John Henry Kagi
American abolitionist
John Henry Kagi, also spelled John Henri Kagi (March 15, 1835 – October 17, 1859), was an American attorney, abolitionist, and second in command to John Brown in Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry. He bore the title of "Secretary of War" in Brown's "provisional government." At age 24, Kagi was killed during the raid. He had previously been active in fighting on the abolitionist side in 1856 in "Bleeding Kansas". He was considered an excellent debater and speaker.
Early life
John Henry Kagi was born in Bristolville, Ohio, in 1835, the second child of blacksmith Abraham Neff Kagy (as spelled on his gravestone) and Anna Fansler, who were of Swiss descent. John Henry Kagi adopted the Swiss spelling of the family name.
Though largely self-taught, he was the best educated of Brown's raiders. He was a stenographer, at the time a useful skill for a reporter. He was Associate Editor of the Topeka Tribune and the Kansas correspondent of the New York Post and the abolitionist National Era; his contributions are signed "K." He was the "western correspondent" of the New York Tribune, and writings of his are found in several other newspapers.
He was an able businessman, totally abstained from alcohol, and, in contrast with John Brown, was agnostic.
“John Henry Kagi” enters the record as american abolitionist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Henry and Kagi can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6238845. VIAF identifies the subject as 53585678. The Library of Congress control number is n2006094567. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1859 and 1856.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Henry Kagi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.