When John Brown decided to raid the federal armory in Harper’s Ferry, some closest to him thought it was unnecessary and dangerous. Frederick Douglass refused Brown’s invitation to join him in Virginia. Yet in front of Douglass, “Emperor” Shields Green, a fugitive from South Carolina, accepted John Brown’s invitation. When the raid failed, Emperor was captured and hanged on December 16, 1859.
Starting from his birth in Charleston, South Carolina, through his years as a sometime resident of Rochester, New York, Green’s life as an abolitionist freedom-fighter, is extensively detailed in Louis DeCaro's new book.

Details here.