In this second installment of the series "Covenant of Blood: John Brown and His Jewish Associates in Kansas," host Louis A. DeCaro Jr. delves into the active combat and tactical dynamics linking radical abolitionist John Brown with his Free State Jewish allies—Anshel "August" Bondi, Jacob Benjamin, and Theodore Wiener (VEE-ner)—during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis of 1856 [00:20].
Key Themes and Highlights:
The Pottawatomie Creek Actions: DeCaro breaks down the mechanics of the May 24, 1856 actions into two distinct squads under Brown's command. While Salmon and Owen Brown handled the Doyle property, Theodore Wiener and Henry Thompson accompanied John Brown to execute the pro-slavery legislator Alan Wilkinson, subsequently tracking down William Sherman at the creek [00:47, 01:39]. DeCaro emphasizes that Wiener was not a passive bystander or under a "spell," but an active soldier with deep personal grievances against pro-slavery neighbors like the Shermans who had previously threatened his livelihood [02:28, 04:09].
The Battle of Blackjack: In June 1856, both Bondi and Wiener fought directly alongside Brown to defeat the pro-slavery forces of Henry Clay Pate [05:45]. Bondi’s memoirs recount a famous, humorous exchange in Yiddish ("Vaso ecen... i think the end of man is deaf") as he and a heavily winded Wiener dodged Missouri bullets while charging up a hill [06:10].
Nativism and Confrontation: Following the victory at Blackjack, a near-fatal argument erupted between a captive pro-slavery fighter named Brockett and Bondi [07:08]. Brockett’s nativist slurs ("What does a damn Dutchman know of liberty?") incited an explosive defense from Wiener, resulting in a duel challenge that John Brown personally shut down [08:08, 08:32].
Post-War Legacies and Silence: Following the Civil War—in which all three Jewish associates fought for the Union—Bondi went on to hold various public offices in Kansas, while Benjamin passed away in 1866 [09:51, 10:46]. Wiener, tracked down by legal researcher John Hutchings in 1880 at age 74, remained fiercely tight-lipped, famously declaring that the investigator's evidence "don't amount to hell room" and taking his exact personal secrets to his grave in 1906 [11:02, 13:20].
Full Transcription
[00:20] From New York City, this is Louis A. DeCaro Jr. and this is John Brown Today. In the first installment of John Brown's Jewish Associates, we met Bondi, Benjamin, and Viner, and observed how they were drawn into the struggle of Bleeding Kansas as allies of the abolitionist Brown family. So let's continue.
[00:47] Based on the testimony of Salmon Brown in later years, the killings along the Pottawatomie Creek were undertaken by Brown by dividing his company into two squads. The first squad, comprised of his sword-wielding sons Salmon and Owen, escorted the three Doyle men from their home into the darkness, dispatching them with swords no more than 200 yards from the house. The other squad, comprised of son-in-law Henry Thompson and Theodore Viner, accompanied Brown to the home of Alan Wilkinson, another pro-slavery conspirator and a member of the territorial bogus legislature. Brown supervised the arrests, but once more stood back as Wilkinson was marched into the darkness of night and cut down. Finally, Thompson and Viner appeared at the home of Dutch Henry Sherman, only to find he was absent. Instead, they seized his brother William, who was a co-conspirator as well, but spared two guests who were in their home and were not party to the conspiracy. While Brown's son Frederick waited in the Sherman house with these guests, Henry and Viner escorted William down to the creek, where they killed him.
[02:03] In later years, Salmon Brown, who was again one of the killers, characterized Viner as a, quote, "big savage bloodthirsty Austrian that could not be kept out of any accessible fight," end quote. Perhaps Salmon was exaggerating Viner's profile, for Salmon himself proved no less savage when it came to killing these pro-slavery thugs than had Wolf Viner. But there was some truth in his remarks. Viner had skin in the game. He hated Sherman and his brother. He deeply resented their hostility and had come to hate the local pro-slavery people for their threats, insults, and violence. Viner was Polish, not Austrian, but he was a big man and a fighter, and of all the Pottawatomie killers, he was perhaps more driven by personal animus and bitterness than were the rest of the party.
[02:51] Now, I'm not suggesting that Brown, his sons, and son-in-law did not have their own lethal intentions, and please don't take my words as if I'm demonizing Viner. First, understand that Brown led and directed the killings, but as in most things he attempted, he did so with an intentional martial form as a leader in Kansas and later in Virginia. Brown is always a leader, a commander. This is not pretense or ego on his part; it is for him the only legitimate form of resistance: organized and led by a responsible commander, often with paperwork to boot. Second, the Pottawatomie company as led by Brown was made up of two components: those who went along, such as Townsley, whose wagon and teams were used to convey the killers, as well as Brown's other sons, Frederick and Oliver, all of whom came along in support but did not participate in the killings. The other component was comprised of four men who acted as soldiers: Owen, Salmon, Henry Thompson, and Theodore Viner.
[04:00] None of these men were kowtowed or browbeaten. None of them lifted a sword while being, as the late Stephen Oates so incorrectly asserted, under some kind of spell. All four of these men knew exactly what the mission was about and did not need to be persuaded or spellbound to kill these five thugs on Pottawatomie Creek. All four men knew there was a life-and-death crisis upon them, and they agreed with John Brown and wielded ferocious swords to prove it. That Viner needed no persuasion or rationale to kill Wilkinson and Sherman is not to single him out, only to emphasize that historians should stop portraying the Pottawatomie killings as an act of one man. The killings were the act of a team led by John Brown and four soldiers in particular, with every intention of doing exactly what they did. That Vener was the only one not in the Brown family is a point of consideration, just as is the fact that he was perhaps the only other man in the party who had good reason to fear for his life, and the fact that killing them was for Vener as much the culmination of a blood feud as it was a preemptive strike. Nor was Viner's role in the killings a secret. Local Free State people were well aware that he had both lent brawn and steel to the effort, so much so that a local person named O.C. Brown, who happened to be the founder of the Free State town of Osawatomie, in later years described Vener as having, quote, "led the part in the tragedy as the one most aggrieved," end quote.
[05:45] In the following month of June 1856, we find both August Bondi and Theodore Viner once more fighting at John Brown's side. In early June, when pro-slavery forces led by the spiteful Henry Clay Pate met Brown's men at Blackjack, his two Jewish allies were part of that resistance. Bondi later recounted the somewhat humorous story of how he and Viner ran across the battlefield with Missouri bullets whizzing past them. Viner, a heavy-set man, says Bondi, was huffing and puffing as they ran up a hill that was just south of Pate's troops. Amidst the fighting, recalled Bondi, they both seemed to have sensed the comedy of the moment. "Well, what do you think now, Bondi?" asked Viner. Despite his heavy breathing, Vener managed a wry response, only in Yiddish: "Vaso ecen"—what shall I think—"suvadam Malvice"—I think the end of man is death. Bondi also says that after the hardships of that summer in the field with John Brown, Vener lost a lot of weight, too. Of course, John Brown defeated Henry Clay Pate and his forces despite being outnumbered, and the Battle of Blackjack became one of the most famous episodes of John Brown's Kansas story.
[07:08] After the victory, Brown held Henry Clay Pate and his lieutenant, whose name was Brockett, as prisoners and awaited an exchange of Free State prisoners. During this lull of a couple of days, Bondi recalls that another fight nearly broke out between Viner and his pro-slavery prisoner. According to Bondi, on the morning of June 4th, 1856, Brockett was mouthing off at Bondi and the two men began to argue. The problem was doubtless Brockett's doing, given he was an aggrieved and defeated pro-slavery chump, and he resented finding what he perceived as Germans or "Deutschmen" among Brown's men. While there were men like Dutch Bill Sherman among the pro-slavery people, there was a sizable German immigrant community in St. Louis that were anti-slavery people and who were despised for it. Given his form of so-called nativism, Brockett was blowing off racist steam when he challenged Bondi, saying, "What does a damn Dutchman know of liberty?"
[08:16] At this, Viner, who was nearby, exploded in rage and jumped into the conflict. Viner returned the insult at Brockett until a fight almost broke out between them. Brockett in turn challenged Viner to a duel, and Viner was ready to take up the challenge when John Brown interrupted the whole quarrel and demanded them both to shut up and sent them both back to their tents. But it's interesting to learn, too, that Viner and Brockett had met before. According to Henry Thompson, Viner had encountered both Pate and Brockett only months before while in Kansas City. According to Thompson, which he probably learned directly from Viner himself, Pate and Brockett had an open conflict with him, perhaps right out on the street, if not a brawl. So when Brockett, as Brown's prisoner, started insulting his friend Bondi, it was probably no coincidence that Viner was watching and ready to jump in. By the way, Bondi says this Brockett was a vile fellow in his own right. He had led a massacre at an Indian post and had committed other outrages. Happily, Brockett was taken prisoner during the Civil War by the Sixth Kansas Company, court-martialed, and executed.
[09:32] At any rate, looking back at the Battle of Blackjack in June of 1856, August Bondi would later write: "Blackjack was the Gettysburg of the Kansas struggle. God was there, John Brown was there, and the Jew was there with John Brown."
[09:51] The year following John Brown's death, which would be 1860, August Bondi was married to Henrietta Einstein, a Bavarian immigrant who had settled in Leavenworth, Kansas. When the Civil War started, Bondi was appointed first sergeant of Company K, Fifth Kansas Cavalry, and was honorably discharged in 1863 after having been wounded three times. Throughout his career, Bondi held several public offices, including a register's clerk for the U.S. Land Office, a constabulary judge, and he was a director of the Kansas Historical Society. On September 30th, 1907, at the age of 74, while walking down the street in St. Louis, August Bondi collapsed and died.
[10:46] We know little about Jacob Benjamin, Bondi's business partner and clothier. Well, we do know Benjamin went on to serve during the Civil War as well, and he was part of the 11th Kansas Regiment and died the year following the end of the Civil War in 1866.
[11:02] What about the strapping, bellicose Theodore Viner? Well, when the Civil War began, Viner also enlisted to fight for the Union cause, but after the war, it seems he left Kansas for an extended time. According to the testimony of local Kansas settlers, Viner returned to the territory—now the state of Kansas—in 1870. One of those settlers, Martin Van Buren Jackson, recalled talking to Viner about the Pottawatomie killings. Now, Viner was understandably tight-lipped about the episode, but he felt comfortable with Jackson, who later said they spoke at length about the killing of the Doyles, Wilkinson, and Sherman. Viner, Jackson said, told him that the killing of those five men, quote, "was a blessing to the settlers of that part of the territory and saved them from a raid from the ruffians at the time," end quote.
[11:54] A decade later, he was sought out by a lawyer from Lawrence, Kansas named John Hutchings. Hutchings was then researching the Pottawatomie killings and was looking for contemporary testimony. According to the Kansas historian James Malin, in January 1880, Hutchings found Vener, now an aged man of 74 years, living in Linn County. His account of the meeting conveyed by Malin is worth reading directly from the text. According to Malin, Hutchings explained to Viner that recently an anti-Brown writer—and that was G.W. Brown, no relation to John Brown—had dredged up the killings at Pottawatomie, and so it was necessary to get to the exact truth. Hutchings further explained to Viner that, quote, "no danger would come to him in consequence of his revealing the whole facts within his knowledge, that the legislature had passed amnesty laws covering all alleged crimes committed during those days," end quote.
[12:52] After reading the testimony of Townsley, who had conveyed Brown and his men in his wagon, Hutchings asked Viner, "You don't say you were not along, do you? The evidence shows that you were with the party, and Townsley says you were there," end quote. At first, Viner denied it, saying they must be referring to another man of the same name. When Hutchings pressed upon him, citing other undeniable testimony, Viner became a little excited and said, "Gentlemen, let me say to you in plain English that all your evidence don't amount to hell room. I tell you I know nothing about the matter," end quote. At this point, Hutchings concluded it was evident that we were up a stump, so he then prepared to leave. As this happened, Viner courteously remarked that he was sorry he could not give us the information we sought. Hutchings concluded that Viner is evidently a man of good education and understands himself pretty well. Now, writing to a Kansas colleague afterward, Hutchings admonished, "I think if you were to see Viner and talk with him, he might be disposed to tell what he knows. I have not given up trying him again," end quote.
[14:06] But apparently, Theodore Viner was never willing to speak of his role in the Pottawatomie killings, as did, for instance, Salmon Brown and Henry Thompson in later life. There's no evidence that Hutchings or anyone else ever spoke to Vener again. In fact, he died in 1906 and was interred at the Jewish cemetery in St. Louis. However, according to the master grave locator Rich Smith, Theodore Viner's resting place has yet to be identified.
[14:29] Thus, the story of John Brown's Jewish associates in the troubled time of territorial Kansas. As August Bondi put it: "God was there, John Brown was there, and the Jew was there with John Brown." May their memory be for a blessing. From New York City, this was Louis A. DeCaro Jr. and this was John Brown Today.
In this episode of John Brown Today, titled "Part 1: Covenant of Blood: John Brown and His Jewish Associates in Kansas," host Louis A. DeCaro Jr. explores the overlooked historical relationship between the radical abolitionist John Brown and Free State Jewish immigrants in the Kansas Territory during the mid-1850s [00:17].
Key Themes and Highlights:
Religious and Historical Context: DeCaro establishes the theological background of 19th-century English-derivative Calvinism. Unlike European Roman Catholicism, which historically marginalized Jewish populations through replacement theology, the post-Reformation Protestant framework inherited by Brown viewed Jewish people with a measure of tolerance and sympathy, seeing them as part of a larger divine plan [01:49, 05:15]. This worldview made Brown naturally inclined to respect and collaborate with Jewish settlers [06:54, 10:32].
August Bondi: Born in Vienna, Austria, Bondi was a teenage freedom fighter in the 1848 revolutions before immigrating to the U.S. and settling in Kansas in May 1855 [12:28, 13:14]. Though initially unconcerned with slavery, his experiences with pro-slavery harassment and his close alliance with John Brown’s sons transformed him into an anti-slavery radical [13:35, 14:48].
Theodore Wiener (Vener): A Polish-born immigrant and physically imposing merchant, Wiener was initially a conservative pro-Southern Democrat [16:24, 17:37]. He shifted his allegiance entirely after a violent altercation in February 1856, where he beat local pro-slavery bully "Dutch Henry" Sherman with an axe handle inside his own store [19:10, 21:41].
The Pottawatomie Creek Reckoning: Facing imminent threats of violence and arson from local pro-slavery conspirators and invading Missouri "border ruffians," John Brown chose to strike a preemptive blow [22:10, 23:32]. DeCaro emphasizes that the events of May 24, 1856, along the Pottawatomie Creek were not an unprovoked massacre, but a defensive "reckoning" carried out by Brown, his sons, and allies—including Wiener—to protect Free State families from terrorism [21:14, 25:26].
Full Transcription
[00:17] From New York City, this is Louis A. DeCaro Jr. and this is John Brown Today. You know, one of the more interesting yet least discussed aspects of John Brown's story in Kansas is his association with Free State Jewish settlers. I'm not aware if John Brown had ever met or interacted with Jewish people in earlier life and, apart from his interactions with Blacks and Indigenous people, his world was made up largely of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants or Protestant-derivative groups like Quakers and spiritualists.
[00:48] But what about Jews? Might we assume that because of the irreconcilable theological difference between Christians and Jews, as well as the long history of Christian anti-Jewish hostility, that Protestants in 19th-century USA were hostile to the Jews also? The answer, I think, is a qualified no. Certainly, it would be a mistake to read back later KKK anti-Jewish ideas into the first phases of Protestantism in North America and in the United States in particular. While Protestant Christians differed sharply with Judaism in Brown's time, the difference was framed somewhat differently; and while Jews probably experienced a measure of prejudice in the United States, their lives among Protestants was also markedly better—certainly different—than it had been in Europe among Roman Catholics.
[01:49] In fact, before I discuss John Brown's personal relationship, or at least his association with Jews in the Kansas territory of the mid-1850s, I should provide you some historical background so you can understand context a little bit better. It probably should go without saying that for many centuries, Jewish people faced persecution, discrimination, and hostility from Gentile Christians, beginning in the so-called Christian Roman world all the way down into the medieval Roman Catholic world. In fact, the overwhelming problem of anti-Jewish prejudice among Christians in Europe is, historically speaking, a Roman Catholic problem. Now, I'm not saying that Protestants after the Reformation did not discriminate against the Jews, but the Protestants were never as brutal and hostile in their discriminations as were the Roman Catholics in Europe. This is just historical fact, and I'm not trying to play one-upmanship as a Protestant.
[02:46] To be sure, when the Protestant Reformation began in Germany, Martin Luther was hardly an improvement—especially when he realized that he was not going to get a lot of Jewish conversions. Luther was famously vicious in his rhetoric of condemnation, so German Protestantism and German Roman Catholicism did not improve much for the Jews. However, in other parts of Europe, Protestantism began to shift away from the sheer hostility of the Roman Catholics toward the Jews overall. While the Protestant world of the 17th and 18th centuries was hardly a paradise for the Jews, it was arguably better than the world of Roman Catholicism. For instance, in the Netherlands, Dutch Reformed Protestants—now armed with translations of the Hebrew Bible—had begun to see their Jewish neighbors through the lens of greater sympathy from the 17th century and onwards. The Dutch even began to give their sons Hebrew names like Daniel and Matthias, signaling an opening up of society toward Jewish neighbors.
[03:52] In England, Protestantism likewise turned toward a gradual acceptance of the Jews. Again, I'm not saying antisemitism wasn't an ongoing factor; I'm simply saying it was markedly different than it had been under Roman Catholics in Europe. Recall that under medieval Roman Catholicism, the Jews had been driven out of England, but in Calvinist-dominated England—particularly under the otherwise bloody Oliver Cromwell—the Jews were invited to return to England. So again, let me stress: I'm not suggesting that Jewish people enjoyed absolute equality and freedom living under the English Protestant regime. I'm only saying that Protestant society began to open up with greater sympathy and, in some cases, with greater affinity toward the Jews than had been possible under papal Catholicism. The modern-day Roman Catholic Church, with its papal condemnations of antisemitism, is really a post-World War II development and should not be generalized into Roman Catholic history.
[05:01] Well, you're not listening to this podcast for a church history lesson or a Bible lesson, but if you want to understand how John Brown approached the Jews from his Christian viewpoint, then you'll want to listen to this just a little bit more. Now, in the 17th century and afterward, English Protestants in particular had begun to ponder what the Bible had to say about the Jews and their future. In contrast with the Roman Catholic Church that had literally allegorized Israel and replaced itself—that is, it was a replacement theology; they replaced Israel with the Roman Catholic Church—the Protestants, though remaining strongly Christian, came to conclude that there was a future purpose and plan of God for the Jewish people. Many of them came to the conclusion that the Jewish people were going to be converted to Christianity in vast numbers before the end of the world, but it wasn't tied to any sort of apocalyptic Armageddon kind of notions the way you hear a lot of these Christian Zionists are today. It was simply the idea that the Jewish people were being preserved so that eventually they would come to believe—come to have faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
[06:17] Now, while this is hardly flattering to the Jews then or now, and they would not find this idea very comforting, it at least meant that many English Protestants developed a stronger sense of tolerance and even collaboration with Jewish people. So instead of cutting them off and driving them into the ghettos the way Roman Catholics had done in Europe, English Protestants took the position that the Jews, while incorrect about rejecting Jesus, should nevertheless be treated with kindness and a measure of tolerance, with an eye toward their future redemption. This is where I would plug in how to understand what John Brown inherited from his Calvinist Reformation theology and how he may have viewed Jewish people when he encountered them on a personal basis.
[07:03] Now, of course, John Brown was kind to all people, even those with whom he disagreed. But as an English-derivative Calvinist, John Brown undoubtedly believed in what we call the millennium. Now, there are different views on the millennium among Protestants. The view that was the most prominent in the Reformation—and certainly I believe John Brown held to this view, although he's not a theologian, he doesn't write about these things—but if you understand the framework of his theology, you won't be surprised that he believed in what we call postmillennialism. And that means that he believed that the world was moving toward a great revival before the end of the world. There would be sort of a spontaneous conversion of many, many different peoples to Christianity. It's not a coercion, but he simply believed that before the world was ready for the return of Christ, it had to be won over in large numbers. And we can even see this in some of John Brown's prison letters, that he had hope. This is also why he fought against slavery: because he felt that slavery was a hindrance to the transformation of the world through the peaceful message of the gospel, and that would include large numbers of the Jewish people. This is the context—like it or not, believe it or not, agree with it or not—that's simply the point to say John Brown comes from that fabric. He's cut from that fabric; he comes from that framework. So when he sees Jewish people, he's sympathetic toward them.
[08:40] As a matter of fact, I'd argue that in sheer social terms, John Brown was probably less patient with or sympathetic toward Roman Catholics. And again, because he was very much a latter-day Protestant Reformation figure—he's kind of one of the last Puritans, as has often been pointed out by even some contemporaries—the fact that he willingly befriended Jewish people in Kansas is actually quite a contrast with the meager accounts of John Brown's interaction with Roman Catholics, which were probably more negative in sheer social terms, as I suspect. Of course, I believe John Brown would be sympathetic or at least patient with anybody who was strongly anti-slavery, but the fact is that John Brown's Jewish associates in Kansas were steadily becoming more and more anti-slavery as individuals, as we'll see in their stories, which is something that would have warmed his heart.
[09:32] In contrast, for instance, when he was awaiting his execution in a Virginia jail cell in 1859, Brown literally shouted a Roman Catholic priest away from his doorway, telling the man to go away and that he didn't even want to speak with him. This is because not only was this a Roman Catholic priest, but the Roman Catholic priests—in fact, the Roman Catholic Church—was essentially pro-slavery at that time. Now officially, the Roman Catholic Church did not take a position; it was neutral. At least the Roman Catholic Church in the United States stood neutral towards slavery, as did the Anglican or Episcopal Church. But in practical terms—and certainly John Brown's view would have been—if you're neutral towards slavery, you're pro-slavery. And so John Brown would have had nothing... now he might have spoken to that Roman Catholic priest if the Roman Catholic priest was anti-slavery, but given the man was both an advocate of papal religion and he was neutral/pro-slavery, John Brown didn't even want him to come into his cell.
[10:32] So I hope this helps you to have a sense of John Brown's mindset when it comes to meeting Jewish people. On one hand, he would have felt, as do all Christians, that his Jewish friends would do best for themselves to accept Jesus as their Messiah; but on the other hand, he very likely felt that the children of Abraham, or the Hebrews as they would have been called, were somewhat set apart and should be treated with respect. The fact that the Jews whom John Brown met in Kansas were also facing pro-slavery hostility made them his natural allies, and they certainly felt the same toward him. In fact, they turned to John Brown particularly, as we'll see in the story, as pro-slavery threats and terrorism began to overshadow them. And as the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." So while they were enemies of a kind in religious terms, they grew closer and became allies in their shared struggle against pro-slavery terrorism in the Kansas territory. It's a good lesson for us all. I know that's a long introduction, but you will, I hope, have benefited from this little background before I talk about John Brown's associates who were Jewish people in Kansas. This at least gives you a little bit of a worldview backdrop.
[12:16] So who were these Jewish allies that became part of John Brown's Kansas story? I'm going to mention three, and really I'm only going to concentrate on two of them because it is the two of them for which we have most information. The first of John Brown's Jewish associates was August Bondi, whose actual name was Anchel Bondi. August Bondi was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1833. Bondi came to the United States in the early 1850s with his family, who settled in St. Louis, Missouri. While in St. Louis, he worked with Jacob Benjamin, a men's clothier. In 1854, Bondi and Benjamin saw an opening in the Kansas territory as a means of gaining new possibilities and greater profit, as did many of the Kansas immigrants. After visiting the territory, Bondi and Benjamin decided to pull up stakes and move to the Kansas territory, settling in the Pottawatomie region in May 1855. So John Brown actually arrives in Kansas himself in October of 1855, so they had settled there in the spring of that year.
[13:35] Initially, Bondi's anti-slavery sentiments were more an abstraction than a passion, and by his own admission in the early days of his life in the United States, he held no stated sympathy for enslaved people. He was, however, strongly committed to fighting for a society where religious freedom was guaranteed, and that's understandable given the Jewish experience in Europe. Still, Bondi had the makings of a freedom fighter for justice, and as a teenager, even going back to his days in Austria, he had already been part of a student militia movement called the Vienna Academic Legion. The Academic Legion demanded liberal reforms and constitutional rights from the Austrian Empire. Bondi himself was part of the philosophy corps, one of the five branches of the Legion. Another source says that prior to coming to the United States in the early 1850s, he had also joined Red Republicans fighting in Hungary, where he fought in support of the popular revolutionary Lajos Kossuth. So while Bondi was not an immediate abolitionist, his political and ethical compass was at least pointing in the right direction.
[14:48] But two factors would eventually make him into an anti-slavery radical. The first was simply his experience of pro-slavery thuggery and bigotry in the territory, and the second, as he later acknowledged, was his association with John Brown. After settling in Kansas, Bondi's experiences began to sharpen the reality of pro-slavery people for him in unpleasant ways. Having opened a general store and trade in livestock with his partner Benjamin, Bondi first got to know John Brown's sons and their families, who—remember—had preceded their father in the territory by one year. In fact, when Bondi found a claim he held had been taken by a Southern squatter—which was not unusual, the Southerners were often squatting on claims and also Indian lands—it was the Brown boys who helped him repossess it, probably at gunpoint. As noted, Bondi's alliance with the abolitionist Browns was first a matter of survival and self-interest, but as pro-slavery threats and affronts grew in 1854–55, Bondi found himself more regularly in need of support from the Brown family. Although he had never outrightly declared himself a pro-slavery man, the pro-slavery thugs in the neighborhood had apparently assumed he was on their side at first. But when it became increasingly clear to them that Bondi dissented from the pro-slavery position, they turned against him openly, denouncing him as a deserter.
[16:24] Enter the other significant Jewish associate in the story: Theodore Wiener (Vener)—and that's spelled W-I-E-N-E-R, and I do hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Sometimes his name in the record is spelled like Winer or even Wiener, but to my knowledge, Vener with a "W," Viner. Wiener was older than August Bondi, having been born—and I have had different dates, I think the best date is about 1806, which means that he was closer to John Brown's age. He was born in Posen, modern-day Poznań, Poland. Wiener grew up in a province which hosted one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe while yet under the Kingdom of Prussia. It is not clear when Wiener immigrated to the United States, though he likely came with his brother Herman, who decided to return to Missouri and keep his own clothing business located on Market Street in St. Louis. We know through the reminiscences of August Bondi that Wiener had first lived for an extended time in Texas, and that he owned extensive acreage near Shreveport, Louisiana, too.
[17:37] At first, Wiener would seem an unlikely ally of the Browns, given he had been an outspoken pro-Southern Democrat as late as the spring of 1855. So it's a different kind of background than we saw with Bondi. Bondi describes him at first as a thorough Stephen Douglas squatter-sovereignty Democrat who dismissed reports of so-called border ruffianism as fake news. However, when Wiener joined Bondi and Benjamin in business in the territory, the pro-slavery men wanted him to come out and openly espouse their cause. Instead, Wiener refused, alleging he had come to Kansas to trade and not for politics. Very likely then, Wiener's turn was led by his billfold, not the kind of liberal revolutionary sensibilities that inspired August Bondi. In fact, according to Bondi, Wiener at first enjoyed the patronage of many pro-slavery men who were squatters on Indian lands designated by the government for the Shawnee and Peoria nations, while at the same time he was known to do business with local Shawnee leaders living nearly 30 miles away. It seems clear then that despite his previous association with pro-slavery Democrats in the South, Wiener was probably more mercenary and that it took more of a personal reason to cause him to realign himself with the anti-slavery Browns and the anti-slavery people of the territory.
[19:10] That reason, of course, came as pro-slavery neighbors began to turn against him for not making explicit common cause with them. Bondi recalls that one afternoon Wiener had a bad falling out with Dutch Henry Sherman, one of the local pro-slavery enablers whose own business was used as the site of a pro-slavery court. In the spring of 1856, Bondi says Henry came into Wiener's store one afternoon in February 1856 and, finding Wiener alone, began to harass and bully him. Sherman is described as a tall, heavy-set man, but Wiener was no lightweight either, standing at about 5'10" and weighing about 250 pounds. Wiener was a strapping man who did not suffer fools well. Although many might have expected Sherman to get the best of Wiener, the outcome was quite different. Grabbing an axe handle, Wiener knocked Henry to the floor, pulled a revolver from Sherman's own holster and fired it off, and proceeded to knock him about until Sherman was so wearied and beaten that he was happy to leave the store, Wiener throwing his pistol at him as he fled.
[20:06] According to Henry Thompson, Brown's son-in-law, he arrived at the store just when Sherman was running out. When Wiener saw Thompson, he declared, "He attacked me in my own store, but I made him pray like 90." Thompson perhaps recalled this episode with a smile, noting how Wiener, the Polish immigrant, had intended to say that he had Sherman begging like 90—an expression that was common in the 19th century, "90" being something like we might say he was going 100 miles an hour. Most likely, saying someone was cursing like 90 or begging like 90 was inspired by 90 miles an hour being the fastest a train might go at that time. In simple terms, he meant that he had beat the crap out of Sherman and the man was begging, even pleading, for Wiener to stop beating him. But don't feel bad for Henry Sherman. He and his brother William, known as Dutch Bill, were bullies and chumps, and they would have been happy to guide pro-slavery thugs to the homes of the Browns and Wiener and see them burned out, shot down, and their wives and children driven onto the prairie. Indeed, it was the Shermans' willingness to terrorize local people with threats of violence that ultimately backfired along the Pottawatomie Creek.
[21:14] This, dear listener, is the real story behind the Pottawatomie so-called massacre. These were not innocent pro-slavery men; these were conspirators with big mouths and bad intentions. And you can't run around passing out threats and intimidating weak people just because you have all the power behind you. What happened at Pottawatomie wasn't a massacre; it was a reckoning. At any rate, after this brawl, Wiener began to declare himself a Free State man and even sold off the property that he owned back in Louisiana. According to Bondi, too, through his thick accent, Wiener liked to repeat an old familiar English saying: "Dead men tell no tales." Whatever differences Wiener and John Brown had in terms of culture and religion, both men were known to be imperious, and neither would walk away from a threat.
[22:10] Now, at this point, there's no need for me to retell the entirety of the Pottawatomie epic, except to point out that by May 24th, 1856, John Brown, his sons, and other local anti-slavery men—who were abolitionists in particular—were made aware that their lives and property were in danger, and this now included August Bondi and Theodore Wiener. At the time, a large number of so-called border ruffians—who are better referred to as terrorists from Missouri—had invaded the territory and attacked the Free State center of Lawrence. Out of that army of pro-slavery goons, a large contingent of them were not satisfied to stop with the assault on Lawrence and were camped in the vicinity of the Browns and these other Free State people. The Browns had already made themselves odious earlier that month by openly challenging the pro-slavery bogus court, and that had taken place at Sherman's store. Brown's stalwart son-in-law, Henry Thompson, who sometimes worked for Wiener, had also clashed with another pro-slavery neighborhood thug, James Doyle, after making it clear to Doyle that he, Thompson, was an abolitionist who believed in Black equality. Recall that the Doyles were protectors of the pro-slavery court and co-conspirators in the local plot to destroy the Browns and their allies that same month of May 1856.
[23:32] Unable to appeal to any protection by law, John Brown knew it was time to strike first. According to August Bondi, Brown—and this is a quote—"called his boys and myself and Wiener and Townsley" (and just parenthetically, Townsley is a local Free State guy who owned a wagon and a team) "he called them to one side and made a short speech telling us that for protection of our friends and families a blow had to be struck on the Pottawatomie Creek to strike terror into the pro-slavery miscreants who intended pillage and murder," end quote. And then Brown asked James Townsley to haul them with his wagon, something that Townsley willingly signed on to do, although years later the coward would claim he was forced to do so. At the time, however, Townsley was fully behind Brown and his plan to strike first.
[24:22] According to Jason Brown, Townsley himself said aloud to Brown and the others, quote, "We expect to be butchered, every Free State settler in our region," end quote, and then pled with Brown that help should be sent. But Brown knew there was too little time and too few friends to ask for help. After all, who could they call to defend themselves against the coming assault of a small army of pro-slavery terrorists and thugs? Brown also knew that the only thing that could be done now was to strike first, and to strike at the local conspirators who were about to lead the enemy to their door. By taking these enemies by surprise, John Brown knew the only realistic strategy was to bring the fight to their doors instead.
[25:08] Jason, John Brown's son, recalled his father turning to Theodore Wiener and saying, quote, "Now something must be done. We have got to defend our families and our neighbors as best we can. Something is going to be done now. We must show by actual work that there are two sides to this thing and that they cannot go on with impunity," end quote. Bondi says Brown then separately approached his men—including his sons Frederick, Jason, Owen, Salmon, Oliver, and Henry Thompson, his son-in-law, along with Theodore Wiener—asking if they were willing to come, and they all, as Bondi put it, assented. Brown then told Bondi to stay back because he was not well known, having been away all winter in Missouri, and would do better for them by carrying news and communications. Now, even if, as one local freeman put it, the Doyles and Shermans were, quote, "a kind of hollering and yelping kind of set," end quote, this was no time to wait and see if they were serious in their threats. A body of invading thugs from Missouri were encamped locally, and Brown made sure that the Doyles had indeed both informed and pointed these terrorists toward those they referred to as "the damn Browns." When it was clear that his pro-slavery neighbors had indeed conspired with these invading forces, there was nothing left to do but strike first.
[26:29] From New York City, this has been Louis A. DeCaro Jr. and this is John Brown Today.
