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John Brown and Oberlin: Bleeding Kansas Participants

This guide covers the revolutionary abolitionist John Brown and his connections with Oberlin.

Oberlinians Involved in the Bleeding Kansas Civil Confrontations

Ambrotype of Oberlinians Involved in Bleeding Kansas

(From Left to Right) Samuel Swifin Burdett (Oberlin Preparatory Department 185318-56, College 1856-1857), Gardner Clark Trowbridge (Preparatory Department 1853-1855, and citizen of the Kansas Territory), and Henry Payson Kinney (OC Class of 1859, AM 1862). These three Oberlin College abolitionists joined John Brown during the conflict in "Bleeding Kansas" in May 1856.

Ambrotype taken May 7, 1856