[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp: "Not what I read, but I really don't care to go look up what I read.
You wouldn't care what the answer was, and would simply repeat what you want the answer to be. "

Nonsense, here again you simply project your own failings onto me.
But let's see if I can help you understand the reality.
Your claim that John Brown's "secret six" were all wool merchants & associates can indeed be true, if and only if, by "associates" you refer to the following fact:

Statistically it turns out that every human being on the face of the Earth is connected to every other human being through six degrees of separation or less!
For example, even though protected by anonymity here, statistically you and I are still connected, aka "associated" by fewer than six degrees of separation.

So there is no doubt that John Brown's "secret six" were connected, aka "associated" with wool merchants by fewer than six degrees of separation.

However, it turns out that none of John Brown's "secret six" were themselves wool merchants nor did any work directly for wool merchants.

John Brown himself was indeed a wool merchant, until 1848 -- 11 years before his raid on Harper's Ferry.

A further point to remember is that wool and cotton do not directly compete.
Cotton is more popular in warm weather, wool in colder climates.
Today you can buy blends of cotton & wool -- i.e., Viyella (55%-45%) or Clydella (81%-19%).
These demonstrate that the two materials don't so much compete as compliment each other.

There is no evidence (outside Marxist dialectical theory) suggesting John Brown opposed slavery to increase prices for wool.
In fact, Brown operated a station on the Underground Railroad, in Western Pennsylvania, 10 years before he got into the wool business.

[DiogenesLamp]

John Brown himself was indeed a wool merchant, until 1848 -- 11 years before his raid on Harper's Ferry.

Yeah, he went bankrupt twice. Apparently he figured that being the Antifa lacky for Wealthy interests in the North East was more profitable. His efforts to organize the Massachusetts wool merchants just never went anywhere.

And yes, cotton and wool do directly compete. The vast majority of people wanted cotton, because it was cooler and less irritating than wool. If cotton wasn't available, the usage of wool would have increased dramatically, because back in those days, they didn't have very much to chose from.