Here are some quotes from (John Brown Abolitionist, David S. Reynolds, Vintage Books, 2005). The book is very good. I believe he is fair for both sides, though his bias for the North comes through at times.
These quotes concern a time after Browns murders at Pottawatomie.
"Few people have experienced so dramatic a change of fortunes as John Brown did between September 1856 and June 1857. The hunted criminal was transformed into a venerated warrior....." (p. 206)
"To realize his violent plans Brown needed arms and soldiers. He was keenly aware of the activities of the National Kansas Committee, which between July 1856 and January 1857 had raised some $85,000 in cash and over $100,000 in supplies for emigrants to Kansas. Brown wanted to tap such resources for his own purposes." (p. 207)
"Although under indictment for the Pottawatomie killings, Brown thought he could slip out of Kansas without being noticed. He was wrong. He was still under the eye of federal authorities and would remain so for some time. He left Kansas in a teamster's wagon with his sons John, Jason, and Owen, crossing over into Nebraska before U.S. troops caught him. On October 7, Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke wrote from a place near the Nebraska border, 'I arrived here yesterday, at noon. I just missed the arrest of the notorious Osawatomie outlaw, Brown." (p. 207)
In the authors next sentence and paragraph he jumps ahead three days where Brown is in Tabor Iowa. And Brown is no longer a prisoner as he had just described. But the author fails to explain why. The why is easy to picture. Brown is in the North where they were either in agreement with him, or because his murders involved Southern men, they just didn't care. He was simply turned loose and allowed to roam free.
"By October 10, Brown, shivering with ague and fever, reached Tabor, Iowa. This frontier town, which had been founded in 1848 by Abolitionists from Ohio, was a western station on the underground Railroad." (p. 207)
"After a week in Tabor, Brown felt strong enough to travel to Chicago. From there he went to Ohio, where Congressman Joshua Giddings gave him a letter of introduction to potential funders. Continuing east, Brown stopped at Peterboro, New York, to consult with the antislavery philanthropist Gerrit Smith...." (p. 208)
"Early January 1857 found Brown in Boston, where he looked up Franklin B. Sanborn, the secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee....Through Sanborn he gained access to arms and money for Kansas and later, for Harper's Ferry." (p. 208)
"Having made important contacts in Boston, Brown was ready to continue fund-raising elsewhere. But first he wanted to meet Charles Sumner, whose pummeling at the hands of Preston Brooks had happened the previous May. When he was taken to Sumner's apartment, he asked the senator, still in pain from the beating....." (p. 210)
My point here is this. Brown is meeting with high up important people in the North. He is a murderer and under indictment by the Federal Govt. He was caught yet turned loose. Even a congressman and senator do nothing. This is what the South was up against. This is the Northern attitude that Jefferson Davis spoke of. This is the inequality in the Union. This was the reason for secession.
Good-Ole-Rebel