John Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre

Three days after the sack of Lawrence, John Brown and seven followers — including four of his sons — dragged five pro-slavery settlers from their homes along Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with broadswords. Brown believed he was doing God's will. The killings intensified guerrilla warfare in "Bleeding Kansas" and made Brown both a hero to radical abolitionists and a symbol of dangerous fanaticism.