Around 10,500 Model 1853 carbines were manufactured between 1854 and 1857. This model is also known as the "John Brown Sharps" or "Beecher's Bible" because it was used by anti-slavery forces in the bloodshed leading up to Kansas statehood commonly known as "Bleeding Kansas." Many were delivered in cases marked "books" or "Bibles," and abolitionist minister Henry Ward Beecher was famously quoted in the New York Tribune as saying a Sharps was a more effective moral agent in terms of fighting slavery than a hundred Bibles. Southerners might not be able to comprehend the Bible, "but they have a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifles." The carbine falls within just a few numbers of some identified in the chapter "John Brown and The Border Wars" in "Sharps Firearms" by Frank Sellers, and the author notes that 120 carbines shipped to "Free State" agents in Kansas are not documented. The carbine has a blade front sight, combination notch and ladder rear sight, the three-line Hartford barrel address, standard patent markings, matching serial numbers on the barrel and action, standard patent markings, a faint stamp on the left side of the wrist ("JPC"?), "191" stamped by the lower tang, brass fittings, and a long sling bar with a saddle ring.

Very good plus. The carbine displays brown patina and patches of mild pitting. There are some vice/tool marks on the barrel. The wood is fine and has some scrapes and dings from honest use. The brass is an attractive mustard yellow patina. The action functions fine, and the markings are clear.