Fig. 14. Top: The Last Moments of John Brown, by Thomas Hovenden, 1884 (Library of Congress) and New York Daily Tribune, December 5, 1859
John Brown was an abolitionist, but unlike most abolitionists, he felt that violence would be required to end slavery. John Brown felt that fighting to end slavery was his way of serving God; it was his calling. Fighting mental slavery is my calling as well, and I feel an attachment to John Brown by name. John Brown was an old white man determined to end slavery. I, on the other hand, am an old brown man named John White who is struggling to end mental slavery. This coincidence in name similarity often inspires me to persevere when I feel like giving up; I see it as God’s plan.
Brown was not alone; he had six secret supporters who shared his vision of ending slavery. Brown met with Frederick Douglass to get his support. Douglass wrote:
“Captain Brown did most of the talking on the other side of the question. He did not at all object to rousing the nation; it seemed to him that something startling was just what the nation needed. He had completely renounced his old plan, and thought that the capture of Harper’s Ferry would serve as notice to the slaves that their friends had come, and as a trumpet to rally them to his standard. He described the place as to its means of defense, and how impossible it would be to dislodge him if once in possession… Our talk was long and earnest; we spent the most of Saturday and a part of Sunday in this debate-Brown for Harper’s Ferry, and I against it; he for striking a blow which should instantly rouse the country, and I for the policy of gradually and unaccountably drawing off the slaves to the mountains, as at first suggested and proposed by him.
When I found that he had fully made up his mind and could not be dissuaded, I turned to Shields Green and told him he heard what Captain Brown had said; his old plan was changed, and that I should return home, and if he wished to go with me he could do so. Captain Brown urged us both to go with him, but I could not do so, and could but feel that he was about to rivet the fetters more firmly than ever on the limbs of the enslaved.
In parting he put his arms around me in a manner more than friendly, and said: “Come with me, Douglass; I will defend you with my life. I want you for a special purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive them.” But my discretion or my cowardice made me proof against the dear old man’s eloquence-perhaps it was something of both which determined my course. When about to leave I asked Green what he had decided to do, and was surprised by his coolly saying, in his broken way, “I b’leve I’ll go wid de ole man.”[1]
Frederick Douglass
Thinking that Brown’s plan was suicide, Douglass refused to join John Brown at Harpers Ferry. Brown also shared his plan with Harriet Tubman. Tubman did not accompany John Brown on his raid, but she assisted John Brown with recruiting former slaves.[2]
On October 16, 1859 John Brown executed his plan of arming the Negroes. He entered the village of Harper’s Ferry with five black men and thirteen white men including his sons. He brought a wagon load of arms, which included two hundred rifles, two hundred pistol and a thousand pikes. He was defeated however, by a man in charge who would become synonymous with the southern cause named “Robert E. Lee.” Brown wrote to his wife, “I have been whipped, as the saying is, but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital occasioned by that disaster; by only hanging a few moments by the neck; and I feel quite determined to make the utmost possible out of a defeat.”[3]
John Browns was found guilty of treason at his trial, and he was asked if he wanted to make a statement. He appeared to refer to the New Testament, Matthew 25:40, as his motive: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
“I have, may it please the court, a few words to say… I went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection… I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to “remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.” I endeavored to act up to that instruction… I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done–in behalf of His despised poor was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments–I submit; so let it be done!”[4]
John Brown
It is believed by many that the hanging of John Brown started the Civil War. John Brown inspired antislavery activists and abolitionists. Herman Melville called him “the meteor of the war.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow likewise predicted that “this day will be a great day in our history—the date of a new Revolution—quite as much needed as the old one.” Henry David Thoreau saw similarities between Brown’s hanging and the crucifixion of Christ. William Lloyd Garrison said, “In firing his gun, John Brown has merely told what time of day it is. It is high noon, thank God.”[5]
John Copeland was one of five black men who were with John Brown at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He was hung with Brown, and the following is part of a letter he wrote to his brother.
” To this freedom they were entitled by every known principle of justice and humanity; and, for the enjoyment of it, God created them. And now, dear brother; could I die in a more noble cause? Could I, brother, die in a manner and for a cause which would induce true and honest men more to honor me, and the angels more readily to receive me to their happy home of everlasting Joy above? I imagine that I hear you, and all of you, mother, father, sister and brothers, say, (, No, there is not a cause for which we, with less sorrow, could see you die! “
” Your affectionate Brother,
“JOHN A. COPELAND.”[6]
The effect that John Brown’s death had on the abolitionist movement was eloquently expressed by Frederick Douglass many years later, when he addressed Storer College in 1881:
“John Brown’s zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him. The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery.”[7]
Frederick Douglass
On the second floor rotunda of the Kansas State capitol building is a mural of John Brown. The mural was painted by John Stuart Curry to represent important historical events of Kansas. The mural places John Brown at the center of the Civil War and suggests that his influence started it. Brown frequently referred to the Bible during his trial. Note that he is depicted in the mural as having a musket in one hand and a Bible in the other. This theme is repeated in a prayer of a soldier belonging to the South Carolina Colored Volunteers. The prayer was recorded by Colonel T. W. Higginson, who was a secret supporter of John Brown and also a minister. The soldier said, “Let me lib wid de musket in one hand, an’ de Bible in de oder dat if I die at de muzzle of de musket, die in de water, die on de land, I may know I hab de bressed Jesus in my hand, an’ hab no fear.”
It was alleged that on the way to the gallows, John Brown stopped to kiss a colored child. The legend angered slavery supporters, who felt the slaves were not deserving of respect or love. John Brown haters are quick to disclaim the legend, and it has not been proven that it is true. However, as we examine John Brown’s passion to end slavery, it is clear that John Brown would have kissed the colored child had he been given the opportunity. William Wells Brown wrote the following about John Brown’s execution.
“When John Brown was led out of the Charlestown jail, on his way to execution, he paused a moment, it will be remembered, in the passage-way, and, taking a little colored child in his arms, kissed and blessed it. The dying blessing of the martyr will descend from generation to generation; and a whole race will cherish for ages the memory of that simple caress, which, degrading as it seemed to the slaveholders around him, was as sublime and as touching a lesson, and as sure to do its work in the world’s history, as that of Him who said, ” Suffer little children to come unto me.’”[8]
W. W. Brown pg201
Apparently, the legend of John Brown kissing the Negro child actually originated from his comments to a special New York Daily Tribune correspondent. Although his comments are more complex than a simple kiss, they are a lot more powerful. He didn’t want slavery-supporting ministers to come between God and himself and would rather have been escorted to the gallows by a slave mother and her children. He felt that liberating the slaves would get him a lot closer to God than clergy who accepted slavery.
Three weeks after John Brown’s execution (December 22, 1859), John Greenleaf Whittier published a poem in the New York Independent called “Brown of Ossawatomie” that refers to Brown kissing a colored child at the gallows.[9]
John Brown of Osawatomie spoke on his dying day:
“I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery’s pay;
But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free,
With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!”
John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die;
And lo! a poor slave-mother with her little child pressed nigh:
Then the bold, blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew mild,
As he stooped between the jeering ranks and kissed the negro’s child!
The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart,
And they who blamed the bloody hand forgave the loving heart;
That kiss from all its guilty means redeemed the good intent,
And round the grisly fighter’s hair the martyr’s aureole bent!
Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good!
Long live the generous purpose unstained with human blood!
Not the raid of midnight terror, but the thought which underlies;
Not the borderer’s pride of daring, but the Christian’s sacrifice.
Nevermore may yon Blue Ridges the Northern rifle hear,
Nor see the light of blazing homes flash on the negro’s spear;
But let the free-winged angel Truth their guarded passes scale,
To teach that right is more than might, and justice more than mail!
So vainly shall Virginia set her battle in array;
In vain her trampling squadrons knead the winter snow with clay!
She may strike the pouncing eagle, but she dares not harm the dove;
And every gate she bars to Hate shall open wide to Love!
Bottom: The Tragic Prelude, John Brown, by John Steuart Curry (Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society)
[1] Frederick Douglass, Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Early Years, 1817–1849, 350–354.
[2] Wikipedia, Harriet Tubman, https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Harriet_Tubman.
[3] Geoffrey C. Ward, The Civil War: An Illustrated History (New York: Knopf, 1992) 2–5.
[4] “John Brown Sentenced to Death,” The New York Times, Thursday, November 3, 1859.
[5] Ward, The Civil War, 2–5.
[6] W. W. Brown, The Negro in the American Rebellion, 47.
[7] Frederick Douglass,“His Soul Goes Marching On, The Life and Legacy of John Brown,” Address at the Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, May 30, 1881 (Dover, NH: Morning Star Job Printing House, 1881).
[8] W. W. Brown, The Negro in the American Rebellion, 201.
[9] The Lost Museum Archive, John Brown of Ossawatomie, http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/144/.