John Brown, liberator of Kansas and martyr of Virginia

Front matter

V

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Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia

Introduction

T N that "History of Napoleon I." which he never lived to complete, Lanfrey says: " Do not misconstrue events ; history is not a school of fatalism, but one long plea for the freedom of man." In this pleading chronicle there are few chapters more pathetic than the career of my old friend John Brown, which I long since undertook to set forth, though strangely delayed in completing my task. It was begun in those dismal years when the Southern oligarchy and their humble followers at the North still controlled our degraded politics; and it has been continued through all the vicissitudes, the anxieties, and the assured repose of subsequent years. More than once in those earlier days recurred to me that gloomy magniloquence of the Roman annalist, where Tacitus complains that the tyranny of Domitian had suppressed the unheralded renown of Agricola; " Patient sufferance we showed, no doubt. Our ancestors saw the extreme of license, but we of servility; for our inquisitors would permit us neither to hear nor to tell, — and we might have lost the use of memory along with free speech, if to forget had been no harder than to forego praise. Now at last the occasion has returned, and we speak out ; . . . but few of us are left, survivors of others, and even of our old selves, so many years have passed over us in silence, vi INTEODUCTION

bringing the young to old age, and the old to the verysunset of life. ' ' ^

Since the printing of these pages began, four months ago, two of those who stood with us in the contest against slavery have died, — Dr. Cabot, of Boston, and the famous Victor Hugo ; and every year removes the actors and the witnesses of memorable deeds. I have therefore sought to preserve the record of one hero 's life, in his own words (when I could), and in the contemporary evidence of those who saw and bore witness to what he did, — mingling myself with the account as little as possible, except for attestation and comment, when doubt might else arise. The plan was at first to print all the extant letters of Brown, which I fancied would easily find place in a volume of four hundred pages ; but I have in my hands letters enougli to fill another book, and have not been able to use them. Those selected, however, exhibit his life sufficiently ; it was straightforward and all of a piece, so that even the details which are here given may seem tedious to some readers. In the second volume, should I live to publish it, on " The Companions of John Brown," I may carry the story further, and complete the record of a remarkable episode in American history. I have aimed at accuracy, but of course have not always succeeded; and have necessarily omitted much that other writers will supply. My intention has been to put the reader in possession of evidence which either verifies itself or can readily be verified by

INTRODUCTION vii

a little research. Holding the key to much that has heretofore been obscure or ill related, I have furnished the true connection between events and persons where, in some cases, this had escaped notice. I shall gladly receive any correction of mistakes, but shall not pay much regard to inferential and distorted statements which traverse my own clear recollections, — supported, as these often are, by written evidence which I have not here printed, but hold in reserve.

I could not have completed this task of nearly thirty years but for the constant and friendly aid of the family of John Brown, who have placed without reserve their papers in my hands. I have had also the co-operation of Colonel Higginson, Edwin Morton, Mrs. Stearns, Lewis Hayden, Thomas Thomas, and other friends among the living; and of the late Dr. Howe, Wendell Phillips, George L. Stearns, F. J. Merriam, Osborn Anderson, and many more, who are now dead. To all these, named and unnamed, I would here return my acknowledgments. Particularly, I must thank those gentlemen of Kansas, my college friend and brother journalist Mr. D. W. Wilder, and Mr. F. G. Adams of the Kansas Historical Society, who by their accurate knowledge of Kansas history and topography, and the free access they have given me to important papers, have made it possible for me to write the chapters that concern their State. I am also indebted to Mr. James Redpath, Mr. Richard Hinton, Mr. Frederick Douglass, Mr. W. S. Kennedy, and to many correspondents and admirers of John Brown whose names are mentioned in the pages that follow. I might include in this acknowledgment a few malicious slanderers and misjudging censors of Brown, who by their publications have caused the whole truth to l)e more carefully searched out.

Viii INTRODUCTION

I cannot hope that all my readers will take the same view of Brown that I do ; but I assure them, from long acquaintance with his character, that the more they know it the more they will honor it. As for the conspiracy in which he lost his life, should any imagined regard for the reputation of persons living or dead tempt kinsmen or friends to disown the share of any man in this affair, let them remember what Sir Kenelm Digby says of his father. " All men know," pleads the fair Stelliana, " that it was no malitious intent or ambitious desires that brought Sir Everard Digby into that conspiracy, but his too inviolable faith to his friend that had trusted him with so dangerous a secret, and his zeal to his country's antient liberties."

V. B. S.

Concord, June 2, 1885.

Prefatory Note To The Second Edition

Since the above was written, Owen Brown has died in California (1888), Lewis Hayden in Boston (1889), and James Redpath in New York (1891). There is now no survivor, so far as I know, of John Brown's Company at Harper's Ferry; and few of those now living can testify of their own knowledge to the early-formed plans of Brown for attacking slavery by force. A controversial writer in the " Andover Review " has lately questioned the exactness of my statement on this point ; but he has since confessed himself satisfied, by the emphatic testimony of John Brown, Jr. Many interesting facts have come to light since 1885, but none requiring

any material correction of this book.

F. B. S.

Concord, March 2, 1891.

INTRODUCTION ix

Prefatory Note To The Fourth Edition

In this edition, published in Iowa, that young State in 1856, which aided so gallantly through its governor, James Wilson Grimes (a New Hampshire law-student with my father-in-law, James Walker), its Iowa City committee-man, W. P. Clarke, and many less known men, in the preservation of Kansas to free institutions, I owe it to that now powerful Commonwealth to record Brown's indebtedness to her good people. Among the Calvinists of Grinnell, and the Quakers of Springdale he and his f reedmen, emancipated by force, — a business in which Uncle Sam engaged on a grand scale three years later, — were received with noble hospitality. Two lowans in 1859, brothers named Gue, one of whom was afterwards lieutenant-governor of the State, having learned of Brown's desperate plan for invading Virginia, gave notice of it to the Virginian war-secretary of Buchanan, from a mistaken sense of duty to their friends the Coppocs, in a letter whose authorship was in doubt until one of the brothers avowed it, long afterward. This is the letter mentioned on pages 543-44, and there tentatively ascribed to a Hungarian refugee in Kansas, through a Cincinnati reporter, which is now known not to be true. Providence took care that this well-meant betrayal from Iowa should not take effect. So confident were the slave-masters in their assured control of the country in 1859, that they took no account of this warning letter, and in Carolina went on with their revival of the slave-trade.

The conduct of Brown in Kansas, aided from Iowa both in 1856 and the years following, has been much investigated since this book was first published in 1885. Slanders and suspicions, grossly unfounded and actually impossible of verification, have been printed in Kansas, in New York, in Boston and elsewhere. One of

X INTEODUCTION

these villifications alleged that Brown was not concerned in the defence of Lawrence, against its third attack by the Missourian invaders in September, 1856, and did not make the speech reported on page 335. The researches of that precise historian, Mr. William Elsey Connelley of Topeka, have brought to light the evidence of several men still living who heard and vouch for this speech ; and I give below in f ac-simile Brown 's own written account of his participation in this affair. It is always safe to say that any fight which Brown saw, he took part in.

Other slanders upon Brown's conduct and motives have been refuted, by me and many others, in the published Proceedings of the Kansas Historical Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society, in recent years. My Recollections of S'cventy Years, published last year in Boston by R. G. Badger, contains in its first volume other refutations, and much elucidation of the enterprises of Brown, whether in Kansas, Missouri, Maryland or Virginia. New lives of Brown, containing much fact and some fiction, have been printed and will be printed hereafter. It does not become an author to say much in praise of his own book; but this ought to be

INTEODUCTION xi

said of mine : It contains as least 200 pages, of its 650, which were never printed before I made them public, copyrighted them, and thus made every future biographer dependent on my book for indispensable facts about Brown. X am now one of the few living witnesses to the career and character of John Brown ; whom I knew intimately, and of whom my high opinion was formed fifty-three years ago, and has only been heightened by all I have seen and learned of him since.

P. B. S.

Concord, February 22, 1910.

TO JOHN BROWN.i I.

Marble nor brass, nor granite from the shore

Which thy grave fathers trod with ])ilgrim feet, Thy fame shall never need; the hollow roar

Of Time's vast ocean will thy name repeat, When we and all our works are buried low

Under the whelming of his restless tide.

In generous hearts thy praise shall ever glow

With theirs that earlier for sweet Freedom died. Leonidas claims kindred with thy line,

Rome's firmest rooted courage thou liast shared; Not Sempach saw a nobler deed than thine,

When Winkelried his high achievement dared!

Nay, who sad Afric's kneeling race shall blame.

Blending with thine Judea's holiest name?

II

Yet must we give what thou so well couldst spare,

Thine earnest features carved in whitest stone, — Best symbol of a life as firm and fair, —

Shall grace this house, to thee so friendly known. Here didst thou turn aside, a pilgrim gray;

Here didst thou lay that heavy burden down ; Here slept in peace, and with the breaking day

Departed hence to win thy noblest crown.

Now, while the opening year leads Freedom in.

And war's wild earthquake bursts the prison gate, Our hearts, atoning for a nation's sin.

Give earnest of the honors that await.

And thou, blest Spirit! from thy calm retreat.

Give us Godspeed, and New Year's welcome sweet.

F. B. Sanborn.

Concord, Jan. 1, 1863.

1 These sonnets were read by Wendell Phillips at the house of Mr. Stearns, in Medford, when the marble bust of Brown was unveiled, Emancipation Day, Jan. 1, 1863.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Ancestry and Childhood 1

II. Youth and Early Manhood 31

Chapter I. Ancestry And Childhood

"\X/'HEN a man of mark is to appear in the world and give a new turn to the affairs of men, there has always been preparation made for him. Even the weeds and vermin of the field have their heredity and evolution, — much more a predestined hero like John Brown, of Kansas and Virginia. His valor, his religion, his Saxon sense, his Calvinistic fanatacism, his tender and generous heart were inherited from a long line of English, Dutch, and American ancestors, — men and women neither famous nor powerful, nor rich, but devout, austere, and faithful ; above all free, and resolved that others should be free like themselves.

No genealogist has yet traced the English forefathers of Peter Brown the carpenter, who came over in the " Mayflower," and landed at Plymouth with the other Pilgrims in December, 1620; but his presence in that famous band is evidence enough of his character, even if the deeds of his descendants had not borne witness to it. He drew his house-lot on Leyden Street in the little town, with Bradford, Standish, and Winslow, and like them soon migrated to Duxbury, at the head of Plymouth Bay, where his family dwelt after his early death, in 1633, not far from Standish 's abode at the foot of "Captain's Hill." A brother of Peter, John Brown, a weaver (sometimes confounded with a more distinguished John, who became a magistrate), also lived at Duxbury, and took

2 LIFE AND LETTEES OF JOHN BROWN [1620.

some care of his deceased brother 's four children, — two sons and two daughters, — who survived him. Peter Brown was unmarried when he landed at Plymouth, but within the next thirteen years he was twice married, and died, — as we learn from unquestionable authority, the " History of Plymouth Plantation," left in manuscript by William Bradford, who succeeded Carver in 1621 as governor of the colony, and died in 1657, Writing about 1650, Bradford says: " Peter Brown married twice. By his first wife he had two children, who are living, and both of them married, and one of them hath two children; by his second wife he had two more. He died about sixteen years since." It is supposed that his first wife was named Martha, and that Mary and Priscilla Brown were her daughters, — the two who are mentioned by Bradford as married in 1650. In 1644 they were placed Avith their uncle John, and in due time received each £15, which their father had left them by will. The rest of Peter's small estate went to his second wife and her two sons, of whom the younger, born in 1632, at Duxbury, was the ancestor of the Kansas captain.^ He was named Peter for his father, removed from Duxbury to Windsor in Connecticut between 1650 and 1658, and there married Mary, daughter of Jonathan Gillett, by whom he had thirteen children. He died at Windsor, March 9, 1692, leaving to his family an estate of £409. One of his children, John Brown, born at Windsor, Jan. 8, 1668, married Elizabeth Loomis in 1691, and had eleven children. Among these was John Brown (born in 1700, and died in 1790), who was the father and the survivor of the Revolutionary Captain John Brown, of West Simsbury. He lived and died in Windsor, there married Mary Eggleston, and Captain John Brown just mentioned, the grandfather of our hero, was his oldest son,

1 It would be curious to trace the English ancestry of Captain Brown, which, some suppose, goes back to that stout-hearted John Brown of Henry VIII. 's time, who was one of the victims of Popish persecution in the early years of that king. Fox, in his " Book of Martyrs," tells the story of his martyrdom at the stake, in the early summer of 1511, at Ashford, where he dwelt ; and adds that his son, Richard Brown, was imprisoned for his faith in the latter days of Queen Mary, and would have been burned but for the proclniming of Queen Elizabeth, in 1558.

born Nov. 4, 1728. He married Hannah Owen, of Welsh descent, in 1758, whose father was Elijah Owen, of Windsor, and her first ancestor in this country John Owen, a Welshman, who married in Windsor in 1650, just before young Peter Brown went thither from Duxbury. A few years afterward an Amsterdam tailor, Peter Miles or Mills, came to Connecticut from Holland, settled in Bloomfield near Windsor, and became the ancestor of John Brown's grandmother, Ruth Mills, of West Simsbury. Thus three streams of nationality — English, Welsh, and Dutch — united in New England to form the parentage of John Brown. His forefathers were mostly farmers, and among them was the proper New England proportion of ministers, deacons, squires, and captains. Both his grandfathers were officers in the Connecticut contingent to Washington's army, and one of them, Captain John Brown, died in the service. It is his gravestone which the pilgrim to his grandson's grave, in the Adirondac woods, sees standing by the great rock that marks the spot ; and among the other inscriptions ^ which there preserve the memory of his slauglitered descendants, that of the Revolutionary captain stands first. Owen Brown, — ' ' Squire Owen, ' ' — son of this captain, and father of the Kansas captain, was named for

1 These remarkable epitaphs, several of which were written by Joha

Brown, of Kansas, are as follows: —

In Born Dec. 31, 1830, and

Memory of Murdered at Osawatofiiie,

Capt. John Brown, Kansas, Aug. 30, 1856,

who Died at For his adherence to

New York, Sept. ye the cause of freedom.

year of his age. _- _

^ Watson Beown

Born Oct. 7, 1835, was wounded

.John Brown at Harper's Ferry,

Born May 9, 1800 Oct. 17, and Died

Was executed at Charleston Oct. 19, 1859.

Oliver Brown In memory of Born May 9, 1839, was

Frederick, Killed at Harper's Ferry

Son of John and Dianthe Oct. 17, 1859.

Brown, his mother's family, and was the earliest of these Browns who seems to have left any written memoirs. He migrated from Connecticut to Ohio, among the first of those who settled on the Western Reserve, early in the century, and when nearly eighty years old, while living at Hudson, Ohio, wrote an autobiography for his children's perusal, which gives some characteristic details of the state of society where he lived, and where his renowned son was born.

OWEN BROWN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

" My life has been of little worth, mostly filled up with vanity. I was born at West Simsbury (now Canton), Connecticut, Feb. 16, 1771. I have but little recollection of what took place until the years '75 and '76. I remember the beginning of war, and some things that took place in 1775; but only a little until '76, when my father went into the anny.i. He was captain in the militia of Connecticut, and died in New York, with the dysentery, a few weeks after leaving home. My mother had ten children at the time of my father 's death, and one born soon after, making eleven of us all. The first five were daughters, the oldest about eighteen; 2 the next three were sons; then two daughters, and the youngest a son. The care and support of this family fell mostly on my mother. The laboring men were mostly in the army. She was one of the best of mothers, active and sensible. She did all that could be expected of a mother ; yet for want of help we lost our crops, then our cattle, and so became poor. I very well remember the dreadful hard winter of 1778-79. The snow began to fall in November, when the water was very lowin the streams; and while the snow was very deep, one after another of our hogs and sheep would get buried up, and we had to dig them out. Wood could not be drawn with teams, and was brought on men's shoulders, they going on snowshoes until paths were made hard enough to draw wood on hand-sleds. The snow was said to be five feet deep in the woods. Milling of grain could not be had, only by going a great distance; and our family were driven to the necessity of pounding corn for food. We lost that winter almost all of our cattle, hogs, and sheep, and were reduced very low by the spring of 1779.

1 He entered the army of Washington in the summer of 1776, and died shortly before the battle of Long Island, in which his regiment took part.

2 John Brown married Hannah Owen in 1758, and his eldest daughter was but little more than seventeen at his death in 1776.

' ' I lived at home in 1782 ; this was a memorable year, as there was a great revival of religion in the town of Canton. My mother and my older sisters and brother John dated their hopes of salvation from that summer's revival, under the ministry of the Rev. Edward Mills. I cannot say as I was a subject of the work; but this I can say, that I then began to hear preaching.i I can now recollect most, if not all, of those I heard preach, and what their texts were. The change in our family was great; family worship, set up by brother John, was ever afterward continued. There was a revival of singing in Canton, and our family became singers. Conference meetings were kept up constantly, and singing meetings, — all of which brought our family into a very good association, — a very great aid of restraining grace.

About 1784 the Rev. Jeremiah Hallocks became the minister at Canton. I used to live with him at different times, and received a great deal of good instruction from him. About this time I began to make shoes, and worked mostly winters at shoemaking, and at farming at home summers. In the winter of 1787 I took a trip into Massachusetts, through Granville, Otis, and Blandford. In these towns I worked at shoemaking over half of the winter. I was but a bungling shoemaker, yet gave good satisfaction, was kindly treated as a child, and got my pay well, in clothing and money. I then went to Great Barrington, Sheffield, and Salisbury. Here I hired out to a very good shoemaker, at about half price, with a view of learning to be a better workman. I returned home in the spring of 1788 and worked on the farm through the summer. In 1789 I lived at home, but in the fall I went to Norfolk, and worked at shoemaking all winter, mostly around at houses for families.

1 He was then in his twelfth year ; his brother John was, perhaps, fifteen or sixteen. This brother was a faithful and honored deacon of the church in New Hartford, Conn., for many years. Another brother, Frederick, born Aug. 14, 1769, in Canton, Conn., represented the neighboring town of Colebrook in the State Legislature during the war of 1813, but in 1816 removed to Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, and assisted in founding that town. On the organization of the county, he was chosen senior Associate Judge for fourteen years. During this term of office, the PresidiPT Judge having a large circuit most of the business in Wadsworth came beiore Judge Brown, who gained a high reputation as a magistrate and citizen. " He never spoke disparagingly of a neighbor, nor of any other church than his own." Two of his sons were physicians of celebrity; another a successful minister of the Gospel.

2 The Hallock family were connected by marriage with the Browns, and we shall find them mentioned hereafter, — John Brown having studied for a while with the Rev. Moses Hallock.

" In the spring of 1791 we as a family were rising in the gain of property; we had good crops; our stock had increased, and we felt able to make a small purchase of land ; our credits were good for the payment of debts. In all this, we must acknowledge the kind providence of God. Our former poverty had kept us out of the more loose and vain company, and we appeared to be noticed by the better class of people. There was a class of young men and ladies that were a little older than my brothers, who had rich parents that dressed their families in gay clothing, giving them plenty of money to spend, and good horses to ride. Oh, how enviable they appeared to me, while my brothers and sisters lacked all these things! Now, while I write, I am thinking what was the change of fifteen or twenty years with these smart young folks. I cannot think of more than one or two that became even common men of business, but a number of them did become poor drunkards, and three came to their end by suicide. God knows what is best.

" In the spring of 1790 I returned and hired out to the Rev. Jeremiah Hallock for six months. Here I had good instruction and good examples. I was under some conviction of sin, but whether I was pardoned or not, God only knows; this I know, I have not lived like a Christian.

" About this time I became more acquainted with Ruth Mills (daughter of the Rev. Gideon Mills), who was the choice of my affections ever after, although we were not married for more than two years. In March, 1793, we began to keep house; and here was the beginning of days with me. I think our good minister felt all the anxiety of a parent that we should begin right. He gave us good counsel, and, I have no doubt, with a praying spirit. And I will say, never had any person such an ascendency over my conduct as my wife. This she had without the least appearance of usurpation or dictation; and if I have been respected in the world, I must ascribe it to her influence more than to any one thing. We began with very little property, but with industry and frugality, which gave us a comfortable support and a small increase. We took children to live with us very soon after we began to keep house. Our own first child was born at Canton, June 29, 1794, — a son, we called Salmon, a thrifty forward child.

" We lived in Canton about two years, I working at shoemaking, tanning, and farming; we made butter and cheese on a small scale, and all our labors turned to good account; we were at peace with all our neighbors, and had great cause for thanksgiving. We were living in a rented house, and I felt called to build or move. I thought of the latter, and went directly to Norfolk, as I was there acquainted, and my wife had taught school there one summer. The people of Norfolk encouro

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O aged me, and I bought a small farm with a house and barn on it. I then sold what little I had, and made a very sudden move to Norfolk. We found friends in deed and in need. I there set up shoemaking and tanning, employed a foreman, did a small good business, and gave good satisfaction.

" Feb. 18, 1796, my little son Salmon died. This was a great trial to us. In the spring of 1796 my business was much increased, but owing to sickness of wife and self I could not get but a small part of the leather out in the fall. The people became somewhat dissatisfied with me, and things went hard that winter; but when spring returned, my leather came out well, and from that time I gave good satisfaction to the people, as far as I knew. July 5, 1798, my daughter Anna was born in Norfolk. Soon after this, my wife and I made a public profession of religion which I have so poorly manifested in my life.

" In February, 1799, I had an opportunity to sell my place in Norfolk, which I did without any consultation of our neighbors, who thought they had some claim on my future services as they had been very kind and helped; and they questioned whether I had not been hasty. But I went as hastily to Torrington and bought a place, although I had but little acquaintance there. I was quick on the move, and we found there good neighbors, and were somewhat prosperous in business. In 1800, May 9, John was born, one hundred years after his great grandfather; nothing else very uncommon. We lived in peace with all men, so far as I know. (I might have said the years of '98 and '99 were memorable years of revivals of religion in the churches of our town and the towns about us. Perhaps there has never been so general a revival since the days of Edwards and Whitfield.) April 30, 1802, my second son Salmon was born.

" In 1804 I made my first journey to Ohio. I left home on the 8th of August, came through Pennsylvania and saw many new things. Arrived in Hudson about the 1st of September; found the people very harmonious and middling prosperous, and mostly united in religious sentiments. I made a small purchase of land at the center of Hudson, with the design of coming at a future day. I went to Austinburg, and was there taken sick, which proved to be the fever and ague; was there a month, very sick and homesick. I started for home against counsel, and had a very hard journey, — ague almost every day or night, — but arrived home on the 16th of October. I had the ague from time to time over one year; yet my determination to come to Ohio was so strong that I started with my family in company with Benjamin Whedon, Esq , and his family, on the 9th of June, 1805. We came with ox teams through Pennsylvania and I found Mr. Whedon a very kind and helpful companion on the road.