No. 3 For 12 years, John Brown engaged in land speculations and wool merchandising; all this to make some money for his greater work which was the abolishment of slavery.
- Created by
- Lawrence, Jacob, American, 1917 - 2000
- Printed by
- Ives-Sillman, Inc., American, founded 1966
- Subject of
- Brown, John, American, 1800 - 1859
- Date
- 1977
- Medium
- printing ink on printing paper
- Dimensions
- 20 x 25 in. (50.8 x 63.5 cm)
- Caption
- “John Brown worked not simply for Black men—he worked with them; and he was a companion of their daily life, knew their faults and virtues, and felt, as few white Americans have felt, the bitter tragedy of their lot.” —W. E. B. Du Bois, John Brown, 1909
- Radical abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) fought and died for the emancipation of enslaved people. His life as an antislavery advocate and armed insurrectionist who was tried, convicted, and hanged for his rebellion has served as inspiration for numerous artists since his death. However, it would not be until 1941, when Jacob Lawrence created a narrative series of 22 paintings, that Brown’s life was visually documented in its entirety. Between 1974 and 1977, Lawrence recreated his series in print form.
- Description
- A screen print from the series “The Legend of John Brown” by Jacob Lawrence. The print depicts a kneeling John Brown, dressed in black, hammering a wooden marker into the ground while surveying land. To the proper right of Brown is a black, open briefcase and a yellow tripod. A yellow flag, in the bottom left of the print, has three strings connected to it. The two outward strings are stretched to create a right angle and the third string is connected to the wooden marker Brown is hammering. The land is brown with a large patch of green grass to the proper left of Brown.
- On the front of the print, the artist wrote the series number and edition in the lower left corner [#3 51/60] and signed and dated in the lower right corner [Jacob Lawrence 1977].
- Place printed
- New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
- Portfolio/Series
- The Legend of John Brown
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Movement
- Abolitionist movement
- Type
- screen prints
- Topic
- Antislavery
- Art
- Labor
- Resistance
- Slavery
- U.S. History, 1815-1861
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2007.6.1.3
- Restrictions & Rights
- © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




