John Brown: How He Incited the Spark that United America

Old John Brown’s body lies mouldering in the grave,

While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;

But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,

His soul is marching on.

Chorus:

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His soul is marching on.

He captured Harpers Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,

And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled through and through;

They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew,

But his soul is marching on.

John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,

Christ who of the bondmen shall the liberator be,

And soon throughout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,

For his soul is marching on.

In the spring of 1861, a quartet of soldiers in Light Infantry sang the song to the tune of an old camp meeting number," Say Brother, Will You Meet Us?"

A regiment learned it and later sang it as they marched past the place where Crispus Attucks fell in Boston Common.

Soldiers sang it in Cairo, Illinois in the fall of 1861.

Who was the man everyone was singing about? John Brown, the abolitionist of slavery, whose revolt changed the course of history.

General Information About Slavery