Brown wrote a letter to his brother during these years explaining how he wished to raise funds to buy the freedom of an enslaved child. He thought New Richmond had no "vicious persons of any kind" and would be the "most favorable location" for free black children.
"There would be no powerful opposition influence against such a thing," he added.
Then the first of many tragedies befell the Browns. In 1831, their four-year-old son Frederick died. A little over a year later, their seventh child was born, but after three days, both the newborn and Dianthe died. They were buried next to the grave of Frederick (all of which remain on the property today).
Grief changed John Brown.
"I find I am getting more and more unfit for everything," he wrote to a friend. "I have been growing numb for a good while."Brown remarried in the summer of 1833 to a young girl named Mary Ann Day. In 1834, she had the first of their 13 children. They named her Sarah and she would be the last of his children born in Pennsylvania. Poor money management and increased debts led to him losing the farm, a source of constant guilt afterwards.
They moved to Ohio and their family continued to expand. It was here that Brown's antislavery views began to escalate. First, there was the murder of abolitionist newspaperman Elijah Lovejoy in 1837. He told one friend during this time that he planned to escalate his antislavery activism to which his friend replied that he would hang for it.
"Well then, I will hang," replied Brown.
Then in 1839, a black preacher named Fayette visited Brown. According to W.E.B. DuBois in his 1909 biography of Brown, it was Fayette's explanation of persecution and injustice that inspired Brown to finally dedicate his life to the destruction of slavery.
"Solemnly, John Brown arose," wrote DuBois. "[He] told them of his purpose to make active war on slavery and bound his family in solemn and secret compact to labor for emancipation."
Soon though, his newfound purpose was followed by more financial peril, more failed business ventures, and more personal tragedy.
A month of unfathomable sorrow began in 1843 when five-year-old Charles came down with a fever. He stopped eating. His screams from excruciating stomach pains soon filled their home. The dysentery ripped through the family: nine-year-old Sarah, two-year-old Peter, and newborn Austin were soon stricken.Night after night, Brown held his suffering children, grief overwhelming him as each died in his arms. John Brown was never the same.