THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN
A Documentary Source Problem
Introduction:
From Maryland Heights, just north of Harper's Ferry, a strikingly beautiful landscape
extended to the south and west ... Looking across ... to the southward, an observer on the
Heights could see the narrower Shenandoah winding through its rich valley to join the
Potomac. The two streams enclosed a high, narrow neck of land, a hill or bluff, its crest
dotted with houses and the brief stretch of level ground at its toe occupied by a village
and some workshops. The village was Harper's Ferry. The substantial shops, looking like
factories, were the Federal armory...
At this point, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad crossed the Potomac on a bridge about nine
hundred feet in length .... Harper's Ferry was only about eighty miles from Baltimore by
rail, and a little less than sixty miles from Washington by turnpike, but its mountain
setting gave it an air of remoteness....
To this district, a chosen base of operations, John Brown, two sons, and a friend had
come on July 3, 1859, the taciturn leader calling himself Smith and letting men believe
that he was a land-seeker and cattle-buyer.
After a brief search, he had rented a rough two-story farmhouse... about five miles from
town on the Maryland side of the Potomac.... Here the men of the little force he had
recruited trickled in, until by early fall he had twenty-one followers in all.
Great pains had to be taken, as the band increased, to keep them concealed. Two quickwitted girls of Brown's family, his daughter Anne and daughter-in-law Martha, each in
her seventeenth year, arrived to keep house and divert suspicion. Late in September,
fifteen heavy boxes of "tools" were brought down to the farm... containing one hundred
and ninety-eight Sharps rifles ... and nine hundred and fifty pikes. As the men occupied
themselves studying tactics ... making belts and pistol holsters, playing checkers, reading
the Baltimore Sun ... and arguing, the girls mounted sentinel....
The fierce-eyed, iron-jawed chieftain, adjuring everyone to constant caution and
vigilance, awaited the best hour to strike. When he arrived, he had almost completely
matured his plan. ... Members of the attacking party expressed... fears when Brown first
explained the plan to them .... When Brown told the men that since a majority opposed
him he would resign and they could choose another leader, this ultimatum brought them
to his side. Several, however, believed they were going to certain death....
Two factors gave him [John Brown] a certain amount of confidence. He knew upper
Maryland and Virginia to be full of people who disliked slavery ... He was deceived by
his Kansas experience into thinking that any border country was a region of sharp
antagonism between slaveholding and freesoil elements .... As the second factor, he
believed great numbers of slaves would flock to him ....
As September ended, the two young women went home. A late recruit arrived... The last
arms were fetched in.... All was in readiness.
**************
About eight o'clock on the night of Sunday, October 16, Brown ordered his troop to
march upon the Ferry. Two by two, armed with a Sharps rifle and two revolvers apiece,
seventeen men swung down the lonely road, while Brown himself drove a one-horse
wagon with some pikes, a crowbar, and a sledge hammer. Three men were left at the
farm. The moonless gloom ... the sombre silence of the column, broken only by the
creaking of the vehicle and the rustle of dead leaves and grass underfoot, gave some of
the marchers a funereal impression. As they came within sight of the town lights, nerves
grew tauter. Cook and Tidd turned aside to cut the telegraph wires; the others pushed on.
With a brisk rush, the force deployed across the railroad-and-wagon bridge, seized the
bridge watchman.... The end of the Shenandoah bridge was similarly secured .... Turning
up Potomac Street, the force pinioned the watchman at the armory gate and quickly took
possession of both armory and arsenal.
All the Federal property, including several million dollars worth of arms and munitions,
was now in John Brown's hands. His next step was to send a detachment of six men about
five miles into Virginia to seize as his first hostage Colonel Lewis W. Washington, greatgrandnephew of the President and a prosperous planter... four of his bewildered slaves
were collected. Another farmer, John H. Allstadt, his son, and six of his Negroes were
similarly aroused from sleep. The whole body were brought down to the arsenal, where
the slaves were given pikes and told to guard Washington and the Allstadts ....
At about one o'clock in the morning, the express train from Wheeling to Baltimore
arrived ... The engineer and another employee walked forward to investigate, were fired
upon, and hastily backed the train to the platform again. At this point the first bloodshed
occurred. Hawyard Shepherd, a free Negro working as station baggage master, went to
the bridge to look for the night watchman there, was fatally wounded by Brown's men,
and was carried inside the station to die.
Meanwhile, John Brown was waiting for Negro and white recruits to pour in; "when I
strike the bees will swarm," he had told Douglass .... Slaves from the Maryland side were
supposed to report to Owen Brown at the schoolhouse and take arms there; slaves from
the Virginia side were to report to Oliver Brown at the Shenandoah bridge....
... As day broke cold and gray, the alarm was spreading swiftly. A slow-witted physician
of the town... finally saddled a horse, roused the outlying parts of Harper's Ferry, set the
Lutheran church bell clanging... and... rode with all speed to Charlestown. On the alarm...
the Jefferson Guards of Charlestown fell hastily into line with any weapons they could
pick up. Meanwhile, before five o'clock that morning Brown had foolishly let the
Baltimore express push on. It quickly carried news of the raid to Monocacy. Thence word
was hurried to Frederick, where shouting men by about ten o'clock mustered a volunteer
company into line. Farmers from all the surrounding area caught up firearms and
clattered toward the Ferry.
Before eleven o'clock, general firing began at Harper's Ferry, townsmen and farmers
engaging the raiders. Noon saw the Jefferson Guards seizing the Potomac bridge, while a
swiftly mustered volunteer company from Charlestown, accoutered with muskets,
shotguns and squirrel rifles, occupied the heights back of the Ferry, and swept down from
them to capture the Shenandoah bridge.... Brown was now trapped.
Seeing that his position was hopeless, he determined to negotiate a truce. But the first
man he sent out for the purpose was taken prisoner, held for a time... and soon afterwards
killed by the excited mob. A little later, Watson Brown and Stevens were sent out under a
flag, but were promptly fired upon.... Summoned to surrender, the bewildered and
desperate Brown offered to liberate his hostages if he were allowed to escape across the
Potomac bridge, but these terms were of course rejected.
... All that day and night the alarm spread through Maryland, northern Virginia and the
District of Columbia. ....While the Maryland and Virginia militia ... sprang to arms,
Federal troops were on their way .... The President... held a hurried Conference with
Secretary [of War] Floyd, Brevet-Colonel Robert E. Lee of the Second Calvary, and
Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart of the First Cavalry. These officers were instructed to proceed at
once to Harper's Ferry, where Lee would take command. Late that night they reached the
town .... Lee would have attacked at once but for fear of killing some of the hostages.
Brown's losses during the day had been severe. His sons Oliver and Watson had been
mortally wounded.... Inside the engine house that night, pitch dark and, intensely cold,
Oliver Brown died in a great agony; a young Canadian, Stewart Taylor, lay dead; and
Watson Brown drew his last heavy breaths. Three unwounded raiders with their leader
and eleven prisoners watched the hours drag by. [Brown] bade Oliver to bear up and to
die like a man [and] essayed a few words... to his hostages. "Gentlemen," he said, "if you
knew of my past history you would not blame me for being here. I went to Kansas a
peaceable man, and the pro-slavery people from Kentucky and Virginia hunted me down
like a wolf. I lost one of my sons there."
Lee had resolved to carry the engine house at dawn at the point of the bayonet, not firing
lest he injure the hostages .... Instantly the storming parties sprang forward, some men
battering at the doors [of the engine house] with sledges ... The little garrison inside fired
with carbines. .... Lieutenant Israel Green ordered a double file to attack with a heavy
ladder. A few powerful efforts shattered the right-hand door at the bottom, the planks
buckling upward. ...A general melee followed. Green aimed a blow at Brown ... As the
leader fell, Green beat him with the hilt [of his sword] until he sank unconscious.
Within thirty-six hours after it commenced, Brown's attempt.... had been utterly defeated.
Ten of his crew had been killed or fatally injured, five were prisoners, and the others had
escaped... He himself, less seriously hurt than was at first believed, was lodged in
Charlestown jail, whither Governor Wise and others repaired to interrogate him....
**********
The foregoing is a skeletal account, abridged from Allan Nevins' The Emergence of
Lincoln, of the events of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in October of 1859, a year
and a half before the outbreak of the Civil War. Assume that you are writing your own
history of the Civil War era and have just completed a similar passage recounting the
events at Harper's Ferry. You have attempted, earlier in your account, to suggest the
trends in the North toward increasing suspicion of Southern designs and increasing
tolerance for symbolic rejections of slavery as the 1850s progressed. These attitudes
manifested themselves in the open and defiant support by some Northerners of the
forcible rescue of blacks who had been seized under the law requiring fugitive slaves to
be returned to their owners and by the liberal contributions of some to the arming of freesoil settlers in Kansas.
Having put the facts of the raid before the reader and having suggested the atmosphere of
increasing tolerance of actions in which anti-slavery activists took the law into their own
hands, you now wish to explain the purposes, meanings and effects of John Brown's raid
in the process of describing the subsequent trial and execution. You have allotted yourself
approximately 7-8 typed, double-spaced pages in which to develop your interpretation of
John Brown and the impact of his actions and personality. The following documents
represent the sum total of the relevant materials which, after diligent research, you have
been able to uncover.
The documents are arranged in two major sections: 1) letters, newspaper accounts and
trial transcripts covering the period of the capture, trial, execution and press response
from October 1859 to February 1860, arranged in chronological order; and 2) a
miscellaneous collection of materials from letters, memoirs, Senate committee hearings
and secondary accounts that may offer useful glimpses into John Brown's earlier career,
his relations with his backers and associates, his personality, and his plans and motives.
Your account may be organized in any of a number of different ways. It should attempt to
describe to the reader not only what happened, but, to the extent you are able, why it
happened and what its larger significance was. You should try, to give the reader some
understanding of the man, John Brown, and some assessment of the relationship between
his plans and intentions and their ultimate results. Some additional, more specific
questions are appended to the end of the documents which may assist you in bringing
possible themes or interpretive questions into focus. You should consider yourself bound
to consult only these documents and should strive to achieve the most readable passage
you can construct as well as one which accurately reflects the evidence available to you.
Since space limitations will not allow you to make use of all the documentary evidence,
you will have to select the best evidence based on its degree of credibility and its
relevance to your central themes or lines of interpretation.
DOCUMENT #1
Account by a reporter for The New York Herald of an interview of several officials with
John Brown on October 19, 1859, the day after his capture, as he lay in the office of the
Armory.
"Old Brown," or "Ossawattomie Brown," as he is often called, the hero of a dozen fights
or so with the "border ruffians" of Missouri, in the days of "bleeding Kansas," is the heart
and front of this offending -- the commander of the abolition filibuster army. His wounds,
which at first were supposed to be mortal, turn out to be mere flesh wounds and
scratches, not at all dangerous in their character. He has been removed, together with
Stephens, the other wounded prisoner, from the engine room to the office of the armory,
and they now lie on the floor, upon miserable shake-downs, covered with some old
bedding.
Brown is fifty-five years of age, rather small sized, with keen and restless gray eyes, and
a grizzly beard and hair. His hair is matted and tangled, and his face, hands and clothes
all smouched and smeared with blood. Colonel Lee [Robert E. Lee] stated that he would
exclude all visitors (sic) from the room if the wounded men were annoyed or pained by
them, but Brown said he was by no means annoyed; on the contrary he was glad to be
able to make himself and his motives clearly understood. He converses freely, fluently
and cheerfully, without the slightest manifestation of fear or uneasiness, evidently
weighing well his words.
When I arrived in the armory at Harper's Ferry, in the afternoon of October 19, Brown
was answering questions put to him by Senator Mason [James Mason of Virginia];
Colonel Faulkner [local member of Congress], Mr. Vallandigham, member of Congress
from Ohio, and several other distinguished gentlemen. The following is a verbatum report
of the conversation: - (excerpts included here)
-----------------------Mr. Vallandigham. Mr. Brown, who sent you here?
Brown. No man sent me here; it was my own prompting and that of my Maker, or that of
the Devil, whichever you please to ascribe it to. I acknowledge no master in human form.
Vallandigham. Did you get up the expedition yourself?
Brown. I did.
Vallandigham. Did you get up this document that is called a Constitution?
Brown. I did. They are a constitution, and ordinance of my own contriving and getting
up.
Villandigham. How long have you been engaged in this business?
Brown. From the breaking out of the difficulties in Kansas. Four of my sons had gone
there to settle, and they induced me to go. I did not go there to settle, but because of the
difficulties.
Mason. What was your object in coming?
Brown. We came to free the slaves, and only that.
A Volunteer. How many men, in all, had you?
Brown. I came to Virginia with eighteen men only, besides myself.
Volunteer. What in the world did you suppose you could do here in Virginia with that
amount of men?
Brown. Young man, I do not wish to discuss that question here.
Volunteer. You could not do anything.
Brown. Well, perhaps your ideas and mine on military subjects would differ materially.
Mason. How do you justify your acts?
Brown. I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity, - I
say it without wishing to be offensive, - and it would be perfectly right for any one to
interfere with you so far as to free those you willfully and wickedly hold in bondage. I do
not say this insultingly.
Mason. I understand that.
Brown. I think I did right, and that others will do right who interfere with you at any time
and at all times. I hold that the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as ye would that others
should do unto you," applies to all who would help others to gain their liberty.
Lieutenant Stuart. But don't you believe in the Bible?
Brown. Certainly I do.
A Bystander. Do you consider this a religious movement?
Brown. It is, in my opinion, the greatest service man can render to God.
Bystander. Do you consider yourself an instrument in the hands of Providence?
Brown. I do.
Bystander. Upon what principle do you justify your acts?
Brown. Upon the Golden Rule. I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them:
that is why I am here; not to gratify any personal animosity, revenge or vindictive spirit.
It is my sympathy with the oppressed and the wronged that are as good as you and as
precious in the sight of God.
Bystander. Certainly. But why take the slaves against their will?
Brown. I never did.
Bystander. You did in one instance, at least.
(Stephens, the other wounded prisoner, here said, "You are right. In one case I know the
negro wanted to go back.")
Vallandigham. Did you expect a general rising, of the slaves in case of your success?
Brown. No, sir; nor did I wish it. I expected to gather them up from time to time, and set
them free.
Vallandigham. Did you expect to hold possession here till then.
Brown. Well, probably I had quite a different idea. I do not know that I ought to reveal
my plans. I am here a prisoner and wounded, because I foolishly allowed myself to be so.
You overrate your strength in supposing I could have been taken if I had not allowed it...
Reporter. I do not wish to annoy you; but if you have anything further you would like to
say, I will report it.
Brown. I have nothing to say, only that I claim to be here in carrying out a measure I
believe perfectly justifiable, and not to act the part of an incendiary or ruffian, but to aid
those suffering great wrong. I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better -- all of you
people at the South --prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question, that must come
up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. ...You may dispose of me very
easily, I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled, this negro
question I mean; the end of that is not yet....
--------------
A Bystander. To set [the slaves] free would sacrifice the life of every man in this
community.
Brown. I do not think so.
Bystander. I know it. I think you are fanatical.
Brown. And I think you are fanatical. "Whom the gods would destroy they must first
make mad," and you are mad.
Bystander. Did you know Sherrod (a man shot in Kansas during a time when Brown was
in Massachusetts) in Kansas. I understand you killed him.
Brown. I killed no man except in fair fight. I fought at Black Jack Point and at
Osawatomie; and if I killed anybody, it was at one of those places.
DOCUMENT #2
The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (probably the most famous and popular Protestant
minister in the North) ... Sermon preached at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, Sunday,
October 20, 1859.
.... It was in (Kansas) that Brown received his impulse. A tender father ... he saw his firstborn seized like a felon, chained, driven across the country ... and long lying at death's
door. Another noble boy, without warning, without offence, unarmed, in open day, in the
midst of the city, was shot dead!... The shot that struck the child's heart crazed the father's
brain.
I deplore his misfortunes. I sympathize with his sorrow... I disapprove of his mad and
feeble schemes. I shrink from the folly of the bloody foray ...
Let no man pray that Brown be spared. Let Virginia make him a martyr. Now, he has
only blundered. His soul was noble; his work miserable. But a cord and gibbet would
redeem all that, and round up Brown's failure with a heroic success....
DOCUMENT #3
The Richmond Enquirer, Friday, October 21, 1859
The "irrepressible conflict" was initiated at Harper's Ferry, and though there, for the time
suppressed, yet no man is able to say when or where it will begin again or where it will
end. The extent of this iniquitous plot cannot be estimated by the number of men detected
and killed or captured....; the localities from, whence these men came - ... New England,
... Iowa, ... Ohio, ...
Kansas - show an extent of country embracing the whole Northern section of the Union,
as involved in the attempt at instigating servile insurrection in Virginia. .... Virginia has
been assailed. All the memories of her sacrifices for the Union avail nothing ... The name
and family of Washington offered no protection from the assaults of these fanatics...
The aid of the Federal Government was near Harper's Ferry, and was in hands faithful to
the Constitution, but another year may place that aid in the hands of our assailants ... Is
there no remedy. Shall the South, divided by useless conflicts about Federal politics fall
as single victims to marauding bands of Northern fanatics. Can there be no union of
council, actions and arms among States so vitally interested in the integrity of each? ....
DOCUMENT #4
Governor Wise of Virginia, Speech in Richmond, Virginia, Friday, October 21, 1859.
.... "Old Brown," the fanatic of Osawatomie and Lawrence and Fort Scott memory, who
denounced the Missourians as "Border Ruffians," became himself the Border Ruffian of
Virginia, and is now a prisoner of Treason to her authority. The slaves he would incite to
insurrection and massacre, would not take up arms against their masters. His spears were
untouched by them. And they are themselves mistaken who take him to be a madman ....
He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude and simple ingenuousness. He is cool,
collected and indomitable, and it is but just to him to say, that he was humane to his
prisoners ... and he inspired me with great trust in his integrity, as a man of truth. He is a
fanatic, vain and garrulous, but firm, and truthful, and intelligent....
DOCUMENT #5
The National Intelligencer, Saturday October 29, 1859. Selections from Account of first
day's court proceedings.
Charlestown (Va.) October 26, 1859
Charlestown is full to overflowing with people, and the excitement ... is intense .... The
Court met at ten o’clock .... The indictments against each prisoner were read; First, for
conspiring with negroes to create an insurrection; second, for treason against the
Commonwealth of Virginia; third, for murder. The prisoners were brought into court ....
Captain Brown looked somewhat better, his eye not being so much swollen. Stevens had
to be supported, and was placed on a mattress on the floor of the courtroom, evidently
unable to sit. He has the appearance almost of a dying man....
... Capt. Brown then rose and said: I do not intend to detain the Court but barely wish to
say that, as I have been promised a fair trial, I am not now in circumstances that enable
me to attend to a fair trial, owing to the state of my health. I have a severe injury in the
back ... which enfeebles me very much, but.... I only ask for a very short delay of my
trial... I merely ask this that... "the devil may have his dues," no more... [My] hearing is
impaired... in consequence of the wounds I have about my head... I could not hear what
the court has said this morning.
Mr. Hunter [Andrew Hunter, the assistant prosecutor] said that the arraignment could be
made, and this question could then be considered.
The court ordered the indictment to be read so that the prisoners could plead guilty or not
guilty, and said it would then consider Brown's request. The prisoners were compelled to
stand during the arraignment - Capt. Brown standing with difficulty and Stevens being
held upright by two bailiffs, The reading of the indictments occupied about twenty
minutes. The prisoners each responded to the usual question, "Not Guilty," and desire to
be tried separately.
Mr. HUNTER. The State elects to try John Brown first.
The COURT. His condition must first be inquired into.
Mr. BOTTS [Lawson Botts, Court appointed defense counsel]. Brown ... is mentally and
physically unable to proceed with his trial at this time. He has heard today that counsel of
his own choice will be here soon, whom he will of course prefer. He asks only for a delay
of two or three days and I hope the Court will grant it.
Mr. HUNTER. His own opinion was that it was not proper to delay the trial of the
prisoner a single day. He alluded to the circumstances by which they were now
surrounded being such as rendered it dangerous, to say nothing of exceeding pressure
upon the physical resources of our community growing out of the ... affair for which the
prisoners were to be tried ... Able and intelligent counsel had been assigned to them here,
and... there was but little reason to expect the attendance of those gentlemen from the
North who had been written to. There was also a public duty resting upon them to avoid...
the introduction of anything likely to weaken our present position and give strength to our
enemies abroad, whether it issues from the jury in time or ... comes from the mouth of
prisoners or any other source.
....................
Mr. GREEN, counsel for the prisoners, remarked that he had enjoyed no opportunity for
consulting with the prisoners or of preparing for the defence. The letters for Northern
counsel had been sent off, but sufficient time had not been afforded to receive answers.
Under the circumstances he thought a short delay was desirable.
Mr. BOTTS added that at present the excitement was so great as perhaps to deter
Northern counsel from coming, but now that it had been promised that the prisoners were
to have a fair and impartial trial, he presumed that they would come and take part in the
case.
The COURT stated that if physical liability was shown a reasonable delay must be
granted ... expectation of other counsel did not constitute a sufficient cause for delay, as
there was no certainty about their comings. After (medical testimony) the Court refused
to postpone the trial.
Wednesday - Afternoon Session
At two o'clock the jailor was ordered to bring Brown into court. He found him in bed, and
(Brown) declared himself unable to rise. He was brought into court on a cot, which was
set down within the bar. The prisoner laid most of the time with his eyes closed and the
counterpane drawn up close under his chin. He is apparently not much injured but is
determined to resist the pushing of his trial by all the means in his power.
DOCUMENT #6
The National Intelligencer, Saturday October 29, 1859, selections from account of second
day's proceedings.
Charlestown, Va. October 27, 1859.
Captain Brown was brought into Court this morning walking, but on reaching the bar he
laid down at full length on his cot. He looked considerably better.
Mr. BOTTS read the following despatch received by him this morning:/Akron, Ohio,
Oct. 26, 1859/ To C. J. Faulkner and Lawson Botts Esqs./John Brown, the leader of the
insurrection at Harper's Ferry, Va., and several of his family, have resided in this county
many years. Insanity is hereditary in that family. His mother and sister died with it, and a
daughter of that sister has been two years in the Lunatic Asylum. A son and daughter of
his mother's brother have also been confined... and another son of that brother is now
insane and under close restraint. These facts can be conclusively proved by witnesses
residing here, who will doubtless attend the trial if desired. (signed) A.H. Lewis.
Mr. BOTTS said that on receiving the above despatch he ... read it to Capt. Brown and
was desired by the latter to say that in his father's family there has never been any
insanity at all. On his mother's side there have been repeated instances of it ... Some
portions of the statements in the despatch he knows to be correct, but of other portions he
is ignorant ... Capt. Brown also desired his counsel to say that he does not put in any plea
of insanity, and if he has ever been at all insane, he is totally unconscious of it...
Capt. BROWN raised himself up in bed and said: I will add, if the Court will allow me,
that I look upon it as a miserable artifice and pretext of those who ought to take a
different course in regard to me... and I view it with contempt more than otherwise ....
Mr. BOTTS stated that he was further instructed by Capt. Brown to say that, rejecting
this plea of insanity entirely, and seeking no delay for that reason, he does repeat to the
Court his request made yesterday that time be given for foreign counsel to arrive....
Mr. HUNTER observed that ... they were prepared to prove that he had made open,
repeated and constant acknowledgment of everything charged against him. He had
gloried in it, and we have but an exhibition of the same spirit and the same purpose in
what he announced, that he would permit no defence on the plea of insanity :. What does
he mean by wishing for delay for the purpose of having a fair trial ... In regard to the
telegram read, we know not who this Mr. Lewis is; we know not whether he is to come
here as counsel for the prisoner or ... wants to head a band of desperadoes to rescue the
prisoner...
Mr. HARDING [chief prosecutor] fully concurred; ... He referred also to the fact that
Captain Brown pretended yesterday afternoon that he was unable to walk and was
brought into court on a bed. Yet he walked back to jail after the close of the court without
difficulty....
DOCUMENT #7
Report of final day of court proceedings, The Baltimore Weekly Sun, Saturday
November 5, 1859.
Charlestown, Nov. 2, 1859.
Captain Brown was ... brought in, The COURT gave its decision on the motion for an
arrest of judgment, overruling the objections made. In regard to the objection that treason
cannot be committed against the State, the Court ruled that wherever allegiance is due,
treason can be committed.
The CLERK now asked the prisoner if he had anything to say...
Capt. Brown stood up and in a clear ... voice said:
I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny everything
but what I have all along admitted, of a design on my part to free slaves. I intended
certainly to have made a clear thing of that matter, as I did when I went last winter into
Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them
through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same
thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend Murder, or
treason, or the destruction of property, or to incite slaves to rebellion, or to make
insurrection.
I have another objection, and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I
interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved, ... - had
I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in
behalf of any of their friends ... or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I
have in this interference, it would have been all right, and every man in this Court would
have deemed it an act worthy of reward, rather than punishment.
This Court acknowledged too, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book
kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches
me that all things "whatsoever I would men should do to me I should do even so to
them." It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds as bonded with them."
I endeavored to act up to these instructions. I say I am yet too young to understand that
God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, in behalf
of his despised poor, was no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I
should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood
further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of the millions in this slave
country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit.
So let it be done!
DOCUMENT #8
The Liberator (Boston, William Lloyd Garrison, editor), Friday, November 4, 1859.
.... now that sentence of death has been pronounced against the brave martyr..., let the day
of his execution... be the occasion of such a public moral demonstration against the
bloody and merciless slave system as the land has never witnessed. Friends of freedom
everywhere! Begin at once to make the necessary arrangements.
DOCUMENT #9
Editorial for unspecified newspaper in Charleston, S.C. dated November 7, 1859 excerpts
as reprinted in The Richmond Enquirer, November 15, 1859.
With all due reverence to the memory of our forefathers, I think the time has arrived in
our history for a separation from the North ... The Constitution... has been violated..., if
the Union stands we have no security either for life or property..., emissaries are in our
midst, sent here by a party which claims to have the good of the country at heart, but in
fact are assassins .... We must separate, unless we are willing to see our daughters and
wives become the victims of a barbarous passion and worse insult.
With five millions of negroes turned loose in the South, what would be the state of
society. It would be worse than the "Reign of Terror"...The day of compromise is
passed.... We should not listen to the words of Northern men who are continually telling
us we are safe, while they attempt to ridicule this "Harper's Ferry business." Watch those
fellows .... Gentlemen may cry peace, but there is no peace. Every gale that sweeps from
the North brings new instruments of death in our midst.
DOCUMENT #10
On November 10, Governor Wise asked the superintendent of the state lunatic asylum at
Staunton, Virginia to examine Brown to determine whether he was "sane, in the legal
responsibility of crime." Later he canceled the order.
Just before the execution, the Governor told a caller, "Did I believe him insane, if I could
even entertain a rational doubt of his perfect sanity, I would stay his execution even at
this hour. All Virginia should not prevent me. ...But I have no such belief, no such
doubt...."
DOCUMENT #10A
Excerpt from John Brown's final speech to the court, November 2, 1859. (see also
Document #7)
I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention, and
what was not. I never have had any design against the life of any person, nor any
disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel or make any general insurrection.
I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind.
DOCUMENT #10B
Letter from John Brown to Andrew Hunter (special prosecutor), Charlestown, Virginia,
November 22, 1859.
Dear Sir: I have just had my attention called to a seeming confliction between the
statement I at first made to Governor Wise and that which I made at the time I received
my sentence, regarded my intentions respecting the slaves we took about the Ferry. There
need be no such confliction, and a few words of explanation will, I think, be quite
sufficient . . . When called in court to say whether I had anything further to urge, I was
taken wholly by surprise . . . In the hurry of the moment I forgot much that I had before
intended to say, and did not convey the full bearing of what I then said. I intended to
convey this idea, that it was my object to place the slaves in a condition to defend their
liberties, if they would, without any bloodshed, but not that I intended to run them out of
the slave States . . . What I said to Governor Wise was spoken with all the deliberation I
was master of, and was intended for truth; and what I said in court was equally intended
for truth; but required a more full explanation than I then gave . . .
DOCUMENT #10C
Message of Governor Henry Wise to the Virginia Legislature, Dec. 5, 1859 (excerpts)
Sudden, surprising, shocking as this invasion has been, it is not more so that the rapidity
and rancor of the causes which have prompted and put it in motion .... Causes and
influences lie behind it. For a series of years social and sectional difference have been
growing up, unhappily . . . . An evil spirit of fanaticism has seized upon negro slavery as
the one subject of social reform, and the one idea of its abolition has seemed to madden
whole masses of one entire section of the country. It enters into their religion, into their
education, into their politics and prayers . . . . It has been inflamed by prostituted teachers
and preachers and presses . . . . It has established spies everywhere and has secret agents .
. . and secret associations and "underground railroads" in every free State . . . . It has
openly and secretly threatened vengeance on the execution of our laws. And since their
violence it has definitely proclaimed aloud that "insurrection is the lesson of the hour" -not of slaves only, but all are to be free to rise up against fixed government . . . .
... pardons and reprieves have been demanded on the grounds of, 1st: insanity; 2nd:
magnanimity; 3rd: the policy of not making martyrs. As to the first, the parties
themselves or counsel put in no plea of insanity. No insanity was feigned even; the
prisoner Brown spurned it .... As to the second ground: I know of no magnanimity which
is inhumane, and no inhumanity could well exceed that to our society, our slaves as well
as their masters, which would turn felons like these ... Those again on a border already
torn by a fanatical and sectional strife .... As to the third ground ...; to hang would be no
more martyrdom than to incarcerate the fanatic. The sympathy would have asked on and
on for liberation .... His state of health would have been heralded weekly, as from a
palace . . . the work of his hands would have been sought as holy relics . . . . The
sympathy with the leader was worse than the invasion itself . . . .
DOCUMENT #11
Mrs. Mahala Doyle to John Brown, Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 20, 1859 (Mrs.
Doyle was the wife and mother of the three members of the pro-slavery family in Kansas
who were killed by John Brown's party).
Sir: Although vengeance is not mine, I confess that I do feel grateful to hear that you
were stopped in your fiendish career at Harper's Ferry. With the loss of your two sons
you can now appreciate my distress in Kansas when you, then and there, entered my
house at midnight and arrested my husband and two boys, and took them out of the yard
and in cold blood shot them dead in my hearing. You can't say you did it to free our
slaves. We had none and never expected to own one. It has only made me a poor
disconsolate widow, with helpless children. While I feel for your folly, I do hope and
trust that you will meet your just reward. Oh! how it pained my heart to hear the dying
groans of my husband and children. If this scrawl gives you any consolation you are
welcome to it.
Mahala Doyle
N.B. My son, John Doyle, whose life I begged of you, is now grown up, and is very
desirous to be in Charlestown on the day of your execution, and would certainly be there
if his means would permit it.
DOCUMENT #12
Governor Wise to Major General Taliaferro (about November 25, 1859).
... Keep full guard on the line of frontier from Martinsburg to Harper's Ferry, on the day
of 2nd Dec. Warn the inhabitants to arm and keep guard and patrol on that day and for
days beforehand. These orders are necessary to prevent seizure of hostages.
... Prevent all strangers, and particularly all parties of strangers from proceeding to
Charlestown on 2nd Dec. To this end station a guard at Harper's Ferry sufficient to
control crowds on the cars from East and West. ...keep one or two (companies) for the
purpose of keeping the crowd clear of the military on the day of execution. Form two
concentric squares around the gallows,... Let no crowd be near enough to the prisoner to
hear any speech he may attempt.
DOCUMENT #13
Letter from John Brown to his wife., November, 1859, excerpt.
I will say here that the sacrifices you; and I, have been called to make in behalf of the
cause we love, the cause of God; and of humanity; do not seem to me as at all too great. I
have been whipt as the saying is; but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital
occasioned by that disaster; by only hanging a few moments by the neck; and I feel quite
determined to make the utmost possible out of a defeat....
DOCUMENT #14
Letter from John Brown to his wife, sons and daughters, November 31, 1959.
... I now begin what is probably the last letter I shall ever write to any of you.... I am
waiting the hour of my public murder with great composure of mind, & cheerfulness:
feeling the strongest assurance that in no other possible way could I be used to so much
advance the cause of God; & of humanity: & that nothing that either I or my family have
sacrificed or suffered: will be lost... Do not feel ashamed on my account; nor for one
moment despair of the cause; or grow weary of well doing. I bless God: I never felt
stronger confidence in the certain and near approach of a bright Morning & a glorious
day....
Your Affectionate Husband & Father
John Brown
DOCUMENT #15
Correspondent of the Baltimore American reported in the Richmond Enquirer, Tuesday,
December 6,1859.
Charlestown, Virginia, December 1 [It] is the intention to allow Mrs. Brown, to remain
with her husband until nine o'clock this morning, when she will... proceed under an
armed escort to Harper's Ferry, to await the arrival of his remains in the evening ... After
the execution his body will be placed in a coffin and conducted under an armed cavalry
escort to await the arrival of the midnight train for Baltimore, and from thence to
Philadelphia, New York, and, it is thought, to
Boston. The people here are rather averse to giving up his body to be canonized at the
North, but all admit that the appeal of his wife could not be disregarded by the
Governor... I learn from Captain Avis, the jailor, that the interview between the prisoner
and his wife was characteristic of the man .... The prisoner said he contemplated his death
with composure and calmness .... It was doubtless best that he should be legally murdered
for the good of the cause, and he was prepared to submit to His will without a murmur.
In regard to his execution, he said he desired no religious ceremonies, either in the jail or
on the scaffold, from ministers who either consent to or approve of the enslavement of
their fellow creatures - that he would prefer to be accompanied on the scaffold by a dozen
slave children and a good old slave mother, with their appeal to God for blessings on his
soul, than all the eloquence of the whole clergy of the Commonwealth combined.
DOCUMENT #16
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (noted poet) Diary entry, December 2, 1859.
"The second of December, 1859. This will be a great day in our history; the date of a new
Revolution, - quite as much needed as the old one. Even as I now write, they are leading
old John Brown to execution in Virginia for attempting to rescue slaves! This is sowing
the wind to reap the whirlwind, which will soon come.
DOCUMENT #17
The following sentence was written on a piece of paper and handed to one of the guards
by John Brown on the morning of his execution, December 2, 1859.
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be
purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without
very much bloodshed it might be done.
DOCUMENT #18
Springfield Republican, (newspaper) December 1859.
We can conceive of no event that could so deepen the moral hostility of the people of the
free states to slavery as this execution. This is not because the acts of Brown are
generally approved, for they are not. It is because the nature and spirit of the man are
seen to be great and noble .... His death will be the result of his own folly, to be sure, but
that will not prevent his being considered a martyr of oppression, and all who sympathize
with him in that sentiment will find their hatred grow stronger.
DOCUMENT #19
New Orleans Picayune, January 11, 1860.
The time has come when no Northern man, whatever his business, can safely travel in the
Southern states, unless he has means of showing that his objects are not unfriendly. Many
who have business in the South come here to, obtain credentials. A proper passport
system must be devised and adopted, in order to secure the South from Abolition
intruders and spies.
DOCUMENT #20
Abraham Lincoln, speech at Cooper Union, February 27, 1860 (At this time Lincoln held
no elected office, having lost in his bid to unseat Stephen Douglas as Senator from
Illinois in 1858. He was, however, being touted as a dark horse contender for the
Republican presidential nomination.)
.... This is all Republicans ask... in relation to slavery. As (our founding fathers) marked
it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and
protected only because of, and so far as, its actual presence among us makes that
toleration and protection a necessity. (Loud applause).
And now... I would address a few words to the Southern people... You charge that we stir
up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof. Harper's Ferry!
(Great Laughter.) John Brown! (Renewed laughter. ) John Brown is no Republican, and
you have (yet) to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry affair.... Some of
you generously admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's
Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such
results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrines and make no declarations
which were not held to and made by our fathers who framed the Government under
which we live.
Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were before the Republican party
was organized. What induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in
which at least three times as many lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry. You can scarcely
stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton was got up by Black
Republicans. (Laughter.)
In the language of Mr. Jefferson,..."it is still in our power to direct the process of
emancipation and deportation peaceably and in such slow degrees as that the veil will
wear off insensibly and their places be... filled up by free white laborers. (Loud applause)
...
John Brown's effort... was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get
up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was ...
absurd... An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself
commissioned by Heaven to liberate them....
But you will not abide the election of a Republican President: In that supposed event, you
say, you will destroy the Union, and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it
will be upon us! ...
Let us Republicans do nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the Southern
people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to
them... if we possibly can.... Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will it satisfy
them, if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasion and insurrections. We know it
will not. We so know because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and
insurrections; and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from denunciation....
Miscellaneous Documents:
DOCUMENT #21
Reminiscences of Ruth Brown Thompson, Brown's eldest daughter, in 1885.
Father used to hold all his children, while they were little, at night, and sing his favorite
songs, one of which was, "Blow ye the trumpet, blow."' One evening after he had been
singing to me, he asked me how I would like to have some poor little black children that
were slaves... come and live with us; and asked me if I would be willing to divide my
food and clothes with them. He made such an impression on my sympathies, that the first
colored person I ever saw, I felt such pity for him that I wanted to ask him if he did not
want to come and live at our house. When I was six or seven years old, a little incident
took place in the church at Franklin, Ohio... (of which all the older part of our family
were members), which caused quite an excitement. Father hired a colored man and his
wife to work for him, - he on the farm, and she in the house.... One Sunday the woman
went to church, and was seated near the door, or somewhere back. This aroused father's
indignation at once. He asked both of them to go the next Sunday; they followed the
family in, and he seated them in his pew. The whole congregation were shocked; the
minister looked angry; but I remember father's firm, determined look. ...
DOCUMENT #22
Frederick Douglass, the former slave and noted black abolitionist, recounted in his Life
and Times (1881) his first meeting with John Brown in 1847 at John Brown's home.
.... It would take longer to tell what was not in this house than what was in it. There was
an air of plainness about it which almost suggested destitution. . . . There was no hired
help visible. The mother, daughters and sons did the serving and did it well. They were
evidently used to it, and had no thought of any impropriety or degradation in being their
own servants. It is said that a house in some measure reflects the character of its
occupants; this one certainly did. In it there were no disguises, no illusions, no make
believes. Everything implied stern truth, solid purpose, and rigid economy. I was not long
in company with the master of this house before I discovered that he was indeed the
master of it and was likely to become mine too if I stayed long enough with him. He
fulfilled St. Paul's idea of the head of the family. His wife believed in him, and his
children observed him with reverence.... Certainly I never felt myself in the presence of a
stronger religious influence than while in this man's house....
He denounced slavery in look and language fierce and bitter, thought that slaveholders
had forfeited their right to live, that the slaves had the right to gain their liberty in any
way they could, did not believe that moral suasion would ever liberate the slave, or that
political action would abolish the system. He Said that he had long had a plan which
could accomplish this end ... ... It did not, as some suppose, contemplate a general rising
among the slaves, and a general slaughter of the slave masters. ...but his plan did
contemplate the creating of an armed force which should act in the very heart of the
south. He was not adverse to the shedding of blood, and thought the practice of carrying
arms would be a good one for the colored people to adopt, as it would give them a sense
of their manhood....
He called my attention to a map of the United States, and pointed out to me the farreaching Alleghenies, which stretch away from the borders of New York, into the
Southern States. "These mountains," he said, "'are the basis of my plan. God has given
the strength of the hills to freedom, they were placed here for the emancipation of the
negro race; they are full of natural forts, where one man for defense will be equal to a
hundred for attack.... I know these mountains well, and could take a body of men into
them and keep them there despite of all the efforts of Virginia to dislodge them. The true
object to be sought is first of all to destroy the money value of slave property; and that
can only be done by rendering such property insecure..." They would run off the slaves in
large number, retain the brave and strong ones in the mountains, and send the weak and
timid to the north by the underground railroad; his operations would be enlarged with
increasing numbers, and would not be confined to one locality.
When I asked him, how he would support these men he said emphatically, he would
subsist them upon the enemy. Slavery was a state of war, and the slave had a right to
anything necessary to his freedom. .... But said I, ... they would employ bloodhounds to
hunt you out of the mountains. "That they might attempt," he said, "but the chances are,
we should whip them, and when we should have whipt one squad, they would be careful
how they pursued." "But you might be surrounded and cut off from your provisions or
means of subsistence." He thought that could be done... but even if the worst came, he
could but be killed, and he had no better use for his life than to lay it down in the cause of
the slave. When I suggested that we might convert the slaveholders, he became much
excited, and said that could never be, "he knew their proud hearts and that they would
never be induced to give up their slaves, until they felt a big stick about their heads."
DOCUMENT #23
F. B. Sanborn reminiscences of John Brown in his Life and Letters of John Brown, 1885.
A man of peace for more than fifty years of his life, he nevertheless understood that war
had its uses, and that there were worse evils than battles for a great principle. He more
than once said to me, and doubtless to others, "I believe in the Golden Rule and the
Declaration of Independence. I think they both mean the same thing; and it is better that a
whole generation should pass off the face of the earth, - men, women and children, - by a
violent death, than that one jot of either should fail in this country. I mean exactly so, sir."
He also told me that "he had much considered the matter, and had about concluded that
forcible separation of the connection between master and slave was necessary to fit the
blacks for self-government. First a soldier, then a citizen, was his plan with the liberated
slaves.... He looked forward, no doubt, to years of conflict, in which the blacks, as in the
later years of the Civil War, should be formed into regiments and brigades and drilled in
the whole art of war ... But in his more inspired moments he foresaw a speedier end to the
combat which he began. Once he said, "A few men in the right, and knowing they are
right, can overturn a mighty king. Fifty men, twenty men, in the Alleghenies, could break
slavery to pieces in two years."
DOCUMENT #24
John Brown, "Words of Advice" to Springfield, Ohio "Gileadites" (an organization
among blacks to resist the capture of fugitive slaves), January 15, 1851. (Excerpts.)
"Nothing so charms the American people as personal bravery. Witness the case of
Cinques, of everlasting memory, on board the "Amistad," The trial for life of one bold
and to some extent successful man, for defending his rights in good earnest, would arouse
more sympathy throughout the nation than the accumulated wrongs and sufferings of
more than three millions of our submissive colored population. ...Colored people have ten
times the number of fast friends among the whites than they suppose, and would have ten
times the number they now have were they but half as much in earnest to secure their
dearest rights as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their white neighbors,
and to indulge in idle show, in ease, and in luxury...
Should one of your number be arrested, you must collect together as quickly as possible,
so as to outnumber your adversaries who are taking an active part against you. Let no
able-bodied man appear on the ground unequipped, or with his weapons exposed to view;
... Your plans must be known only to yourself and with the understanding that all traitors
must die, wherever caught and proven to be guilty. "Whosoever is fearful or afraid, let
him return and part early from Mount Gilead" (Judges, vii 3; Duet. xx. 8). Do not delay
one moment after you are ready, you will lose all resolution if you do .... when engaged
do not do your work by halves, but make clean work with your enemies....
After effecting a rescue, if you are assailed, go into the houses of your most prominent
and influential white friends with your wives; and that will effectually fasten upon them
the suspicion of being connected with you, and will compel them to make a common
cause with you, whether they would otherwise live up to their profession or not. This
would leave them no choice in the matter.
DOCUMENT #25
Two secondary accounts of John Brown in Kansas.
John M. Blum et al., The National Experience (1968) provides a textbook survey of John
Brown's exploits in Kansas:
The antagonists in Kansas acted. The roving Missourians who kept crossing the line
carried weapons to back up their arguments. New England abolitionists shipped boxes or
rifles ... to the antislavery settlers .... Sporadic shootings and barnburnings culminated, in
May, 1856, in a raid by Missouri "border ruffians" on the free-soil town of Lawrence.
They sacked the place, destroyed the type and press of an antislavery newspaper, and
terrorized the inhabitants. A few days later John Brown,... retaliated. He and his sons and
companions undertook a foray through the valley of Potawatomie Creek, where they stole
horses, murdered five settlers, and mutilated their bodies. Brown claimed that he was an
agent of the Lord, assigned to punish those who favored slavery. His atrocities spurred a
counterattack by proslavery men, who fell upon Brown's band, killed one of his sons, and
burned the settlement at 0sawatomie... Though federal troops prevented further private
war, the slavery issue had brought blood and terror to Kansas.
J.G. Randall and David Donald in The Civil War and Reconstruction (1969) give a
thumbnail sketch of John Brown's career to 1856:
Born in Connecticut in 1800, John Brown had tried tanning, land speculation, sheep
raising and various business ventures without success, meanwhile suffering family
misfortunes, going through bankruptcy, and shifting about from Ohio to Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts and New York. By 1856 he had settled with his four sons at Osawatomie,
Kansas, and had become a "captain" in the emergency force recruited by free-state
citizens to defend the town of Lawrence. Up to this time killings in Kansas had been few;
but on the night of May 24-25, 1856, a small party made up chiefly of Brown and his
sons descended upon the cabins of proslavery families (named Doyle and Wilkinson) on
Pottawatomie Creek, murdered five men in cold blood, and left their gashed and
mutilated bodies -- A Free State warning to the proslavery forces that it was to be a tooth
for a tooth, an eye for an eye... The truth of these matters is very difficult to ascertain, for
the congressional committee investigating matters in Kansas glossed over the outrage;
Republican papers suppressed the facts; and the murderers were never prosecuted. Brown
and his partisans, however, were attacked by several hundred proslavery men in what was
called the "battle" of Osawatomie, in the course of which blood was shed on both sides,
Brown's son Frederick was killed, and the little settlement was burned. Soon after, Brown
left Kansas for the East....
DOCUMENT #26
John Brown to John Brown Jr., February 4-5, 1858.
I have been thinking that I would like to have you make a trip to Bedford, Chambersburg,
Gettysburg and Uniontown, in Pennsylvania, traveling slowly along, and inquiring out
every man on the way, or every family of the right stripe, and getting acquainted with
them as much as you could. When you look at the location of those places, you will
readily perceive the advantage of getting up some acquaintance in those parts.
DOCUMENT #27
Letter from John Brown to John Brown, Jr., April 8, 1858
Do not forget to write Mr. Case (near Rochester) at once about hunting up every person
and family of the reliable kind about, at or near Bedford, Chamberburg, Gettysburg and
Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and also Hagerstown and vicinity, Maryland and Harper's
Ferry, Va. The names and residences of all, I want to have sent me at Lindenville.
DOCUMENT #28
James W. Weld, undated affidavit of 1859, an Ohio friend of John Brown, describing a
discussion with Brown in 1858:
He replied that with a hundred men he could free Kansas and Missouri, too, and could
march them to Washington and turn the President and Cabinet out of doors.... He seemed
unable to think of anything else or talk of anything else. This affiant attempted to quiet
him and get him into conversation upon other matters, but without success. The Kansas
difficulties, the death of his son, and slavery were the only things of which he could be
induced to speak....
DOCUMENT #29
Letter from John Brown to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an anti-slavery Unitarian
minister in Massachusetts, February 12, 1858.
My Dear Sir, I have just read your kind letter of the 8th inst. and will now say that Rail
Road business on a somewhat extended scale is the identical object for which I am trying
to get means. I have been connected with that business as commonly conducted from my
boyhood and never let an opportunity slip. I have been operating to some purpose the past
season; but I now have a measure on foot that I feel sure would awaken in you something
more than a common interest if you could understand it. I have just written my friends G.
L. Stearns and F. B. Sanford asking them to meet me for consultation. I am very anxious
to have you come along; certain as I feel, that you will never regret having been one of
the council ...
DOCUMENT #30
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Worcester, Mass., Minister and later Colonel of a Civil
War Regiment) Cheerful Yesterdays (Boston, 1898).
Brown's plan was simply to penetrate Virginia with a few comrades, to keep utterly clear
of all attempt to create slave insurrection, but to get together bands and families of
fugitive slaves, and then be guided by events. If he could establish them permanently in
those fastnesses, .... so much the better; if not, he would make a break from time to time,
and take parties to Canada, by paths already familiar to him. All this he explained to me
and others, plainly and calmly, and there was nothing in it that we considered either
objectionable or impracticable; so that his friends in Boston, Theodore Parker, Howe,
Stearns, Sanborn, and myself -- were ready to cooperate in his plan as thus limited. Of the
wider organization and membership afterwards formed by him in Canada we of course
knew nothing, nor could we foresee the imprudence which finally perverted the attack
into a defeat. We helped him in raising the money...
DOCUMENT #31
Letter from Samuel G. Howe to Hon. Henry Wilson, May 12, 1858.
Dear Sir. I have just received your letter of the 9th. I understand perfectly your meaning.
No countenance has been given to Brown for any operations outside of Kansas by the
Kansas committee. I had occasion, a few days ago, to send him an earnest message from
some of his friends here, urging him to go at once to Kansas and take part in the coming
election, and throw the weight of his influence on the side of the right....
DOCUMENT #32
Letter from Samuel G. Howe to Hon. Henry Wilson, May 15, 1858.
Dear Sir. When I last wrote you, I was not aware fully of the true state of the case with
regard to certain arms belonging to the late Kansas committee.
Prompt measures have been taken, and will be resolutely followed up to prevent any such
monstrous perversion of a trust as would be the application of means, raised for the
defense of Kansas, to a purpose which the subscribers of the fund would disapprove and
vehemently condemn.
DOCUMENT #33
Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the people of the United States. [adopted at a
convention in Chatham, Canada on May 10, 1858. The convention consisted of 46
followers of John Brown, primarily blacks. It was intended to serve as the fundamental
law for areas which Brown might liberate from slavery. John Brown was elected
Commander in Chief by acclamation. Copies of the Constitution were found among other
papers at the Maryland farmhouse where Brown had his headquarters in 1859] excerpts:
Preamble
Whereas slavery... is... a most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one
portion of its citizens upon another portion ... in utter disregard and violation of those
eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence:
Therefore, we, citizens of the United States and the oppressed people who, by a recent
decision of the Supreme Court (Dred Scott decision) are declared to have no rights which
the white man is bound to respect, do, for the time being, ordain and establish for
ourselves the following Provisional Constitution and Ordinances...
Article I
Qualifications for Membership
All persons of mature age, whether proscribed, oppressed, and enslaved citizens, or of the
proscribed and oppressed races of the United States who shall agree to sustain and
enforce the Provisional Constitutions ... together with all minor children of such persons,
shall be held to be fully entitled to protection under the same....
Article II
Branches of Government
The provisional government of this organization shall consist of three branches, vix:
legislative, executive, and judicial.
Article III
Legislative
The legislative branch shall be a Congress or House of Representatives, composed of not
less than five nor more than ten members, who shall be selected by all citizens of mature
age....
Article IV
Executive
The executive branch of this organization shall consist of a President and Vice-President,
who shall be chosen by the citizens ....
Article VI
Validity of Enactments
All enactments of the legislative branch shall, to become valid during the first three years,
have the approbation of the President and of the Commander-in-Chief of the army.
Article VII
Commander-in-Chief
A Commander-in-Chief of the army shall be chosen by the President, Vice President, a
majority of the Provisional Congress, and of the Supreme Court....
Article XXVII
All captured or confiscated property and all property the product of the labor of (our
members) shall be held as the property of the whole, equally....
Article XLVI
The foregoing articles shall not be construed so as in any way to encourage the overthrow
of any State government, or of the general government of the United Sates and look to no
dissolution of the Union, but simply to amendment and repeal. And our flag shall be the
same that our fathers fought under the Revolution.
DOCUMENT #34
Letter to the editor of the New York Tribune from John Brown, Trading Post, Kansas,
January 1859.
Not one year ago, eleven quiet citizens of this neighborhood ... were gathered up from
their work and their homes, by an armed force... and, without trial or opportunity to speak
in their own defense, were formed into a line, and all but one shot -- five killed and five
wounded. One fell unharmed, pretending to be dead. All were left for dead. The only
crime charged against them was that of being Free-Statemen. Now, I inquire, what action
has ever, since the occurrence in May last, been taken by either the President of the
United States, the Governor of Missouri, the Governor of Kansas ... or by any ProSlavery or Administration man, to ferret out and punish the perpetrators of this crime?
Now for the other parallel. On Sunday, the 19th of December, a negro man named Jim,
came over to the Osage settlement, from Missouri, and stated that he, together with his
wife, two children and one other negro man, were to be sold within a day or two, and
begged for help to get away. On Monday, the following night, two small companies were
made up to go to Missouri., and forcibly liberate the five slaves, together with other
slaves. One of these companies I assumed to direct. We proceeded to the place,
surrounded the buildings, liberated the slaves, and also took certain property supposed to
belong to the estate. We, however, learned before leaving, that a portion of the articles we
had taken belonged to a man living on the plantation as a tenant, and who was supposed
to have no interest in the estate. We promptly returned to him all we had taken. We then
went to another plantation, where we freed five more slaves, took some property, and two
white men. We moved slowly away into the Territory, for some distance, and then sent
the white men back, telling them to follow us as soon as they chose to do so. The other
company freed one female slave, took some property, and, as I am informed, killed one
white man (the master) who fought against the liberation.
Now for a comparison. Eleven persons are forcibly restored to their "natural and
inalienable rights," with but one man killed, and all "Hell is stirred from beneath."....The
Marshall of Kansas is said to be collecting a posse of Missouri (not Kansas) men ... to
"enforce the laws." All Pro-Slavery, conservative Free-State, and doughface men, and
Administration tools, are filled with holy horror.
Consider the two cases, and the action of the Administration party.
DOCUMENT #35
Testimony of George L. Stearns, Chairman Massachusetts State Kansas Committee
before Senate Select Committee, February 24, 1860.
Question. Were you the president of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee?
Answer. Yes sir.
Question. What was the Object of that committee?
Answer. The object was the relieve the wants and sufferings of the men in Kansas,
Question. In what way was that done? By contributions of money?
Answer. Contributions of money and other things.
............
Question. Do you recollect that in January, 1857, you gave to John Brown an order for
certain Sharp's rifled carbines, as the property of the Massachusetts State Kansas
Committee?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. How was it that the committee were in possession of arms, if their object was
only to relieve the sufferings of the people?
Answer. .... of course they were intended for the defense of Kansas, and that was the
object for which they were held.
............
Question. You saw John Brown in Boston, some time in the spring of 1859. Will you
state what brought him there, so far as you know?
Answer. He came to Boston, as he told me, to get money for anti-slavery purposes.
Question. What were those anti-slavery purposes? Did he disclose them?
Answer. No sir.
Question. Did you give him any money at that time?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Will you state to the committee what were the anti-slavery purposes to which
you intended that money to be devoted - what sort of purposes?
Answer. Well, my object, in giving him the money was because I considered that so long
as Kansas was not a free State, John Brown might be a useful man there. That was one
object. Another was a very high personal respect for him. Knowing that the man had an
idea that he was engaged in work that I believed to be a righteous one, I gave him money
to enable him to live or to do whatever he thought was right. When I first talked with
John Brown in regard to Kansas affairs, he told me that it was the worst possible policy
for a man to reveal his plans .... Respecting that, I never inquired of him afterwards about
his plans, and he never revealed them to me.
............
Question. Did he [John Brown] then remain for some time in Boston?
Answer. I think he remained several days.
Question. Can you state the places in which you saw him, in what association, and
whereabouts?
............
Answer. I saw him at his room ... and Dr. Howe's office. I recollect once seeing him at a
meeting of a club that dined at the Parker House....
Question. What kind of a house is this Parker House?
Answer. It is one of the best eating houses in the town.
Question. Are select dinners given there?
Answer. Yes, sir .... If a literary club wish to dine, they do at the Parker House; if a
political club wish to dine, they go to the Parker House.
Question. Is it a place where fine and expensive dinners are given?
Answer. A place where you can get the rarities of the season and cooked in the best
manner.
............
Question. (Was any attempt made) to discriminate as to the use to which the money of
different contributors was to be put?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Was it known that some of this was applied for the purchase of arms?
Answer. I do not think it was generally known; I do not think that the question was ever
asked. I think, however, if it had been, the response would have been quite as large for
arms as it would have been for other purposes.
Question. Do you remember the names of any prominent contributors? ...any men
connected with the United States government in any capacity?
Answer. No sir; I think that those men would not contribute at all.
Question. Not local officers, but members of Congress or any other body?
Answer. No sir, you can see that in our operations we did not go in that way. Instead of
getting money as you would in a political contest, in large sums from individuals ... we
went to the lower class of people.
............
Question. Did you at any time before the transaction at Harper's Ferry ... understand that
there was any purpose on the part of Brown to make any inroad upon the subject of
slavery in any of the States?
Answer. No, sir; not except that Brown was opposed to slavery, and as he had in Kansas
he would work again. I did not suppose that he had any organized plan.
Question. My idea is, making any forcible entry upon Virginia, or any other State?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. Had you ever any intimation of that kind, any idea of it?
Answer. No sir, Perhaps I do not understand you. I did suppose he would go into Virginia
or some other State and relieve slaves.
Question. In what way?
Answer. In any way he could give them liberty.
Question. Did you understand that he contemplated doing it by force?
Answer. Yes sir; by force if necessary.
Question. Will you explain in what manner, by force, you understood he contemplated
doing it?
Answer. I cannot explain any manner, because ... I never talked with him on the subject.
............
Question. What was your general information, then, if you did not know specifically what
he intended to do?
Answer. I supposed that if he had opportunity, and it came in his way to do what he did in
Missouri, where he went in and took several slaves and ran them off, he would do that.
Question. Was the supposition that Brown would resort to force a supposition of others as
well as yourself?
Answer. Let me explain what I mean by this ... From first to last, I understood John
Brown to be a man who was opposed to slavery. And that he would take every
opportunity to free slaves where he could; I did not know in what way; I only know that
from the fact of his having done it in Missouri in the instance referred to; I furnished him
with money because I considered him as one who would be of use in case such troubles
arose as had arisen previously in Kansas .... I did not ask him what he was to do with it,
nor did I suppose that he would do anything that I should disapprove of.
Mr. Collamer. Then I ask you, do you disapprove of such a transaction as that at Harper's
Ferry?
Answer. I should have disapproved of it if I had known of it; but I have since changed my
opinion; I believe John Brown to be the representative man of this century, as
Washington was of the last - the Harper's Ferry Affair, and the capacity shown by the
Italians for self-government, the great events of the age. One will free Europe and the
other America.....
DOCUMENT #36
Testimony of Dr. Samuel G. Howe before the Senate Select Committee on Harper's
Ferry, February 3, 1860. Excerpts.
Question. You say that the money of which you have spoken was given to John Brown,
to be used at his discretion after the Kansas troubles were over, for I presume they would
be considered as over in 1858. What disposition was it expected he would make of it?
Answer. I do not know that I could say what disposition I thought he would make of it; I
supposed that he was a practical anti-slavery man, and I was not inclined to scrutinize,
having great confidence in him as a man.
............
Question. Was there any limit imposed upon his discretion ... by your act or that of
others, in the use of the money that was given to him?
Answer. No further than the confidence he inspired among his friends by two opinions
entertained by him, one of which was that he was opposed to promoting insurrection
among the slaves, and another was that he was opposed to shedding human blood except
in self-defense...
Question. Do you know of any plan he had devised, or proposed to devise, to get the
slaves or seducing them away, or anything of that sort?
Answer. I know of no definite recent plans of his; he was secretive.
Question. What do you mean by his being secretive?
Answer. I mean that he was a man not accustomed to reveal his thoughts unnecessarily to
any one, that he was not a communicative man.....
DOCUMENT #37
Testimony of Richard Realf (who had been associated with Brown before the raid) before
the Select Committee of the U.S. Senate on Harper's Ferry, January 21, 1860 (excerpts).
John Brown... stated that for twenty or thirty years the idea had possessed him like a
passion of giving liberty to the slaves .... he had read all the books upon insurrectionary
warfare which he could lay his hands upon... he had posted himself in relation to the war
of Toussaint L'Overture; he had become thoroughly acquainted with the wars in Hayti
and the islands about; and from all these things he had drawn the conclusion... that upon
the first intimation of a plan for the liberation of the slaves, they would immediately rise
all over the Southern States. He supposed that they would come into the mountains to
join him, and by flocking to his standard they would enable him (by making the line of
mountains which cuts diagonally through Maryland and Virginia down through the
Southern States into Tennessee and Alabama, the base of his operations) to act upon the
plantations on-the plains lying on each side of that range of mountains, and that we
should be able to establish ourselves in the fastnesses, and if any hostile action were
taken against us, either by the militia of the separate States or by the armies of the United
States, we purposed to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were possible, the troops of
the United States, and then organize the freed blacks under this provisional constitition
which would carve out for the locality of its jurisdiction all that mountainous region in
which the blacks were to be established, and in which they were to be taught the useful
and mechanical arts .... Schools were also to be established....
.... John Brown expected that all the free negroes in the Northern States would
immediately flock to his standard. He expected that all the slaves in the Southern States
would do the same .... The slaveholders were to be taken as hostages, if they refused to let
their slaves go. It is a mistake to suppose that they were to be killed; they were not to be.
... No salaries were to be paid to the office holders under this constitution. It was purely
out of that which we supposed to be philanthropy - love for the slave.
DOCUMENT #38
Testimony of Lind F. Currie (schoolmaster at Harper' s Ferry School where Cook and
two other raiders were to collect and arm the slaves) before Senate Select Committee on
Harper's Ferry, January 11, 1860.
Question. Did they tell you anything about what their design or purpose was?
Answer. Yes, sir; Cook said their intention was to free the negroes; that they intended to
adopt such measures as would effectually free them, though he said nothing about
running them off or anything of that kind. ... He said ... that those slave-holders who
would give up their slaves voluntarily would meet with protection, but those who refused
to give them up would be quartered upon and their property confiscated .... He said he
had no doubt that the effort would be strong now and unfailing in order to extirpate the
institution of slavery from the entire land. He said, "We, as a little band, may perish in
this attempt, but ... there are thousands ready at all times to occupy our place... It is our
design to use every effort to disseminate our sentiments in regard to the institutions of
slavery among your own people; we will scatter them among you in different ways; we
will send our people among you as colporteurs and peddlers, and we will place them in
your pulpits and schools....
DOCUMENT #39
Testimony of Andrew Hunter (assistant prosecutor in the Brown trial) before the Senate
Select Committee on Harper's Ferry, January 13, 1860.
Question. Will you state whether you saw Brown at the Ferry....
Answer. I saw him soon after I arrived there. He was lying in one of the rooms of the
superintendent's office ... and I went to visit him in company with Governor Wise.
Question. Now state whether you either held or heard a conversation with Brown on the
subject of the attack....
Answer. Brown was inquired of particularly where he intended to put his provisional
government into operation. He rose partly up, and somewhat earnestly said, "Here, in
Virginia, where I commenced operations."... He was inquired of what support he
expected to enable him to accomplish this, having so small a number of men, or what
number he expected to aid him; when he quite as promptly, and clearly and distinctly
replied to it; three thousand or five thousands if he wanted them ... The inquiry was
pursued further, where he expected the support from, and he then replied that he expected
the slaves and non-slaveholding whites to join him from all quarters. He was then
inquired of how many arms he had brought there. ... He said he was prepared to arm
about 1,500, but not perfectly ... he had 200 Sharp's rifles and about 200 revolver pistols,
and had expected 1,500 spears, but the contractor had failed, and he had received only
about 950.
He was particularly inquired of... as to his intending to stampede slaves off, and he
promptly and distinctly replied that that was not his purpose. He designed to put arms in
their hands to defend themselves against their master, and to maintain their position in
Virginia and the South. That, in the first instance, he expected they and the nonslaveholding whites would flock to his standard as soon as he got a footing there, at
Harper's Ferry; and as his strength increased, he would gradually enlarge the area under
his control, furnishing a refuge for the slaves, and a rendezvous for all white's who were
disposed to aid him, until eventually he overran the whole South. ...When Brown was
brought out to be sentenced in his speech in reply to the interrogatory whether he had
anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon him, I was greatly
surprised at his statement, so distinctly made, that his sole purpose in coming to Virginia
was to run off slaves. ... He stated in substance... that his purpose in coming to Virginia
was simply to stampede slaves, not to shed blood; that he had stampeded twelve slaves
from Missouri without snapping a gun, and that he expected to do the same thing in
Virginia, but only on a larger scale. ....
............
Question. Did he, at Harper's Ferry, speak of having emissaries in any of the Southern
States?
Answer. I do not think he did, in that form. He spoke of having many friends in the slave
States, and expecting large support from the slave States...
[Hunter is then questioned about papers discovered at the farmhouse Brown had rented in
Maryland.]
Question. There seems also to be a roll of maps, were these found among Brown's
papers?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Can you state where these maps came from?
Answer. I do not know but they were among the Brown papers ... [The maps referred to
are seven in number, and of the following States: Kentucky and Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia. Each map has pasted at its side
a slip, evidently cut from the Census Report of 1850, showing the number and kind of
inhabitants (whether free or slave, white or black, male or female) in each county of the
State of States which it represents. On the maps of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Georgia, there are also various ink marks, in the shape of crosses at different points.]
DOCUMENT #40
Majority Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on Harper's Ferry, June 15, 1860,
excerpts.
As a further exposition of the views entertained by those devotees to the so-styled "cause
of freedom," the committee refer to the evidence of George L. Stearns...
And so in the testimony of Samuel G. Howe, a physician of Boston...
Question. What ends are to be attained by promoting, that anti-slavery sentiment? What
is the object in view?
Answer. The promotion of freedom among men; the same object as the fathers in the
revolution.
Question. Was one of its objects the means of attaining the freedom of the African slaves
held in this country?
Answer. That would be the natural and desired result.
Question. Was that one of the ends to be attained by promoting this anti-slavery
sentiment by lecturing and otherwise?
Answer. It was ....
Of these witnesses, one, Giddings, represented a district in the House of Representatives
from Ohio for a long series of years, and is known to the country as an intelligent man;
another, Dr. Howe, holds the highest professional and social position in the city of
Boston. The other, Mr. Stearns, is a merchant in the same city, of wealth and with all the
influence usually attending it. With such elements at work, unchecked by law and not
rebuked but encouraged by public opinion, with money freely contributed and placed in
irresponsible hands, it may easily be seen how this expedition to excite servile war in one
of the States of the Union was got up, and it may equally be seen how like expeditions
may certainly be anticipated in future whenever desperadoes offer themselves to carry
them into execution .... It may not become the committee to suggest a duty in those States
to provide by proper legislation against machinations by their citizens or within their
borders destructive of the peace of their confederate republics; but it does become them
fully to expose the consequences resulting from the present license there existing because
the peace and integrity of the Union is necessarily involved in its continuance.
.... The committee cannot but remark on the feeble, as it resulted, the abortive effort of
the chairman of the Massachusetts committee [Stearns] to prevent a murderous use of
these arms by Brown; certainly in striking contrast with the assurance given by Dr. Howe
to Mr. Wilson, that prompt measures had been taken, and would be resolutely followed,
to prevent such a "monstrous perversion of the trust" connected with them. But a perusal
of the testimony at large of Mr. Stearns may show that he had at best but vague and
undefined opinions as to what would be a perversion of the trust spoken of by Dr. Howe.
DOCUMENT #41
Minority Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on Harper's Ferry, June 15, 1860,
excerpts.
It is almost astonishing that in a country like ours, laden with the rich experience of the
blessings of security under the protection of law, there should still be found large bodies
of men laboring under the infatuation that any good object can be effected by lawlessness
and violence .... No object, however desirable, can justify them or prevent their disastrous
example and consequences. The unpunished lawless invasions of our weak neighboring
nations; the flagrant and merciless breaches of our laws against the African slave
trade,...the lawless armed invasions of our own people in our own weak Territory of
Kansas, not only unpunished, but justified, sustained, and even rewarded, all, it is
believed, to extend and sustain slavery, tended strongly to suggest acts of lawless
violence to destroy it, especially in those who had witnessed and suffered by these
collusions. They are, however, all without excuse, and they but add to the experience that
no public peace or private security can be found but where every disregard of law meets
with the most prompt public rebuke and effective punishment or correction....
We consider that no man can be properly said to be "implicated" in any transaction ...
who had no knowledge of its purpose, character of existence ... Yet the committee, by its
majority, seem to regard it as their duty to inquire whether there are any citizens who,
though not "implicated" in this affair, yet hold such opinions and pursue such courses on
the subject of slavery as are dangerous to the national tranquillity, even although
Congress has not power to take any action in relation thereto.
So long as Congress, in the exercise of its power over the Territories, is invoked to exert
it to extend, perpetuate, or protect the institutions of slavery therein ... so long must its
moral, political and social character and effect be unavoidable involved in congressional
discussion .... So long as slavery is claimed before the world as a highly benignant,
elevating and humanizing institution, and as having Divine approbation, it will receive at
the hands of the moralist, civilian, and theologian the most free and unflinching
discussion; nor should its vindicators wince in the combat which their claims invite. ...
We insist ... that there is no such matter presented in the testimony or existing in fact, as
is more than intimated in the report, that even the abolitionists in the free States take
courses intended, covertly, to produce forcible violations of the laws and peace of the
slaveholding States, much less that any such course is countenanced by the body of the
people in the free States. We cannot join in any report tending to promulgate such a view,
as we regard it unfounded in fact and ill calculated to promote peace, confidence, or
tranquillity, and a departure from the legitimate purpose for which the committee was
appointed.
***************
Some questions that you might ask yourself in evaluating these documents are listed
below:
1) Did John Brown accomplish his purpose? If so, in what sense? If not, in what respects?
2) Was John Brown consistent in his accounts of his intentions and purposes?
3) What appear to have been the major strengths and weaknesses in John Brown's
character?
4) What is the significance of the press reaction to John Brown's raid and subsequent
execution? What is the significance, if any, of the fact that the Select Senate Committee
could not agree on a single report?
5) Was the prosecution justified in charging Brown with attempting to foment an
insurrection? Who are we to believe on this question?
6) What do you think of the way in which the Virginia authorities dealt with Brown?
What were the implications of the raising and disposition of the insanity issue?
7) How would you assess the credibility of John Brown during the period of his
incarceration and trial?
8) How was the Harper's Ferry raid related to developing sentiments about the
Republican party?
9) To what extent was the South justified in its "suspicions" about the role and intentions
of John Brown's financial backers?
These questions are intended as a guide to possible interpretive issues. Your main
concern should not be to answer the specific questions - but to construct a passage with
continuity of narrative and interpretation. You will need to deal with some of these
questions in the process of developing a broader explanation of the significance of the
events you describe, but you should not interrupt the narrative at an inappropriate point
merely to answer one of the questions.