James Redpath came to Kansas Territory as a reporter for the "New York Tribune," but he soon became a participant in the free state cause. He was involved with abolitionist John Brown and wrote a biography of Brown ("The Public Life of Capt. John Brown, by James Redpath, with an Auto-Biography of His Childhood and Youth by John") that was published in 1860. Redpath reported on the free state movement in Topeka, Kansas Territory.