Yeah, John Brown was six different kinds of weird. A lot of fanatics are regardless of their cause. Brown was also supposed to be quite a cook and in his last fight at Harpers Ferry he carried a sword that had been owned by Frederick the Great.
He also carried a sword in Kansas given him by some famous Yankee abolitionists called the Secret Six....whom to his credit he never ratted on.
What did old Walden Pond say: "John Brown shall never be judged by a jury of his peers because he has none".....Thoreau was a hair on the idealist side I'd say....nice pond though....been there ...done that.