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John Brown, while tending his flock in Ohio, first communicated with his sons and
daughters his plans of attacking slavery by force.
With the support of northern abolutionists, John Brown organized a series of successful covert missions to liberate slaves from southern plantations. In the mid-1850's Brown led antislavery troops in an effort to make Kansas a free state. Brown was later convicted of treason and hanged in 1859.
Lawrence commented "The inspiration to paint the...John Brown series was motivated by historical events as told to us by the adults of our community...the black community. The relating of these events, for many of us, was not only very informative but also most exciting to us,
the men and women of these stories were strong, daring, and heroic; and therefore we could and did relate to these by means of poetry, song, and paint "