Abolitionist John Brown was tried for his failed attempt to starta rebellion among enslaved people in October 1859. In self-taught artist Horace Pippin’s re-creation of this trial, Brown isshown lying on a stretcher, with the head wound he sufferedduring his capture visible. The prosecutor holds Brown’s rifle, while the white men of the jury sit in judgment.

Many of Pippin’s paintings focus on the American slavery period. Pippin’s grandparents were born enslaved, and his grandmother witnessed Brown being taken to his hanging. In "John Brown Going to His Hanging," Pippin’s 1942 painting of this event (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts), his grandmother appears as the sole Black figure. Facing the viewer, she acts simultaneously as a mourner, witness, and narrator.