Aaron Dwight Stevens, a man who would lose his life to the cause of opposing slavery, ran away from his Norwich home two times.

The first was when he was just a young man not yet 16 years old, but large and mature enough to go to Boston on his own. He convinced the 1st Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers that he was old enough to fight in the war against Mexico.

Stevens served with honor through the war, narrowly avoiding capture and certain death. He returned home and mended his relations with his family whom he loved dearly, but after several years, he felt that he had to leave again.

The second and final time he left home he chose to join the elite Dragoons. Stevens was stationed in the New Mexico Territory. He also fell in love for the first time, but due to his one continuous and troubling weakness, a very bad temper, he became embroiled in a fight with his commanding officer in Taos, N.M.

Stevens was not drunk himself but when his drunken commander belittled and challenged the whole unit, he was ready to shoot him. He was disarmed and jailed in Taos by Sheriff Kit Carson. Later he was tried and sentenced to death.

Fortunately, Stevens' sentence was reviewed and commuted by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to three years of hard labor in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. This was the lowest point in his life as he had lost everything including his one and only love, and there was no one to blame but himself.

Stevens quickly escaped from Ft. Leavenworth and lived with the Delaware Indians for several months. Following this period, he joined the 2nd Kansas Militia under a different name.

As Charles Whipple, he became quite famous in “Bloody Kansas,” a series of violent confrontations over slavery, and it was during this time that he met and joined with John Brown, the famed abolitionist. The two of them made a formidable team from that point on and helped our country change forever.

The two of them, with 20 other men who also hated slavery, woke the nation up to a new chapter in America’s history: the end of slavery.

Following the famous raid at Harpers Ferry with John Brown that was intended to spark a slave rebellion, Stevens was hanged on March 16, 1860.

His birthday was the day before on March 15, 1831. He was 29 years old.

For more information, read “A Journey to the Gallows” by Vic Butsch and Tom Coletti.