Virginia v. John Brown
Virginia v. John Brown | |
---|---|
![]() John Brown | |
Decided | 31 October 1859 |
Verdict | Guilty of all charges; sentenced to death by hanging |
Charge |
|
Prosecution | Andrew Hunter |
Defence |
|
Virginia v. John Brown was a criminal trial held in Charles Town, Virginia, in October 1859. The abolitionist John Brown was quickly prosecuted for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection, all part of his raid on the United States federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. (Since 1863, both Charles Town and Harpers Ferry are in West Virginia.) He was found guilty of all charges, sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on December 2.
"It was in many respects a most remarkable trial. Capital cases have been exceedingly few in the history of our country where trial and conviction have followed so quickly upon the commission of the offense. Within a fortnight from the time when Brown had struck what he believed to be a righteous blow against what he felt to be the greatest sin of the age he was a condemned felon, with only thirty days between his life and the hangman's noose."[1]
During most of the trial Brown, unable to stand, lay on a pallet.
Background[]
On October 16, 1859, Brown led (counting himself) 22 armed men, 5 black and 17 white, to Harpers Ferry, an important railroad, river, and canal junction. His goal was to seize the federal arsenal there and then, using the captured arms, lead a slave insurrection across the South. Brown and his men engaged in a two-day standoff with local militia and federal troops, in which ten of his men were shot or killed, five were captured, and five escaped.[2] Of Brown's three sons participating, Oliver and Watson were killed during the fight, Watson surviving in agony for another day. Owen escaped and later fought in the Union Army.
Reporting on the trial[]
Thanks to the recently-invented telegraph, Brown's trial was the first to be reported nationally.[3]: 291 In attendance, among others, were a reporter from the New York Herald and another from The Daily Exchange of Baltimore, both of whom had been in Harpers Ferry since October 18;[4][5][6][7] reports on the trial, including Brown's remarks, differ in details, showing the work of more than one hand. The coverage was so intense that reporters could dedicate whole paragraphs to the weather,[8] and the visit of Brown's wife, the night before his execution, was the subject of lengthy articles.[9][10][11][12][13]
The stories in the Herald were published unsigned, as the reporter, named House, was in Charles Town incognito (in disguise), under a different name, with credentials from a Boston pro-slavery paper. He begged a visitor that knew him, Edward A. Brackett, a sketch artist from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, not to say his real name aloud.[14] Some of his reports, which could not be mailed safely from Charles Town, were transmitted by wrapping them around the legs of this gentleman, underneath his pants.[15][16]
A second artist from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper was also in attendance,[17] and Harper's Weekly employed a local artist and nephew of Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Hunter, Porte Crayon (David Hunter Strother);[18][19] one of his drawings is in the Gallery, below. Leslie informed his readers that "one of our imitators" was publishing bogus pictures. He described how his paper had engravers and artists standing by in a New York hotel, and once a sketch had arrived from Charles Town, 16 artists worked simultaneously at transforming it (split into 16 segments) into an illustration ready to be printed.[20] The illustrations were so widely distributed that Yale Literary Magazine made fun of them, publishing the drawings of "our own artist on the spot" of "Governor Wise's shoes", "John Brown's watch", and the like.[21]
Significance of the trial[]
Considering its aftermath, it was arguably the most important criminal trial in the history of the country, for it was closely related to the war that quickly followed. The conduct of John Brown during his incarceration and trial was so strong and unwavering that slavery went on trial rather than slavery's captive.[22]
According to Brian McGinty, the "Brown of history" was thus born in his trial. Had Brown died before his trial, he would have been "condemned as a madman and relegated to a footnote of history". Robert McGlone added that "the trial did magnify and exalt his image. But Brown's own efforts to fashion his ultimate public persona began long before the raid and culminated only in the weeks that followed his dramatic speech at his sentencing."[3] After his arrest, Brown engaged in extensive correspondence, readily available online today. After the conviction and sentencing, the judge permitted him to have visitors, and in his final month alive—Virginia law required that a month elapse between sentencing and execution—he gave interviews to reporters or anyone else who wanted to talk to him. All of this was facilitated by the "just and humane" jailor of Jefferson County, Captain John Avis, who "does all for his prisoners that his duty allows him to", and had a "sincere respect" for Brown.[23]: 206 His "humane treatment of Brown called forth the most severe criticisms from the Virginians."[24]: 329 Brown's last meal, and the last time he saw his wife, was with the jailer's family, in their apartment at the jail.
The trial[]
Jurisdiction[]
This was the first criminal case in the United States where there was a question of whether federal courts or state courts had jurisdiction.[25]
The Secretary of War, after a lengthy meeting with President Buchanan, telegraphed Lee that the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Robert Ould, was being sent to take charge of the prisoners and bring them to justice.[26] However, Governor Wise quickly appeared in person.
President Buchanan was indifferent to where Brown and his men were tried;[3]: 293 Ould, in his brief report, did not call for federal prosecutions, as the only relevant crimes were those few that took place within the Armory.[27] "Virginia Governor Henry Wise, on the other hand, was 'adamant' that the insurgents pay for their crimes through his state's local judicial system,"[3]: 292 "claiming" the prisoners "to be dealt with according to the laws of Virginia".[28][29] As he put it, after claiming that he remained at Harper's Ferry to prevent the suspects from being lynched,[30] he "had made up his mind fully, and after determining that the prisoners should be tried in Virginia, he would not have obeyed an order to the contrary from the President of the United States."[31]
In short, Brown and his men did not face federal charges. There were no federal court facilities nearby, and transporting the injured Brown and the other defendants to a federal courthouse—Staunton, Virginia, was mentioned[32][33][34]—and maintaining them there would have been difficult and expensive. Because of Senator Mason's resolution setting up a "select committee" to investigate the events at Harpers Ferry, there was no need of a federal venue in order to summon witnesses from other states.[33] Murder was not a federal crime, and a federal indictment for treason or fomenting slave insurrection would have caused a political crisis (because so many abolitionists would have denounced it). Under Virginia law, fomenting a slave insurrection was clearly and unequivocally a crime. And the defendants could be tried where they were, in Charles Town.
The trial, then, took place in the county courthouse in Charles Town, not to be confused with today's capital, Charleston, West Virginia. Charles Town is the county seat of Jefferson County, about 7 miles (11 km) west of Harpers Ferry. The judge was Richard Parker, of Winchester.
Military presence in Harpers Ferry[]
Between Brown's arrest and his execution, Charles Town was filled with armed forces, both federal and state (militia).[23]: 295 "The Governor [kept] the state troops constantly on guard. so that from the time Brown and his men were put in jail until after his execution, Charlestown [sic] had much the appearance of a military camp."[35]: 9 The state was spending almost a thousand dollars a day (equivalent to $28,804 in 2020) on military guards and other items,[36]: 13 and after the episode was over the Virginia legislature appropriated $100,000 (equivalent to $2,880,370 in 2020) to cover these expenditures.[37]
Charles Town was described thus by a reporter there at the time:
The village, turn where you will, presents every appearance of a besieged town, what with cannon in the streets, troops marching and parading, sentries pacing to and fro, orderlies hurrying hither and thither, public buildings, offices, chuches, and private houses turned into barracks, and around them all the cooking, cleaning of accoutrements, and the thousand other accessories of soldiers' quarters.[38]
Coordinating local security activities, including keeping non-residents without legitimate business in the city away, was Andrew Hunter, personal attorney of Governor Wise, and the most distinguished attorney in Jefferson County.[39] The main goal was to prevent an armed rescue of Brown, despite the fact that Brown said repeatedly that he did not want to be rescued.[35]: 8–9 According to Hunter in his memoirs, another reason for the heavy military presence, for which Wise was criticized, is that both Wise and Hunter were concerned that a larger battle could take place, beginning the Civil War in Virginia in 1859:
[B]efore the trials were over, both he and I became convinced that the Brown raid was the beginning of a great conflict between the North and the South on the subject of slavery. This furnishes an additional explanation of the reason Gov. Wise assembled so large a military volunteer force at Charlestown and at the neighboring points. It was not alone for the protection of the jail and the repelling of parties who were known to be organizing with the view of rescuing Brown and the prisoners, but it was for the purpose of preparing for coming events.[40]
Even Hunter's office was put to military use:
It is a novel sight, however, to observe the lawyers' offices, as well as the public buildings, turned into barracks and guard-rooms, and the floors covered with straw for bedding, knapsacks, baggage, &c., of the soldiers. The outer office of Andrew Hunter, Esq., adjoining the courthouse, is used as a kitchen for certain companies. A huge cooking stove, rounds of beef resting against well-filled shelves of law books, cooks actively engaged &c., imparted to his office entrance quite a singular appearance.[41]
Grand jury[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Cannon_outside_the_Charles_Town_courthouse_during_John_Brown%27s_trial.jpg/220px-Cannon_outside_the_Charles_Town_courthouse_during_John_Brown%27s_trial.jpg)
Brown faced a grand jury on Tuesday, October 25, 1859, just eight days after his capture in the armory. Brown was brought into court "accompanied by a body of armed men. Cannon were stationed in front of the court house [see illustration], and an armed guard were [sic] patrolling round the jail."[23]: 301
The grand jury was also considering the other prisoners to be tried with Brown: Aaron Stephens, Edwin Coppie, Shields Green, and John Copeland. The courtroom was so crowded with spectators, all white since Blacks were not admitted,[42] that there was not even standing room.[35]: 9 At 5 PM the grand jury reported they had not yet finished questioning of witnesses, and the hearing was adjourned until the next day. On October 26 the grand jury returned a true bill of indictment against Brown and the other defendants, charging them with:
- Conspiring with slaves to produce insurrection,
- Treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, and
- Murder.[23]: 298 [43]
Also on the 26th, M. Johnson, the United States Marshall from Cleveland, Ohio, arrived and identified Copeland as a fugitive from justice in Ohio.[44]
Counsel[]
The next question was what legal counsel Brown was to have. The Court assigned two "Virginians and pro-slavery men", John Faulkner and Lawson Botts, as counsel for him and the other accused. Brown did not accept them; he told the judge that he had sent for counsel, "who have not had time to reach here".[23]: 293
I did not ask for any quarter at the time I was taken. I did not ask to have my life spared. The Governor of the State of Virginia tendered me his assurance that I should have a fair trial, but under no circumstances whatever will I be able to attend to a trial. If you seek my blood, you can have it at any moment without the mockery of a trial. I have had no counsel. I have not been able to advise with any one. I know nothing about the feelings of my fellow-prisoners, and am utterly unable to attend in any way to my own defence. My memory don't serve me. My health is insufficient although improving. There are mitigating circumstances, if a fair trial is to be allowed us, that I would urge in our favor, but if we are to be forced, with the mere form of a trial[,] to execution, you might spare yourselves that trouble. I am ready for my fate. I do not ask a trial. I beg for no mockery of a trial—so insult nothing but that which conscience gives or cowardice would drive you to practice. I ask to be excused from the mockery of a trial. I do not know what the design of this examination is[.] I do not know what is to be the benefit of it to the Commonwealth? I have now little to ask other than that I be not foolishly insulted[,] as the cowardly barbarous insult, those who fall into their power.[45][46]
Brown asked for "a delay of two or three days" for his counsel to arrive.[23]: 302 The judge turned down Brown's request: "the expectation of other counsel...did not constitute a sufficient cause for delay, as there was no certainty about their coming. ...The brief period remaining before the close of the term of the Court rendered it necessary to proceed as expeditiously as practicable, and to be cautious about granting delays."[23]: 303
Brown asked for "a very short delay" so that he could recover his hearing:
I do not intend to detain the court, but barely wish to say, as I have been promised a fair trial, that I am not now In circumstances that enable me to attend a trial, owing to the state of my health. I have a severe wound in the back, or rather in one kidney, which enfeebles me very much. But I am doing well, and I only ask for a very short delay of my trial, and I think that I may be able to listen to it; and I merely ask this that, as the saying is, "the devil may have his dues," no more. I wish to say further that my hearing is impaired and rendered indistinct in consequence of wounds I have about my head. I cannot hear distinctly at all; I could not hear what the Court has said this morning. I would be glad to hear what is said on my trial, and I am now doing better than I could expect to be under the circumstances. A very short delay would be all I would ask. I do not presume to ask more than a very short delay, so that I may in some degree recover, and be able at least to listen to my trial, and hear what questions are asked of the citizens, and what their answers are. If that could be allowed me, I should be very much obliged.[47]
Prosecuting attorney Hunter said that delay would be dangerous; there was "exceeding pressure on the resources of the community". He asked that Brown's body be examined by a doctor, who did not find that Brown's health required delay.[47]
The judge's refusal to postpone the trial even one day to allow Brown's counsel to arrive, or when it did arrive, to allow it to read the indictment and the testimony given so far (see below), and that Brown was being tried when he was too wounded to stand, much less "attend to his own defense", or follow what was being said, contributed to Brown's transformation into a martyr.[48]
The remainder of October 26 was used to choose jurors. Also on the 26th, abolitionist Lydia Maria Child sent Wise a letter to deliver to Brown, and asked to be permitted to nurse him.[49] Wise responded that she was free to go to Charles Town, that he had forwarded her letter there, but only the court could allow her access.[50][51][52]: 24–25 Child's letter did reach Brown, who replied that he was recovering and did not need nursing. (In fact he didn't want nursing; it felt unmanly and made him uncomfortable.) He suggested instead that she raise funds for the support of his wife and the wives and children of his dead sons.[53] Child sold her piano to raise funds for Brown's family.[54] After publishing it in newspapers, where it was widely read, she also published, to raise money, her correspondence with and relating to Brown.[55] It sold over 300,000 copies,[48]: 58 and contributed to the sanctification of Brown.
The trial proper[]
On Thursday, October 27, the trial proper began. Brown stated that he did not wish to use an insanity defense, as had been proposed by relatives and friends.[23]: 309 [35]: 12 [56]: 350–351 A court-appointed lawyer said that a Virginia court could only try Brown for acts committed in Virginia, not in Maryland or on federal property (the arsenal). State counsel denied this was relevant.
Brown, having received by telegraph news from a lawyer in Ohio, asked for a delay of one day; this was denied. The state attorney said that Brown's real motive was "to give to his friends the time and opportunity to organize a rescue."[23]: 310
On Friday, October 28, George Henry Hoyt, a young but prominent Boston lawyer, arrived as counsel.[23]: 317 One report says that Hoyt was a volunteer, but another that Hoyt was hired to defend Brown by , one of the abolitionists who had given money to Brown in the past.
On that day Brown was described as "walking feebly" from the jail to the courthouse, where he lay down on the cot.[57]
Prosecution[]
The prosecuting attorney for Jefferson County was Charles R. Harding, "whose daily occupations [drinking] are not of the nature to fit for the management of an important case". He was not on the same level as the defense attorneys. He agreed, unhappily, to be replaced for these cases, as Wise wanted, by Wise's personal attorney, Andrew Hunter.[58] A Northern newspaper described Hunter as a "furious advocate of slavery".[59]
The prosecuting attorney, then, was Hunter, whose office was in Charles Town, despite the fact that in writing he referred to himself as the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. He wrote the indictment.
The central prosecution witness in the trial was Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, who had been kidnapped out of his home and held hostage near the Federal Armory. His slaves were militarily "impressed" (conscripted) by Brown, but they took no active part in the insurrection, he said. Other local witnesses testified to the seizure of the federal armory, the appearance of Virginia militia groups, and shootings on the railroad bridge. Other evidence described the U.S. Marines' raid on the fire engine house where Brown and his men were barricaded. U.S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee and cavalry officer J. E. B. Stuart led the Marine raid, and it freed the hostages and ended the standoff. Lee did not appear at the trial to testify, but instead filed an affidavit to the court with his account of the Marines' raid.
The manuscript evidence was of particular interest to the judge and jury. Many documents were found on the Maryland farm rented by John Brown under the alias Isaac Smith. These included hundreds of undistributed copies of a previously unknown Provisional Constitution for an anti-slavery government. These documents clinched the treason and pre-meditated murder charges against Brown.
The prosecution concluded its examination of witnesses. The defense called witnesses, but they did not appear as subpoenas had not been served on them. Mr. Hoyt said that other counsel for Brown would arrive that evening. Both court-appointed attorneys then resigned, and the trial was adjourned until the next day.[23]: 323
Defense[]
The trial resumed on Saturday, October 29. A lawyer, Samuel Chilton, arrived from Washington, and asked for a few hours to read the indictment and the testimony so far given; this was denied.[23]: 325–326 The defense called six witnesses.[23]: 326–328
The defense claimed that the Harpers Ferry Federal Armory was not on Virginia property, but since the murdered townspeople had died in the streets outside the perimeter of the Federal facility, this carried little weight with the jury. John Brown's lack of official citizenship in Virginia was presented as a defense against treason against the State. Judge Parker dispatched this claim by reference to "rights and responsibilities" and the overlapping citizenship requirements between the Federal union and the various states. John Brown, an American citizen, could be found guilty of treason against Virginia on the basis of his temporary residence there during the days of the insurrection.
Three other substantive defense tactics failed. One claimed that since the insurrection was aimed at the U.S. government it could not be proved treason against Virginia. Since Brown and his men had fired upon Virginia troops and police, this point was mooted. His lawyers also said that since no slaves had joined the insurrection, the charge of leading a slave insurrection should be thrown out. The jury apparently did not favor this claim, either.
Extenuating circumstances were claimed by the defense when they stressed that Colonel Washington and the other hostages were not harmed and were in fact protected by Brown during the siege. This claim was not persuasive as Colonel Washington testified that he had seen men die of gunshot wounds and had been confined for days.
A dissenting news story reported Washington having testified on the 28th:
The evidence on Friday. proving that Brown had treated his prisoners kindly, and had exercised great forbearance towards the citizens, forbidding his men to fire upon [illegible] unarmed, or into houses where women and children might be sheltered, had greatly mollified the public resentment. People began to think he was not such a terrible monster after all, and some expressions of pity for his condition were even heard; but when, upon finding that his witnesses were absent, Brown rose and denounced his counsel, declaring he had no confidence in them, the indignation of the citizens scarcely knew bounds.[60]
The final plea by the defense team for mercy concerned the circumstances surrounding the death of two of John Brown's men, who were apparently fired upon and killed by the Virginia militia while under a flag of truce. The armed community surrounding the Federal Arsenal did not hold their fire when Brown's men emerged to parley. This incident is noticeable upon a close reading of the published testimony, but is generally neglected in more popular accounts. If the rebels under a flag of truce were deliberately fired upon, it does not appear to have been a major issue to the judge and jury.
The defense's closing argument was given by , a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, who arrived on October 31. Griswold was well-known as an abolitionist; he had helped fugitive slaves, and was representing Brown pro bono. In contrast, Chilton was no abolitionist, and only became involved after supporters of Brown promised to pay a very high fee, $1,000 (equivalent to $28,804 in 2020).[61]: 1791
Brown, while making various suggestions to his attorneys, was frustrated because under Virginia law, defendants were not allowed to testify, the assumption being that they had reason not to tell the truth.[61]: 1792
Verdict[]
The prosecution began its closing argument on Friday, concluding on Monday, October 31.[23]: 333 The jury retired to consider its verdict.[23]: 334–336
The jury deliberated for only 45 minutes. When it returned, according to the report in the New York Herald, "the only calm and unruffled countenance there" was that of Brown. When the jury reported that it found him guilty of all charges, "not the slightest sound was heard in the vast crowd".[62]
One of Brown's attorneys made "a motion for an arrest of judgment", but it was not argued. "Counsel on both sides being too much exhausted to go on, the motion was ordered to stand over until tomorrow, and Brown was again removed unsentenced to prison" (actually to the Jefferson County jail).[62]
Speech to the court and sentence[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/John_Brown%27s_Trial_at_Charlestown%2C_Va.jpg/220px-John_Brown%27s_Trial_at_Charlestown%2C_Va.jpg)
Brown's sentencing took place on November 2, 1859. As Virginia court procedure required, Brown was first asked to stand and say if there was reason sentence should not be passed upon him. He arose—he could now stand unassisted—and made what his first biographer called "[his] last speech".[23]: 340 He said his only goal was to free slaves, not start a revolt, that it was God's work, that if he had been helping the rich instead of the poor he would not be in court, and that the criminal trial had been more fair than he expected. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, this speech's only equal in American oratory is the Gettysburg Address.[64][52]: 36 "His own speeches to the court have interested the nation in him," said Emerson.[65] It was reproduced in full in at least 52 American newspapers, making the front page of the New York Times, the Richmond Dispatch, and several other papers.[66] Wm. Lloyd Garrison printed it on a broadside and had it for sale in The Liberator's office (reproduced in Gallery, below).
After Brown completed his speech, the entire courtroom sat in silence. According to one journalist news source: "The only demonstration made was by the clapping of the hands [applauding] of one man in the crowd, who is not a resident of Jefferson County. This was promptly suppressed, and much regret is expressed by the citzens at its occurrence."[67] The judge then sentenced Brown to death by hanging, to take place in a month, on December 2.[23]: 340–342 Brown received his death sentence with composure.
November 2–December 2[]
Under Virginia law a month had to separate the sentence of death and its execution. Governor Wise resisted pressures to move up Brown's execution because, he said, he did not want anyone saying that Brown's rights had not been fully respected. The delay meant that the issue grew further; Brown's raid, trial, visitors, correspondence, upcoming execution, and Wise's role in making it happen were reported on constantly in newspapers, both local and national.[68]
An appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals (a petition for a Writ of Error) was not successful.[69][70][71]: 248
Expulsion of Brown's lawyers[]
After Brown's sentencing on November 2, a Wednesday, the Court proceeded with the trials of Shields Green, John Copeland Jr., , and Edwin Coppock. After conviction they were sentenced to death on Thursday, November 10. The Court session ended Friday, November 11.
On Saturday, November 12, the mayor of Charles Town, Thomas C. Green, issued a proclamation, presumably written by Hunter, telling "strangers" to leave the town or they would be subject to arrest.[72] Delegations called on both Hoyt and Sennott to warn them of violence if they did not leave; the mayor said he had no force with which to resist the lynch mob expected to assemble the next day, Sunday.[73][74] "The people of Charlestown...are wholly given up to hatred of all Northern visitors."[72] Sennott refused, but Hoyt left the same day, together with Mr. Jewett, an artist from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, suspected to have also been the undercover New-York Tribune reporter.
The question of clemency[]
Many things that Governor Wise did augmented rather than reduced tensions: by insisting he be tried in Virginia, and by turning Charles Town into an armed camp, full of state militia units. "At every juncture he chose to escalate rather than pacify sectional animosity."[52]: 27
Wise received many communications—one source says "thousands",[71]: 250 and the Virginia General Assembly's joint committee inspected "near 500"[75]—urging him to mitigate Brown's sentence. For example, New York City Mayor Fernando Wood, who would seriously propose that New York City secede from the Union so as to continue the cotton trade with the Confederacy, and who strongly opposed the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery, wrote Wise on November 2. He advocated sending Brown to prison instead of executing him, saying that it was in the South's interest to do so; it would benefit the South more to behave magnanimously toward a fanatic, with whom there was sympathy, than to execute him.[76]
Wise replied that in his view Brown should be hung, and he regretted not having gotten to Harpers Ferry fast enough to declare martial law and execute the rebels through court-martial. Brown's trial was fair and "it was impossible not to convict him." As Governor, he had nothing to do with Brown's death sentence; he did not have to sign a death warrant. His only possible involvement was from his power to pardon, and he had received "petitions, prayers, threats from almost every Free State in the Union," warning that Brown's execution would turn him into a martyr. But Wise stated that as Governor he did not have authority to pardon a traitor, only the House of Burgesses could. For the other charges, Wise believed that it would not be wise to "spare a murderer, a robber, a traitor," because of "public sentiment elsewhere". He also refused to declare Brown insane, which would have spared his life and put him in a mental hospital; Brown's supporter Gerrit Smith was forced to do that.[77] Public sentiment in Virginia clearly wanted Brown executed. Wise was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate,[71]: 206 and a pardon or reprieve could have ended his political career. The Richmond Enquirer, backing Wise as a presidential candidate on November 10, said that because of Wise's handling of "the Harper's Ferry affair" his "stock has gone up one hundred percent".[78]
Plans for a rescue[]
After a number of other reports of rescue plans from various surrounding states,[79] Hunter received on November 19 a telegraphic dispatch from "United States Marshal Johnson of Ohio," and Governor Wise one from the Governor of Ohio, stating that a large number of men, from 600 to 1,000, were arming under the leadership of John Brown, Jr., to attempt to retake the prisoners.[80] After Hunter informed Governor Wise, and Wise telegraphed President Buchanan,[81] Buchanan sent two companies of artillery from Fort Monroe to Harpers Ferry.[82] Wise sent "detectives" to Harpers Ferry, charging Hunter to use them to investigate rescue efforts from Ohio. "I sent one to Oberlin, who joined the party there, slept one night in the same bed as John Brown, Jr., and reported to me their doings out and out," said Hunter. Hunter had "troops" moved to block entry from Ohio into Virginia. Nothing significant came of any of these rescue plans.[48]: 44, 62 n. 18
Brown's extensive correspondence[]
During the month between his conviction and the day of his execution, Brown wrote over 100 letters, in which he described his vision for a post-slavery America in eloquent and spiritual terms. Most of them, and a few letters to him, were immediately collected and published.[83][23]: 344–372 [84] Many appeared in newspapers. They were hugely influential in accelerating the abolition movement and putting slaveholders on the defensive.[85]
He had previously been prevented by the Court from "making a full statement of his motives and intentions through the press", as he desired; the Court had "refused all access to reporters".[23]: 295 Now that he had been convicted and sentenced, there were no more restrictions on visitors, and Brown, relishing the publicity his anti-slavery views received, talked to reporters or anyone else that wanted to see him.
He states that he welcomes every one, and that he is preaching, even in jail, with great effect, upon the enormities of slavery.[23]: 374
"I have...had a great many rare opportunities for 'preaching righteousness in the great congregation'" [Psalms 40.9].[86] He wrote to his wife that he had received so many "kind and encouraging letters" that he could not possibly reply to them all.[87] "I do not think that I ever enjoyed life better than since my confinement here," he wrote on November 24.[88]: 600 "I certainly think I was never more cheerful in my life."[52]: 18 "My mind is very tranquil, I may say joyous."[89]
On November 28, Brown wrote the following to an Ohio friend, Daniel R. Tilden:
I have enjoyed remarkable cheerfulness and composure of mind since my confinement; and it is a great comfort to feel assured that I am permitted to die (for a cause)[,] not merely to pay the debt of nature (as all must). I feel myself to be most unworthy of so great distinction. The particular matter of dying assigned to me, gives me but very little uneasyness. I wish I had the time and the ability to give you (my dear friend) some little idea of what is daily and I might almost say hourly, passing within my prison walls; and could my friends but witness only a few of those scenes just as they occur, I think they would feel very well reconciled to my being here just what I am and just as I am. My whole life before had not afforded me one-half the opportunity to plead for the right. In this also I find much to reconcile me to both my present condition and my immediate prospect. I may be very insane (and I am so, if insane at all). But if that be so, insanity is like a very pleasant dream to me. I am not in the least degree conscious of my ravings; of my fears; or of any terrible visions whatever; but fancy myself entirely composed; and that my sleep, in particular, is as sweet as that of a healthy, joyous little infant. I pray God that he will grant me a continuance of the same calm, but delightful, dream, until I come to know of those realities which “eyes have not seen, and which ears have not heard” (1 Corinthians 2:9). I have scarce realized that I am in prison, or in irons, at all. I certainly think I was never more cheerful in my life.[90]
Contemporary assessments[]
Northerners commemorated the trial and coming execution with public prayers, church services, marches, and meetings.[48]: 45 By December 2, "the entire nation" was fixated on Brown.[91]
The New York Independent said the following of him during this month:
The brave old man who lies in prison at Charlestown, Virginia, awaiting the day of his execution, is teaching this nation lessons of heroism, faith and duty, which will awaken its sluggish moral sense, and the almost forgotten memories of the heroes of the Revolution.[92]
In contrast, the Richmond Dispatch called him a "scoundrel", adding that he was "a cold-blooded, midnight murderer, with not a particle of humanity or generosity belonging to his character." "The recent events at Harper's Ferry have very much roused the military spirit among us."[93]
Visit from Henry Clay Pate[]
His visitors included his pro-slavery enemy from Kansas Henry Clay Pate, who came 175 miles (282 km) from his home in Petersburg to Charles Town to see Brown.[94] They prepared a statement, witnessed by Capt. John Avis and two others, about events at the Battle of Black Jack.[95]: 30–31, 37–39
His will[]
On December 1, in the presence of his wife, at his request Judge Andrew Hunter wrote Brown's will, witnessed by Hunter and the jailor Captain John Avis.[96][68][88]: 617 He distributed his few possessions—his surveyor's tools, his silver watch, the family Bible—to his surviving children. Bibles were to be purchased for each of his children and grandchildren.[97]: 108 [23]: 367–368
In his correspondence Brown mentioned several times how well he was treated by Avis, who was also in charge of Brown's execution and the one who put the noose around his neck.[88]: 622 Avis was described by a visitor to the jail as Brown's friend.[98] Brown's wife had arrived on November 30,[99]: 549 and the couple had their last dinner with Avis's family in their apartment at the jail. That is where they last saw each other.[9][10][11][12][13] According to Andrew Hunter,
The only time that I witnessed any exhibition of temper on the part of Brown was in the interview we had about Mrs. Brown. Gen. Talliaferro told me that his instructions were to send her back [to Harpers Ferry] that night. He showed a good deal of temper, as he wanted her to remain all night. It was determined otherwise, and when I explained to Brown fully the reason of it, he again acquiesced and took leave of her after she had eaten her supper with the family of the jailer, Avis. She was treated throughout with the most marked respect.[40]
Brown's last words[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/T-john-brown-last-prophecy.jpg/220px-T-john-brown-last-prophecy.jpg)
Brown was well read and knew that the last words of prominent people are often given special attention.[100] Just before his execution he wrote his final words on a piece of paper and gave it to his kind jailor, Avis, who conserved it as a treasure:
Charlestown, Va. 2nd December, 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.
"Without very much bloodshed" is an allusion to his own failed project to free the slaves. But this was vanity and self-flattery.
This document was reproduced and made available as a souvenir when John Brown's Fort was exhibited in Chicago, in 1893.[101][102]
He gave a similar, even stronger form of the same statement to jailer Hiram O'Bannon:
I am now convinced that the great iniquity which hangs over this country cannot be purged without immense bloodshed. When I first came to this State I thought differently, but am now convinced that I was mistaken.[61]
Execution[]
Brown was the first person executed for treason in the history of the United States. He was hanged on December 2, 1859, at about 11:15 AM,[103] in a vacant field several blocks away from the Jefferson County jail.
There is everywhere discernable here a vague dread of some fearful expression of sympathy with Brown on the fateful Friday.[104]
[I]t is strange and sad, assuredly, that in one State of the American Union, it should be found necessary to surround with a guard of five thousand soldiers, the scaffold of a condemned man, in honor of whom, in other States of the same Union, the bells of churches will be tolling, and the voices of Christian congregations lifted in prayer, at the same hour of his death.[105]
Spectators[]
About 2,000 "excursionists" intended to attend the execution, but the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad refused to transport them, and Governor Wise shut down the Winchester and Potomac Railroad for other than military use.[106] Threatening to invoke martial law, Wise asked all citizens to remain at home,[104] as did the mayor of Charles Town (see below). A prospective visitor from northwestern Pennsylvania, where Brown had lived for 11 years, was told in Philadelphia not to proceed, as martial law had in fact been declared in "the country around Charlestown".[106] Thomas Jackson (the future Stonewall Jackson) was present, as was Robert E. Lee and 2,000 Federal troops and Virginia militia.[107] Militia had been stationed in Charles Town continuously from the arrest until the execution, to prevent a much-feared armed rescue of Brown.[108][35]: 24 [109]
Military orders for the day of execution had 14 points.[110]
As further protection, "a field-piece loaded with grape and canister had been planted directly in front of and aimed at the scaffold, so as to blow poor Brown's body to smithereens in the event of attempted rescue."[111] "The outer line of military will be nearly a mile (1.4 km) from the scaffold, and the inner line so distant that not a word John Brown may speak can be heard."[107]
Gov. Wise...gives as the reason for this exclusion of all save the military, that in the event of an attempted rescue an order to fire upon the prisoner will be given, and that those within the line, especially those sufficiently near the gallows to hear what Brown may say, would inevitably share his fate.[107]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Soldiers_from_Richmond_Grays_at_execution_of_abolitionist_John_Brown_in_Charles_Town%2C_West_Virginia_LCCN2016650150.jpg/220px-Soldiers_from_Richmond_Grays_at_execution_of_abolitionist_John_Brown_in_Charles_Town%2C_West_Virginia_LCCN2016650150.jpg)
Among the spectators were the poet Walt Whitman[112] and the actor John Wilkes Booth, the latter of whom was such a white supremacist that in five years he would assassinate President Lincoln, after Lincoln supported giving Blacks the vote, which Booth called "nigger citizenship". He had read in a newspaper about the upcoming execution of Brown, whom he called "the grandest character of this century."[52]: 185 n. 40 He was so interested in seeing it that he abandoned rehearsals at the Richmond Theater and travelled to Charles Town specifically for this purpose. So as to gain access that the public would not have, he donned for one day a borrowed uniform of the Richmond Grays,[52]: 30 a volunteer militia of 1,500 men traveling to Charles Town for Brown's hanging, to guard against a possible attempt to rescue Brown from the gallows by force.[113] When the four collaborators arrested and convicted with Brown were hung two weeks later, on December 16, there were no restrictions, and 1,600 spectators came to Charles Town "to witness the last act of the Harpers Ferry tragedy".[114]
The gallows[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Thomas_Hovenden_-_The_Last_Moments_of_John_Brown_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/220px-Thomas_Hovenden_-_The_Last_Moments_of_John_Brown_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/John_Brown%27s_scaffold.jpg/220px-John_Brown%27s_scaffold.jpg)
According to legend, Brown kissed a black baby when leaving the jail en route to the gallows. Several men who were present specifically deny it. For example, Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Hunter: "That whole story about his kissing a negro child as he went out of the jail is utterly and absolutely false from beginning to end. Nothing of the kind occurred—nothing of the sort could have occurred. He was surrounded by soldiers and no negro could get access to him."[39]: 174 [115]: 446 [116]
On the short trip from the jail to the gallows, during which he sat on his coffin in a furniture wagon,[117] Brown was protected on both sides by lines of troops, to prevent an armed rescue. As Governor Wise did not want Brown making another speech, after leaving the jail and on the gallows, spectators and reporters were kept far enough away that Brown could not have been heard.[52]: 30
On his way to the gallows he remarked to the Sheriff on the beauty of the country and the excellence of the soil. "This is the first time I have had the pleasure of seeing it."[61] He asked the Sheriff and Avis not to make him wait. He "walked to the scaffold as coolly as if going to dinner", according to Hunter.[118]
Ten doctors, one after another, all checked his pulse after the hanging, to be sure he was dead. The rope, specially made for the execution out of South Carolina cotton,[107] was cut up into pieces and distributed "to those that were anxious to have it". Others took pieces of the gallows, or a lock of his hair.[61]
The gallows were built into the porch of a house under construction in Charles Town "to hide them from the Yankees". Twenty-five years later, "a syndicate of relic hunters" purchased them from the house owner.[119][120] They were shown at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.[121]
John Brown's body[]
Governor Wise had John's body released to his widow Mary, who was awaiting it in Harpers Ferry. She and supporters traveled, via Philadelphia, Troy, New York, and Rutland, Vermont, to the John Brown's Farm, in North Elba, New York, near the modern village of Lake Placid. The funeral and burial took place there on December 8, 1859. Rev. Joshua Young presided.
Aftermath[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Broadside_protesting_John_Brown%27s_execution.jpg/220px-Broadside_protesting_John_Brown%27s_execution.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Poster_calling_for_anti-slavery_meeting_in_Lawrence%2C_Kansas.jpg/220px-Poster_calling_for_anti-slavery_meeting_in_Lawrence%2C_Kansas.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Martyrdom_of_John_Brown.jpg/220px-Martyrdom_of_John_Brown.jpg)
"In the minds of Southerners, Brown was the greatest threat to slavery the South had ever witnessed."[122] His execution on December 2 was what most white Southerners wanted, but it gave them little relief from their panic. "The South was visibly beside itself with rage and terror."[123] According to Dennis Frye, formerly the chief historian at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, "this was the South's Pearl Harbor, its ground zero".[124] Northern-inspired revolt of their allegedly happy enslaved was the South's worst nightmare, and it was taken for granted that others would soon follow in Brown's footsteps.
In the North the result was the opposite. "We shall be a thousand times more Anti-Slavery than we ever dared to think of being before," proclaimed a Massachusetts newspaper.[124]
Meetings[]
Across the North, the day Brown was hanged was treated as a day of national calamity: bells were rung, meetings held, speeches and sermons given, the flag flown at half-mast.[125]: 1 "'The times that tried men's souls' have come again."[125]: 3 "Martyr Services, as they were called, were held in many Northern localities."[36]: 17 Huge prayer meetings were held in Concord, New Bedford, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, and many other cities. Churches and temples were full of mourners. The chapel of Yale College was draped in mourning.[33] In New York City, "lectures, discourses, speeches and poems are delivered every night everywhere, by everybody, pro and con, on John Brown, on Osawatomie Brown, on Old Brown, on Captain Brown, and on The Hero of Harper's Ferry. ...Truly this old farmer has made such a stir as not all the statesmen, ...little giants, and professional agitators have been able to produce, and which they are much less able to quiet."[126]
In Boston, flags were at half-mast, and memorial services were held in the public schools.[127] A year later, however, an attempt by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, James Redpath, Franklin B. Sanborn, and Frederick Douglass to commemorate the execution in Tremont Hall could not take place because they were met with violence.[128]
In Albany, New York, Brown received a slow 100-gun salute.[129] In Syracuse, New York, City Hall was "densely packed" with citizens, who listened to over three hours of speeches and contributed "a large amount of money" to aid his family. The City Hall bell was rung 63 times, "the strokes corresponding with Brown's age".[130][103] (Brown was 59.) There was a large meeting in Rochester, New York.[131] In Philadelphia, December 2 was designated "Martyr Day".[132] National Hall had an overflow crowd of more than 4,000, listening to prayers by Rev. William Henry Furness and speeches by Lucretia Mott and Mary Green.[133][134] In Cleveland there was a crowd of 5,000;[135] the Melodeon was draped in mourning. Across a main street was a banner with the quote: "I do not think I can better honor the cause I love than to die for it". Some businesses closed; in Akron, court adjourned.[136][125]
In Montreal, there were "numerously attended" meetings on December 2, at which a collection for Brown's family was taken.[137] In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, there were three days of mourning, all flags were at half-mast, and houses and the cathedral were draped in black. They raised $2,240 (equivalent to $64,520 in 2020) to assist his widow Mary;[138] later they sent $1,600 to Mary and $200 each to Cook's and Leahy's widows, John Brown Jr., Owen Brown, and Osborne Anderson.[139] Avenue John Brown is the only major street anywhere in the world named for Brown. There is also an avenue named for abolitionist Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner.
In the United States, as of July 1860, $6,150 had been raised to help the Brown widows and others affected by the raid.[140]
In Boston, on December 8, former Massachusetts Governor Edward Everett addressed an anti-John Brown rally, that filled Faneuil Hall to capacity.[141][142]
Publications[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Broadside_of_John_Brown%27s_last_speech.jpg/220px-Broadside_of_John_Brown%27s_last_speech.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Advertisement_for_portrait_of_John_Brown.jpg/220px-Advertisement_for_portrait_of_John_Brown.jpg)
Newspapers and magazines had whole sections on the episode. A poster (broadside) was made of Brown's last speech (see left). As there was as yet no process to print a photograph, a lithographed [engraved] reproduction of his last photograph and his signature were offered for sale for $1, to benefit the Brown family.[143]
Pamphlets started to appear as soon as Brown was sentenced, before his execution.[144][145][146][147][148][149] There were more just after his execution.[83][125][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162] A pamphlet of John A. Andrew, Republican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, proudly states his connection with Brown, and his efforts for Brown's widow and children.[163][164] There were also anti-Brown pamphlets.[165]
In December two books on Brown (by De Witt and Pate) were published.[166][95] A third, by Thomas Drew, was copyrighted in December,[167] although it appeared in 1860; De Witt almost immediately issued a 2nd edition with additional material.[168]
Noticing with what eager desire everything relating to the affair was sought by all classes of people, and the especial interest that was manifested in every circumstance that related personally to "The Hero of Harper's Ferry," [Drew] has sought to combine in these pages every fact and incident relating to the event, which the friends and admirers of the man would wish to preserve, as mementoes of the simplicity of his character, the nobility of his purposes, the disinterestedness of his motives, the sublime heroism of his deeds, and the remarkable piety by which he was governed and sustained.[167]: Preface
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Seal_of_Virginia%2C_on_title_page_of_Redpath%27s_biography_of_John_Brown.jpg/220px-Seal_of_Virginia%2C_on_title_page_of_Redpath%27s_biography_of_John_Brown.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/John_Brown_on_his_way_to_his_execution.jpg/220px-John_Brown_on_his_way_to_his_execution.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/John_Brown_exhibiting_his_hangman_%2820380774421%29.jpg/220px-John_Brown_exhibiting_his_hangman_%2820380774421%29.jpg)
It is no coincidence that the preface of the fourth, by the family's preferred biographer, James Redpath, is dated December 25, 1859, as Brown was sometimes seen, and saw himself, as Christ, or Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery. On the title page it has a version of the seal of Virginia, with its motto, "Sic semper tyrannis" ('Thus always to tyrants'), exclamation point added. Virginia is now the tyrant, as explained on the day of Brown's execution by abolitionist Wendell Phillips, to whom, along with Thoreau and the young Emerson, Redpath's volume is dedicated:
It is a mistake to call him an insurrectionist. He opposed the authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Commonwealth of Virginia!—there is no such thing. There is no civil society, no government; nor can such exist except on the basis of impartial equal submission of its citizens—by a performance of the duty of rendering justice between God and man. The government that refuses this is none but a pirate ship. Virginia herself is to-day only a chronic insurrection. I mean exactly what I say—I consider well my words—and she is a pirate ship. John Brown sails with letters of marque from God and Justice against every pirate he meets. He has twice as much right to hang Governor Wise as Governor Wise has to hang him.[51]
There were advance orders of at least 20,000.[169][170] Total sales were over 36,000 copies.[23]
A 3-act play, Ossawatomie Brown; or, The Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, was first performed in New York at the Bowery Theater on December 16, 1859.[171][172] A Congressional inquest was held,[173] multiple reports from participants and observers were published. The internal telegrams of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad were published.[174] Posters were printed. The literature on Brown and his raid exceeds in quantity that on some American presidents.
According to the New York Independent,
A fissure has suddenly opened at the very foundation of the peculiar institution of the South [slavery], and has disclosed the fact that that institution rests upon a thin crust of lava, which at any moment may yawn asunder and give place to a devouring fire. It is not what John Brown has done or failed to do, but the fearful possibilities that his crazy emeute [commotion, disturbance] has opened to view, which have inspired the South with a terror of coming evil. Foolhardy as was Brown's exploit, regarded merely as a military invasion for the rescue of the oppressed, unjustifiable as it was upon the principles of Christian ethics, yet this singular devotion of an old man to the cause of human freedom, his heroic contempt of his own life, blending with a sacred regard for the lives and property of others, except where these should stand in the way of the deliverance of the oppressed[,] are gradually pervading the public mind with a tone of admiration even for a misguided philanthropy, and startling the South with the idea that a philanthropy which will peril life for its object, is more to be feared than despised.[175]
Subsequently he was eclipsed by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but from 1859 to 1865 he was the most famous American. Emblem for the North, as Wendell Phillips put it,[176] his self-sacrifice showed by example how important fighting the sin of slavery was. For the South, he was what he had been in pro-slavery Kansas: the devil stirring up the hornet's nest, a traitor to the Constitution, which allegedly protected chattel slavery, and a murderer.
Local retaliation by Blacks[]
The barns of all the members of the jury that convicted Brown were burned by slaves. On December 2, 1859, the day of his hanging, "the farm of a ruthless slaveholder killed at Harper's Ferry was burned, and his livestock poisoned by slaves."[177] "Fires were being lighted up all over the county and bams burned, until night after night and sometimes in day there was a conflagration somewhere around Charlestown."[40][178] "Slaves in Maryland stopped a westbound train, carrying the rebellion into a different county, and five were arrested after trying to organize a horse-and-carriage 'stampede' to freedom." There was a "mass movement of self-liberation" among the slaves of Jefferson County.[177]: 275 Barns were burned in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and letters threatened further violence.[179]
Long-term results. The outbreak of the Civil War[]
"The execution of these prisoners is yet [1901] memorable in Virginia as one of the most impressive exhibitions ever given in the history of the State. It would have been eminently wise for the Virginia governor to have treated Brown and his followers as fanatical [insane] beyond full responsibility to the law, but the ostentatious exhibition of vengeance that came up from Virginia did much to deepen and widen the anti-slavery sentiment of the North. ...[H]e gave his life in such heroic devotion to his cause that the Northern people were impressed far beyond what they themselves had knowledge of."[76]
Reenactment[]
The trial was reenacted in 2019 by students from Shenandoah University. A version will be available at Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum, in Winchester, Virginia.[180]
Gallery[]
Interior of the engine house at the armory, just before the door is broken down. Note hostages on the left.
John Brown at his arraignment before a grand jury, drawing dated 1899
John Brown at his trial, unable to stand or sit
A warning to citizens of Jefferson County, Virginia, and vicinity to stay home and not attend John Brown's execution.
Broadside from mayor of Charles Town, Virginia, warning citizens to remain in their houses.
John Brown's last words, given to the jailor, who requested an autograph. From an albumen print; location of the original is unknown.
John Brown riding on his coffin to the place of execution.
John Brown on his way to the gallows. Note soldiers on each side of wagon transporting Brown, to prevent an armed rescue.
Brown ascending the scaffold preparatory to being hanged. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 17, 1859
John Brown hanging. Note spectators at lower right. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 10, 1859.
See also[]
- Abolitionism in the United States
- John Brown (abolitionist)
- John Brown's last speech
- John Brown's Provisional Constitution
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- John Brown's raiders
- Treatment of the enslaved in the United States
References[]
- ^ "Old John Brown. The Story of the Famous Raid at Harper's Ferry. A Foolhardy Attempt. It Was the Result of Thirty Years of Planning. No One Believed It Would Succeed. What Influence it Had Upon the Civil War That Soon Followed". Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). June 24, 1893. p. 7. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ WGBH (1998). "The raid on Harpers Ferry". Africans in America. PBS. Archived from the original on 2017-09-09. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
- ^ a b c d McGlone, Robert E. (June 2011). "Retrying John Brown: Was Virginia Justice "Fair"?". Reviews in American History. Vol. 3, no. 2. pp. 292–298. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2018-12-13 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ "The Insurrection in Virginia". New York Herald. October 24, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ John Brown's Interview in the Charlestown (or Charles Town) Prison, famous-trials.com, October 18, 1859, archived from the original on June 16, 2019, retrieved August 18, 2020
- ^ Our own reporter (19 October 1859). "The late rebellion". The Daily Exchange. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 1. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "News, rumors and gossip from Harper's Ferry. From our special reporter". New York Herald. November 1, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Executions at Charlestown. Scenes previous to the execution. The military display. Religious services in the cells. The attempted escape. Last interview of the conspirators. Scenes at the gallows. &c., &c., &c". Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). December 19, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021 – via .
- ^ a b "Visit of Mrs. Brown to her Husband". Boston Cultivator. December 10, 1859. p. 402.
- ^ a b "Mrs. Brown's visit to her husband". Burlington Free Press. Burlington, Vermont. December 12, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via newspapers.com. Reprinted from The Independent (New York City).
- ^ a b "The tragedy in Virginia. Arrival of Mrs. Brown". The Liberator. December 9, 1859. p. 195. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via newspapers.com. Reprinted from the New York Tribune
- ^ a b "Affecting interview with his wife". Mount Carmel Register (Mount Carmel, Illinois). December 9, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via newspapers.com. "Telegraphed expressly for the Cincinnati Gazette."
- ^ a b "Interview of Brown with his Wife in Jail". New York Herald. December 2, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via newspaperarchive.com.
- ^ John T[homas] Allstadt (December 1909). "John Brown's raid fifty years ago". The Magazine of History with notes and queries. 10 (6): 309–342, at p. 324.
- ^ Knight, Ellen (2020). The Sculptor & the Abolitionist. How Winchester’s Edward Brackett Created an Icon for the Abolitionist Movement. Town of Winchester, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 2021-07-14. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
- ^ Knight, Ellen (February 22, 2013), "Brackett secretly aids N.Y. Tribune", Woburn Daily Times (Woburn, Massachusetts), archived from the original on July 13, 2021, retrieved July 13, 2021
- ^ "Our Illustrations". Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. November 12, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via .
- ^ "John Brown's death". Mohave County Miner (Kingman, Arizona). July 14, 1888. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2021-02-09 – via Chronicling America.
- ^ Stutler, Boyd B. (February 1955). "An Eyewitness Describes The Hanging Of John Brown". American Heritage. 6 (2). Archived from the original on 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2021-01-24 – via Chronicling America.
- ^ "Caution—More Bogus Pictures". December 24, 1859 [December 17, 1859]: 1 – via .
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Editor's Table". Yale Literary Magazine. 25 (3): 230–238, at pp. 234–237. December 1859. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ^ Whitman, Karen (October 1972). "Re-evaluating John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry". . 34 (1): 46–84. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Redpath, James (1860). The Public Life of Captain John Brown, by James Redpath, with an auto-biography of his childhood and youth. Boston: Thayer & Eldridge.
- ^ Chapin, Lou V. (1899). "The Last Days of Old John Brown". Overland Monthly. Second series, 33: 322–332. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
- ^ "Latest by telegraph". Daily Exchange (Baltimore, Maryland). October 19, 1859 [October 18, 1859]. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Operation of state and national troops". Anti-Slavery Bugle (Lisbon, Ohio). October 29, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Harper's Ferry Insurrection—The thing in a nutshell". Fremont Weekly Journal (Fremont, Ohio). Also found in the November 1859 issue of Douglass' Monthly. October 28, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "Fourth Dispatch". Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). October 19, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Latest by telegraph". The Daily Exchange (Baltimore, Maryland). 19 October 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 29, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
- ^ McGlone, Robert E. (1995). "John Brown, Henry Wise, and the Politics of Insanity". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. pp. 213–252, at p. 222. ISBN 0813915368.
- ^ "Governor Wise and the Insurrection". The States and Union (Ashland, Ohio). October 26, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The trials in Virgibia". Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Massachusetts). 9 Nov 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "The Burial of John Brown. The passage of the body to North Elba. The funeral. Speeches of Mr. McKim and Mr. Phillips". New-York Tribune. (Most of this article appeared in The Liberator, December 16, 1859, p. 3). December 12, 1859. p. 6. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}
: External link in
(help)CS1 maint: others (link)|others=
- ^ "The Virginia Legislature". New York Daily Herald. 12 Dec 1859. p. 8. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e Caskie, George E. (1909). Trial of John Brown. Paper read by Hon. George E. Caskie, of Lynchburg before the Virginia State Bar Association, at Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Virginia, August 10th, 11th and 12th, 1909. Richmond, Virginia. Archived from the original on 2020-08-29. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
- ^ a b Leech, D.D., Rev. Samuel Vanderlip (1909). The Raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry as I Saw It. Washington, D.C.: The author. Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
- ^ "United States". Sheffield and Rotherham Independent (Sheffield, England). 11 Feb 1860. p. 3. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "John Brown's Invasion. Further interesting incidents of the execution". New-York Tribune. December 6, 1859. p. 6. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Hunter, Andrew (1897). "John Brown's Raid". Publications of the Southern History Association. 1 (3): 165–195.
- ^ a b c Hunter, Andrew (1897). "John Brown's Raid". Publications of the Southern History Association. 1 (3): 165–195, at p. 179.
- ^ "Letters from Charlestown". Baltimore Sun. December 6, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Life Struggles of an Ex-Slave. Civil War scenes recalled by Presley Dunwood. At trial of John Brown". Denver Star (Denver, Colorado). August 1, 1914. p. 7. Archived from the original on July 20, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Bill of Indictment found against the prisoners". New York Daily Herald. October 30, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The trial of Capt. Brown and others". New-York Daily Tribune. October 27, 1859. p. 5. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Harper's Ferry Trouble". Valley Spirit. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. November 2, 1859 [October 25, 1859]. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Trial of Brown". The Liberator. October 28, 1859 [October 25, 1859]. p. 3. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
- ^ a b "THE HARPER'S FERRY OUTBREAK.—Arraignment of Old Brown and His Companions on Charges of Conipiracy, Treason and Murder.—Brown Appeals for a Postponement of His Trial.—Examination of Witnesses as to Brown's Physical Condition.—ARREST OF THE FUGITIVE COOK.—Governor Parker surrenders Cook and Haslet [sic] to the Virginia Authorities.—IMPORTANT REVELATIONS OF COL, FORBES.—The Kansas Work of the Abolitionists Exposed. Senators Seward, Sumner, Hale, Wilson, Chase and Other Black Republicans Implicated in Old Brown's Plot.—How They Cheated Forbes and Swindled Each Other, &c., &c., &c". New York Daily Herald. October 27, 1859 [October 26, 1859]. p. 3. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Finkleman, Paul (1995). "Manufacturing Martyrdom. The anti-Slavery Response to John Brown's raid". In Finkleman, Paul (ed.). His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. pp. 41–66, at p. 43. ISBN 0813915368.
- ^ Child, L[dia] Maria (1905), "Letter from Mrs. Child to John Brown", in Zittle, Hanna Minnie Weaver (ed.), A correct history of the John Brown invasion at Harper's Ferry, West Va., Oct. 17, 1859. Compiled by the late Capt. John H. Zittle, of Shepherdstown, W. Va., Who was an Eye-Witness to many of the occurrences, and edited and published by his widow, Hagerstown, Maryland, pp. 116–117
- ^ Child, Lydia Maria; Wise, Henry A. (November 8, 1859). "Mrs. Child and the insurgent Brown". Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, Virginia). p. 1. Archived from the original on August 29, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
- ^ a b "Extraordinary address of Wendell Phillips on the insurrection". New York Daily Herald. November 2, 1859. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g Nudelman, Franny (2004). John Brown's body: slavery, violence & the culture of war. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807828831.
- ^ Brown, John (1897). Words of John Brown. Old South Leaflets, 84. Boston: Directors of the Old South Work. pp. 19–20. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- ^ "For Sale—John Brown". National Anti-Slavery Standard. January 7, 1860. p. 3. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020 – via accessiblearchives.com.
- ^ Child, Lydia Maria (1860). Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason of Virginia. Boston: American Anti-Slavery Society.
- ^ Reynolds, David S. (2005). John Brown, Abolitionist. The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. Vintage Books. ISBN 0375726152.
- ^ "The Harper's Ferry Invasion. Trial of John Brown". Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan). October 29, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Personal Portraits". Staunton Spectator. November 29, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ "Those that fought with John Brown at Harper's Ferry". Indianapolis Recorder. February 27, 1937. p. 9. Archived from the original on July 8, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
- ^ "News, Rumors and Gossip from Harper's Ferry [pt. 2]". New York Daily Herald. November 1, 1859. p. 10. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e "The Execution of Old John Brown. Full particulars of the prison and gallows scene. Old Brown's Will. He writes his own epitaph. Last interview with his wife and fellow-prisoners, &c. &c". Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois). December 5, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "The Harper's Ferry Tragedy. Conclusion of first day's proceedings". The Liberator. November 4, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on March 27, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
- ^ Essex County, New York, Courthouse History, archived from the original on July 22, 2021, retrieved July 22, 2021
- ^ Emerson, Ralph Waldo (April 19, 1865). "Remarks at the funeral services [for Abraham Lincoln] held in Concord, April 19, 1865". Centenary Edition. The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Vol. 11. Archived from the original on March 9, 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- ^ Emerson, R[alph] W[aldo] (December 3, 1859). "Speech of R. W. Emerson". Anti-Slavery Bugle (New Lisbon, Ohio). Archived from the original on 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-04-25 – via Chronicling America.
- ^ "The Trial at Charlestown". Richmond Dispatch. November 4, 1859. p. 1.
- ^ "Virginia Rebellion. John Brown Sentenced to Death. His Address to the Court and Jury. Edward Coppie Found Guilty". New York Times. November 3, 1859. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Hunter, Andrew (September 5, 1887). "John Brown's Raid. Recollections of Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Hunter. The Capture, Trial, and Execution of Brown and His Party—Operatoons of His Enissaries—The Leader's Firmness and Coolness—Incidents of the Trial and Execution—Preparations to Prevent a Rescue". The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Louisiana). p. 6. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "John Brown's Last Appeal to a Court". St. Joseph Weekly Free Democrat (St. Joseph, Missouri). December 10, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "No Writ of Error". Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, Virginia). November 22, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Wise, Barton Haxall (1899). The life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, 1806–1876. The author is the governor's grandson. New York: Macmillan.
- ^ a b "Expulsion of strangers". New-York Tribune. November 16, 1859 [November 12, 1859]. p. 6. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Brown's Counsel Expelled". Douglass' Monthly. 2 (7): 187. December 1859.
- ^ "The expulsion of Mr. Hoyt from Charleston". New-York Daily Tribune. November 17, 1859. p. 5. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Virginia. General Assembly. Joint Committee on the Harpers Ferry Outrages (January 26, 1860). Report of the Joint Committee on the Harpers Ferry Outrages. p. 7.
- ^ a b McClure, A[lexander] K. (July 21, 1901). "Random Recollctions of half a century. The first battles of the Civil War.—The Conflicts at Christiana, Pa., in 1851 and at Harper's Ferry in 1859 Were the Skirmishes of the Four Years' Struggle between the North and the South". The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Louisiana). Included in a 1902 book of McClure, Colonel Alexander K. McClure's Recollections of Half a Century. p. 29. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Another Leaf of History". New York Times. May 12, 1865. p. 5. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Shall the Charleston Convention Nominate Henry A. Wise?". National Era (Washington, D.C.). Anatomy of Protest in America Series: Newspapers, 1729-1922. November 17, 1859. p. 2 (152). Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021 – via Accessible Archives.
- ^ Hunter, Andrew (September 18, 1887). "John Brown's Raid. Interesting Reminiscences Written by the Lawyer Who Prosecuted Him.—Incidents of His Trlal—HIs Conviotlon, Sentence and Execution. —His Purposes as He Declared Them.—The Effect of the Raid on Southern Sentiment". St. Joseph Gazette-Herald (St. Joseph, Missouri). p. 9. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Charlestown Exciitement". Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). November 23, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Wise, Henry A. (November 25, 1859). "Governor Wise's Letter to President Buchanan". Appendix to Message 1: Documents relating to the Harpers Ferry Invasion. p. 51.
- ^ Buchanan, James (November 28, 1859). "Answer of President Buchanan [letter to Governor Wise]". Appendix to Message 1: Documents relating to the Harpers Ferry Invasion. "Appendix to Message 1 [unidentified]". p. 52.
- ^ a b Brown, John (1860). Testimonies [letters] of Capt. John Brown, at Harper's Ferry : with his address to the court. Anti-Slavery Tracts, new series, 7. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society.
- ^ Brown, John (2015). DeCaro Jr., Louis (ed.). John Brown speaks : letters and statements from Charlestown. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442236707.
- ^ Ugwu, Reggie (November 19, 2020). "Fact or Fiction, Starring John Brown". The New York Times.
- ^ Brown, John (December 10, 1859) [November 15, 1859]. "His Views of Death and Religious Hopes. Brown's Letter [to Rev. L. Vaill]". St. Joseph Weekly Free Democrat (St. Joseph, Missouri). p. 1. Archived from the original on April 25, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Brown, John (November 26, 1859), Letter to Mary Brown, archived from the original on December 9, 2020, retrieved September 12, 2020
- ^ a b c Sanborn, Franklin B; Brown, John (1885). The Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
- ^ Brown, John, My dear wife [letter], p. 53
- ^ "Another letter from John Brown". New York Times. December 5, 1859. p. 8. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ Finkleman, Paul (1995). "Preface". In Finkleman, Paul (ed.). His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. pp. 3–9, at p. 8. ISBN 0813915368.
- ^ Taft, S[tephen] H. (1872). A discourse on the chapter and death of John Brown (2nd ed.). Des Moines. p. 12.
- ^ "To Arms! To Arms!". Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). November 7, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Capt. Brown and Capt. Pate". Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, Virginia). November 29, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Pate, Henry Clay (1859). John Brown. Published by the author. New York.
- ^ "John Brown's Will". (Buffalo, New York). December 7, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ De Witt, Robert M. (1859). The Life, Trial and Execution of Captain John Brown, Known as "Old Brown of Ossawatomie," with a full account of the attempted insurrection at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Compiled from official and authentic sources. Inducting Cooke's Confession, and all the Incidents of the Execution. New York: Robert M. De Witt.
- ^ Russell, Thomas (December 24, 1880). "The Last Hours of John Brown". Republican Record (Fort Scott, Kansas). p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Villard, Oswald Garrison (1910). John Brown, 1800-1859, a biography fifty years after. London: Constable.
- ^ Ronda, James P. (2002). "Forward". In Holmberg, James J. (ed.). Dear Brother. Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. xiii. ISBN 0300090102.
- ^ "John Brown Souvenir". WestVirginia Archives & History, Boyd Stutler Collection. 1893. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ Laughlin-Schultz, Bonnie (Fall 2015). "'How John Brown Smashed the Whisky Barrel': John Brown's Children in Southern California and Memory of the American Civil War". California History. 92 (3): 16–36, at p. 22. JSTOR 10.1525/ch.2015.92.3.16. Archived from the original on 2021-07-18. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
- ^ a b "News of the Day". New York Times. December 3, 1859. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "The Panic at Charlestown [sic]". New York Times. December 1, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ "John Brown's Execution". New York Times. December 2, 1859. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ a b Lowry, M. B. (December 15, 1859) [November 25, 1859]. "Visit to John Brown by an old neighbor". (Lawrence, Kansas). p. 2. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Uncivilized". Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). December 1, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The great Virginia mare's nest. The plot to rescue John Brown—The revelations which called out the military". National Anti-Slavery Standard. December 3, 1859. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2020 – via .
- ^ Buchanan, James (May 12, 1865) [November 5, 1859]. "Letter of President Buchanan to Governor Wise". New York Times. p. 5. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The following orders were issued last night". Daily Exchange (Baltimore, Maryland). December 3, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Olcott, Henry S. (1875), "How We Hung John Brown", in Brougham, John; Elderkin, John (eds.), Lotos Leaves, Boston: William F. Gill, pp. 233–249, at p. 244, archived from the original on 2020-12-09, retrieved 2020-10-05
- ^ Taylor, Stephen J. (October 21, 2015), A Skeleton's Odyssey: The Forensic Mystery of Watson Brown, Hoosier State Chronicles, Indiana State Library, archived from the original on November 1, 2020, retrieved October 21, 2020
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 105.
- ^ "John Brown's War. Another Panic in Virginia". Chicago Tribune. December 17, 1859. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Norris, J. E. (1890). History of the lower Shenandoah Valley counties of Frederick, Berkeley, Jefferson and Clarke, their early settlement and progress to the present time; geological features; a description of their historic and interesting localities; cities, towns and villages; portraits of some of the prominent men, and biographies of many of the representative citizens. Chicago: A. Warner & Co.
- ^ "(Untitled)". The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts). January 6, 1860. p. 3. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Taft, Stephen H. (1872). A discourse on the chapter and death of John Brown (2nd ed.). Des Moines, Iowa. p. 21.
- ^ Northrop, B. G. (July 4, 1883). "As Others See Us.—A High Complement to West Virginia's Improvement.—Some incidents of early days.—A Prominent New Yorker Visits Our State and is Surprised at Its Progression and the Thriftiness of Its Inhabitants". Daily Register (Wheeling, West Virginia). Also available at VirginiaChronicle. p. 1. Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}
: External link in
(help)|others=
- ^ "John Brown's Scaffold. The wood sold to relic hinters for $900. A Constitution [Atlanta newspaper] Man Falls In With a Virginian Who Has Adopted Atlanta as His Home and has a Talk With Him on John Brown's Raid—John Brown's Sword, Etc., Etc". Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia). March 27, 1884. p. 7. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Hunter, Andrew (June 1, 1888). "John Brown's Death. Chat with the man who led in the prosecution. Interesting Reminiscences of the Last Act in the Tragedy.—A False Statement Corrected.—"Porte Crayon's" Sketch.—Politeness on the Scaffold". Salida Mail (Salida, Colorado). p. 4. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021 – via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
- ^ "John Brown's scaffold. It Will Be Among the Curiosities at the World's Fair". The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska). 15 Nov 1892. p. 1. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Finkelman, Paul (Spring 2011). "A Look Back at John Brown". Prologue Magazine. 43 (1).
- ^ "The Peculiar Institution in Danger". Liverpool Mercury (Liverpool, England. 7 Jan 1860. p. 4. Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Bordewich, Fergus M. (October 2009). "John Brown's Day of Reckoning". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-04-28. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- ^ a b c d Citizens of Cleveland (1859). A tribute of respect, commemorative of the worth and sacrifice of John Brown, of Ossawatomie: It being a full Report of the Speeches made and the Resolutions adopted by the citizens of Cleveland, at a meeting held in the Melodeon, on the evening of the day on which John Brown was sacrificed by the Commonwealth of Virginia : together with a Sermon, commemorative of the same sad event. "Published for the benefit of the widows and families of the revolutionaries of Harper's Ferry". Cleveland, Ohio.
- ^ J. S. (January 5, 1860). "More Light!". Lawrence Republican (Lawrence, Kansas). ("More light!" were the last words of Goethe). p. 2. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ John T[homas] Allstadt (December 1909). "John Brown's raid fifty years ago". The Magazine of History with notes and queries. 10 (6): 309–342, at page 341.
- ^ "Affray in Boston". Harper's Weekly: 787. December 15, 1860.
- ^ Korda, Michael (2014). Clouds of Glory : The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee. An excerpt, "When Robert E. Lee Met John Brown and Saved the Union", was published in The Daily Beast. Harper. pp. xxxviii–xxxix. ISBN 978-0062116314.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help)|others=
- ^ "'Brown' at Syracuse". National Era (Washington, D.C.). December 8, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Large meeting at Rochester". New York Times. December 5, 1859. p. 8. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ V. Chapman-Smith. "John Brown's Philadelphia" (PDF). Civil War History Consortium. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
- ^ "Prayers in Philadelphia". National Era (Washington, D.C.). December 8, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "An extensive 'Brown' meeting". Franklin Repository (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania). December 7, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Execution of John Brown at Cleveland". Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). December 5, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "In Memoriam. Exercises Commemorative of the Execution of John Brown". Cleveland Daily Leader (Cleveland, Ohio). December 3, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "More Brown Sympathy Meetings". Gettysburg Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania). December 12, 1859. p. 1. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Pamphile, Leon D. (Fall 2006). "The Haitian Response to the John Brown Tragedy". Journal of Haitian Studies. 12 (2): 135–142. JSTOR 41715333.
- ^ "The Haytian [sic] John Brown Fund". Pacific Appeal (San Francisco). 15 November 1862. p. 3. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ Hyatt, Thaddeus (October 1860) [July 16, 1860]. "Distribution of the John Brown Fund". Douglass' Monthly. Archived from the original on August 25, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021 – via .
- ^ Everett, Edward (December 15, 1859). "Speech of Hon. Edward Everett, at the Great Meeting Held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Dec. 8, 1859 (part 1 of 2)". (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). p. 1. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Everett, Edward (December 15, 1859). "Speech of Hon. Edward Everett, at the Great Meeting Held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Dec. 8, 1859 (part 2 of 2)". (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). p. 2. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Portrait of John Brown". The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts). December 23, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Phillips, Wendell (1859). The lesson of the hour : lecture of Wendell Phillips, delivered at Brooklyn, N.Y., Tuesday evening, November 1, 1859.
- ^ Cheever, George Barrell (1859). The Curse of God Against Political Atheism. With Some of the Lessons of the Tragedy at Harper's Ferry : a Discourse Delivered in the Church of the Puritans, New York, on Sabbath Evening, Nov. 6, 1859. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ Confession of John E. Cooke [sic], brother of Gov. A. P. Willard, of Indiana, and one of the participants in the Harper's Ferry invasion: published for the benefit of Samuel C. Young, a non-slaveholder, who is permanently disabled by a wound received in defence of Southern institutions. Charles Town, Virginia: D. Smith Eichelberger, publisher of the . November 11, 1859. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Wheelock, Edwin M. (1859). Harper's Ferry and its lesson : a sermon for the times. By Rev. Edwin M. Wheelock, of Dover, N.H. Preached at the Music Hall, Boston, November 27, 1859. Boston: The Fraternity. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ Chilton, Samuel; Green, William (1859). Appeal of John Brown by his Counsels Samuel Chilton and William Green, to the Court of Appeals, Richmond, asking for a Writ of Error.
- ^ Clarke, James Freeman (1859). Causes and consequences of the affair at Harper's Ferry : a sermon preached in the Indiana Place chapel, on Sunday morning, Nov. 6, 1859. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.
- ^ (1859). The conflict in America : a funeral discourse occasioned by the death of John Brown of Ossawattomie, who entered into rest, from the gallows, at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859 : preached at the Warren St. M.E. Church, Roxbury, Dec. 4. Boston: . Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
- ^ Bartholomew, J. G. (1859). "Slavery and the higher law : a sermon suggested by the execution of John Brown and delivered in Empire Hall, Aurora, Ill., on Sunday, Dec. 4th, 1859". Aurora, Illinois: Frank E. Reynolds. ISBN 9780674035171. OCLC 57551368.
- ^ Patton, W. W. (c. 1859). The execution of John Brown; a discourse, delivered at Chicago, December 4th, 1859, in the First Congregational Church. Chicago.
- ^ Trumbull, Lyman (1859). Remarks of Hon. Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois : on seizure of arsenals at Harper's Ferry, Va., and Liberty, Mo., and in vindication of the Republican party and its creed, in response to Senators Chesnut, Yulee, Saulsbury, Clay and Pugh : delivered in the United States Senate, December, 6, 7, and 8, 1859. Washington, D.C.
- ^ Tufts, Samuel N. (1859). Slavery, and the death of John Brown. A sermon preached in Auburn hall, Auburn, Sabbath afternoon, Dec. 11th, 1859. Lewiston.
- ^ Hall, Nathaniel (1859). The man, the deed, the event : a sermon preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 4 and repeated Dec. 11, 1859. This and the following sermon of Hall were also issued together under the title Two sermons on slavery and its hero-victim. Boston. Archived from the original on 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
- ^ Hall, Nathaniel (1859). The Iniquity: A Sermon preached in The First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 1859. Boston. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
- ^ Barker, Joseph (1859). John Brown, or the True and the False Philanthropist; with remarks on Addresses by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, and others. Philadelphia.
- ^ Taft, S[tephen] H. (1859). A discourse on the character and death of John Brown : delivered in Martinsburgh, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1859, by S.H. Taft, Pastor of the Church of Martinsburgh. Title and link are to 2nd edition, Des Moines, 1872, since no copy could be located of the first edition. Utica, New York. Archived from the original on 2021-01-23. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
- ^ A Citizen of Harpers Ferry (1859). Startling incidents & developments of Osowotomy Brown's insurrectory and treasonable movements at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, October 17th, 1859 : with a true and accurate account of the whole transaction. Baltimore. Archived from the original on 2021-07-10. Retrieved 2021-01-17 – via Adam Matthew (subscription required).
- ^ Rise and progress of the bloody outbreak at Harper's Ferry. New York: New York Democratic Vigilant Association. 1859. Archived from the original on 2021-08-06. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
- ^ Parker, Theodore (1860) [November 19, 1859]. John Brown's expedition reviewed in a letter from Rev. Theodore Parker, at Rome, to Francis Jackson, Boston. Boston: The Fraternity [unidentified].
- ^ Wade, Benjamin F. (1860) [December 14, 1859]. Invasion of Harpers's Ferry. Speech of Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. Delivered in the United States Senate, Dec 14, 1859. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ Andrew, John A. (1860). "Speech of John A. Andrew, Esq., at the Meeting held in the Tremont Temple, Nov. 18, 1859, for the Relief of the Family of John Brown". Speeches of John A. Andrew at Hingham and Boston : together with his testimony before the Harper's Ferry Committee of the Senate, in relation to John Brown. Also, the Republican platform and other matters. Boston: Republican State Committee.
- ^ Barstow, A[mos] C.; Day, Geo[rge] T.; Woodbury, A[ugustus]; Davis, Thomas (1860). Speeches of Hon. A. C. Barstow, Rev. Geo. T. Day, Rev. Augustus Woodbury, Hon. Thomas Davis, and resolutions adopted at a meeting of citizens held in Providence, R. I., December 2nd, 1859, on the occasion of the execution of John Brown. Providence, Rhode Island. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
- ^ Henningsen, C. F. (1860). "Letter from General C. F. Henningsen, in reply to the letter of Victor Hugo on the Harper's Ferry invasion : with an extract from the letter of the Rev. Nathan Lord, D.D., president of Dartmouth College, N.H., and an article from the London Times on slavery". New York.
- ^ De Witt, Robert M. (1859). The life, trial, and conviction of Captain John Brown, known as "Old Brown of Ossawatomie," with a full account of the attempted insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Compiled from official and authentic sources. New York: The author.
- ^ a b Drew, Thomas (1860). "The John Brown invasion; an authentic history of the Harper's Ferry tragedy, with full details of the capture, trial, and execution of the invaders, and of all the incidents connected therewith. With a lithographic portrait of Capt. John Brown, from a photograph by Whipple". Boston: James Campbell.
- ^ De Witt, Robert M. (c. 1859). The life, trial and execution of Captain John Brown: known as "Old Brown of Ossawatomie," with a full account of the attempted insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Compiled from official and authentic sources. Including Cooke's Confession, and all the Incidents of the Execution. New York: The author. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ^ "10,000 Copies Already Subscribed for advance of publication. The great Book of the Day!". The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts). December 23, 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Twenty Thousand Subscribed for in Avance of Publication". National Era. January 6, 1860. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021 – via .
- ^ Edwards, Kate (February 1937). "An Old Play on John Brown". Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains. 6 (1): 34–59. Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Swayze, Mrs. J. C. (1859). Ossawatomie Brown; or, The Insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Samuel French.
- ^ Mason, James M.; Collamer, Jacob (June 15, 1860). Report [of] the Select committee of the Senate appointed to inquire into the late invasion and seizure of the public property at Harper's Ferry.
- ^ Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (1860). Correspondence relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859. Annapolis: Senate of Maryland.
- ^ "The Peril of the South". New York Independent. November 5, 1859. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Phillips, Wendell (1863). "Burial of John Brown". Speeches, lectures, and letters. pp. 289–293, at p. 292. Archived from the original on 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2021-08-25 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b DeCaro Jr., Louis A. (2002). "Fire from the Midst of You": A Religious Life of John Brown. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 081471921X.
- ^ Libby, Jean (July–August 1978). "Reverend Thomas W. Henry of Hagerstown". Negro History Bulletin. 41 (4): 848–849. JSTOR 44213849. Archived from the original on 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
- ^ "Incendiary fires". Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia). December 5, 1859. p. 2. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Merod, Anna (January 22, 2019). "SU showcases virtual reality reenactment of John Brown's historic trial". Winchester Star. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
Further reading[]
- Simpson, Craig (Fall 1978). "John Brown and Governor Wise: A New Perspective on Harpers Ferry". Biography. 1 (4): 15–38. JSTOR 23539028.
- Fleming, Thomas (August 1967). "The Trial Of John Brown". American Heritage. 18 (5).
- Linder, Douglas O. "John Brown Trial (1859)". Famous Trials.
- Newspaper reports on the trial proceedings
- "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak. The Preliminary Legal Proceedings in the Case of the Prisoners. Old Brown's Harangue to the Court. The Testimony of the Witnesses. The Case Sent to the Grand Jury". New York Herald. October 26, 1859. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak. Arraignment of Old Brown and His Companions on Charges of Conspiracy, Treason and Murder. Brown Appeals for a Postponement of his Trial. Examination of Witnesses as to Brown's Physical Condition". New York Herald. October 27, 1859. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
- "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak. The Trial of John Brown, Charged with Treason, Conspiracy and Murder. Conclusion of the for the Prosecution. Summing up for the Prosecution. The Evidence for the Prisoner. Speeches of Old Brown. He Complains of Unfairness, and Asks Them to Send for His Witnesses. The Third Day's Proceedings". New York Herald. October 29, 1859. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
- "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak. The Trial of John Brown, Charged with Treason, Conspiracy and Murder. Conclusion of the evidence. Summing up of the Prosecution. The Fourth Day's Proceedings". New York Herald. October 31, 1859. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "The Outbreak at Harper's Ferry. The Trial of John Brown, Charged with Treason, Conspiracy and Murder. The Addresses of Counsel for the Defense and Prosecution. The Proceedings of the Court. Fifth day". New York Herald. November 1, 1859. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
- "The Harper's Ferry Affair. Argument for Arrest of Judgment in Old Brown's Case. The Trial of Coppie [sic] Commenced". New York Herald. November 2, 1859. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Closing Speech of Counsel for Defence". New York Herald. November 3, 1859. p. 4 – via newspapers.com.
- 1859 in United States case law
- United States slavery case law
- John Brown (abolitionist)
- 19th-century American trials
- Virginia state case law
- 1859 in Virginia
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- Charles Town, West Virginia
- Treason in the United States
- Legal history of Virginia
- Capital punishment in Virginia
- October 1859 events
- November 1859 events
- December 1859 events
- History of Jefferson County, West Virginia
- Origins of the American Civil War