Shields Green

Shields Green
Shields Green (center) awaiting his 1859 trial after the Harpers Ferry raid
Born	1836 South Carolina, U.S.
Died	December 16, 1859(1859-12-16) (aged 22–23) Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	Emperor Esau Brown
Known for	Raid on Harpers Ferry

Shields Green (1836?-1859), also known as "Emperor," was an ex-slave who participated in John Brown's unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry. Though he had a chance to escape capture, he returned to the fighting and was captured with Brown. For their parts in the raid, Green and John A. Copeland were hanged on December 16, 1859, in Charles Town, West Virginia (then part of Virginia). Green may also have been known as "Esau Brown."

Shields Green was born into slavery in South Carolina, where he was called Emperor. He escaped from slavery a little over a year before the events at Harper's Ferry, fleeing from Charleston, South Carolina, and making his way north to freedom in Rochester, New York. It is thought that he left behind a son in slavery in South Carolina. Other reports also have Green working as a sailor before he joined up with Douglass in Rochester.

Green first met John Brown at the house of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Rochester. Later Green accompanied Douglass to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to meet Brown for discussions about his plans. Green and Douglass met with Brown and John Henry Kagi at an abandoned stone quarry near Chambersburg. Douglass left after disagreeing with Brown on planning an armed attack on a Federal arsenal, but Green stayed to join the raiders.

Years later Douglass described Green in his memoir:

During the raid, Green and others were assigned to recruit slaves from the nearby countryside to join the fighting. Green was with Dangerfield Newby and O.P. Anderson at the Arsenal during the raid, where he is said to have immediately avenged Newby's death. According to Douglass, Jeremiah Anderson, one of Brown's men who escaped capture, said that Green could have escaped with him. "I told him to come; that we could do nothing more, but he simply said he must go down to de ole man." (There is some dispute as to Douglass' source, as later in 1870, he attributed the same statement to O.P. Anderson, who seems a more likely source)