in hopes of abolishing slavery in that territory. The raid itself failed, and those who did not escape or die in the raid were later executed, including Brown himself.
In a political sense, however, the raid successfully fulfilled Brown's larger goals by igniting national divisions and helping to spark the American Civil War. The start of violence in Kansas Territory thereby led to one of the most important chapters of American history.