John Brown represented the belief that slaves had the right to defend themselves against the terror of slavery with weapons. When he attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October, 1859, he was captured and hanged after a trial in which his words were reported throughout the North. His willingness to die to end slavery convinced many abolitionists that sacrifice must occur, talk alone would not accomplish it. Among the abolitionists who supported John Brown were Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) and Henry David Thoreau (philosopher), also Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke up in his defense. Some abolitionists continued to cry "nonviolence" (William Lloyd Garrison). The guns of the Civil War soon silenced them.