PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
March 21, 2009

Contact: Alice Keesey Mecoy
(469) 371-5987
amecoy75002@yahoo.com

DIRECT DESCENDANT OF JOHN BROWN TO PRESENT RESEARCH PAPER
AT SESQUICENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM

(Allen, TX) Alice Keesey Mecoy, a great-great-great granddaughter of John Brown, has been selected to present her research paper entitled 'Silent Warriors – The Women of John Brown's Life' at the academic symposium commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Raid on Harpers Ferry. Mecoy will discuss the important role women played in John Brown's quest for equality of all Americans. For over thirty years, Mecoy has been researching her family and the impact they had on the nineteenth century fight to eradicate slavery.

The multi-disciplinary academic symposium, "John Brown Remembered: 150th Anniversary of the Raid on Harpers Ferry", will give independent scholars, historians and writers from twenty-five states and Germany the opportunity to expand their understanding of John Brown and his place in American History.

Held at the Mather Training Center at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the symposium takes place October 14-17, 2009. Registration is $55.00 for full time faculty and nonprofessionals; $45.00 for graduate students, part time faculty and students.

Registration is available online at http://www.harpersferryhistory.org/johnbrown/registration-form.pdf. For more information about the symposium, contact Kim Biggs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park at 304.535.6026 or at Kim_Biggs@nps.gov.

The academic symposium will be held in conjunction with the 2009 Sesquicentennial Anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry. The John Brown 150th Anniversary Quad-State Committee comprised of various historians and officials from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, are planning and coordinating a range of commemoration events, including re-enactments, art exhibits, lectures and tours. For more information about the 2009 Sesquicentennial Anniversary, visit the official website at http://www.johnbrownraid.org

About Harpers Ferry

HARPERS FERRY NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the states of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, John Brown, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Frederick Douglass are just a few of the prominent individuals who left their mark on this place. Visit http://www.nps.gov/hafe/ for more information

About Alice Keesey Mecoy

Alice Keesey Mecoy was sixteen before she knew of her close connection to John Brown. Growing up her family did not openly discuss the relationship. For thirty years, she has been researching, writing, and sharing her passion about John Brown and his extended family with numerous scholars and historians. She has presented her findings at numerous venues, including the National Abolition Hall of Fame in New York. For additional background information or to schedule an interview visit http://www.alicemecoy.com or call 469.371.5987.

Harpers Ferry Raid Was Aided by Many Blacks; John Brown's Rebellion Enticed Hundreds

by Bob O'Connor (Special to The Washington Times, March 19, 2009)

It is commonly said that John Brown tried to incite the slaves to rebel, but blacks did not join him. That is not true. What really happened is more complicated, more inclusive of black participation, and was more successful than even Brown might have imagined.

Brown raided Harpers Ferry to free the slaves on October 16, 1859, with 21 men.

The first civilian who lost his life, Heyward Shepherd, was a free black man, a baggage handler at Harpers Ferry. Shepherd came upon the raiders on the bridge. They tried to entice him to join them. He balked and ran, only to be shot in the back by the raiders.

However, blacks by the hundreds were motivated to help. Among them were two slaves captured in the raid. Slave Jim was clubbed to death during the raid. Slave Ben was captured and taken to Charles Town, where he died in jail. Both had joined Brown's cause.

Several blacks helped Brown's men escape, and five or six others helped load wagons at the Kennedy Farm.

U.S. Army Col. Robert E. Lee, in charge of putting down the rebellion, listed two more dead raiders than the number of raiders who crossed the bridge - presumed to be blacks. Commander Robert Baylor cites four more insurgent deaths in his reports - believed now to have been blacks who helped in the raid.

Virginia Gov. Henry A. Wise declared martial law in November, saying the mountains above the Shenandoah River were filled with "hundreds of fugitives."

Local blacks burned crops and barns belonging to members of the jury.

W.E.B. Dubois in his biography, John Brown (1909) said, "Even as it was, fifteen or twenty Negroes had enlisted and would probably have been present had they had time to arrive before Brown was captured. Five, probably six, actually came in time to fight and thirty or forty slaves actually helped."

Frederick Douglass, national black leader, said, "With eighteen men John Brown overpowered a town of over three thousand souls. With those eighteen men he rallied fifty slaves to his standard, and made prisoners of an equal number of the slaveholding class."

Years later, Douglass said, "If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin the war that ended slavery."

The Weekly Anglo-African newspaper in New York said: "Virginia would never have trembled at seventeen, nor seventeen hundred white men in arms, had they been all John Browns; it was the five black men armed to the teeth, and the hundred black men in their midst armed with a quarrel just, who caused the Virginians to tremble and shudder."

Five black men -- Osborne Anderson, Dangerfield Newby, Shields Green, Lewis Leary and John Copeland -- joined John Brown in raiding Harpers Ferry on Oct. 16, 1859.

Another locally born black man supported Brown. Martin R. Delany, a free black who had moved to Pittsburgh, organized the 1858 convention where Brown's provisional constitution was adopted.

Henry Watson, a black barber in Pennsylvania, certainly aided and abetted Brown. He arranged Brown's meeting with Douglass and provided overnight accommodations to Douglass.

The five black raiders were Osborne Anderson, Lewis Leary, Shields Green, John Copeland, and Dangerfield Newby. Of these, two had been born into slavery and three were free black men.

Anderson was a free black in Canada and a member of Brown's convention. In his book, A Voice From Harpers Ferry (1860), Anderson says Brown was "surprised and pleased by the promptitude with which the Africans volunteered, and with their manly bearing in the scene of violence."

Newby was a 44-year-old, recently freed slave from Fauquier County, Va. Anderson said Newby had more to lose than anyone, because Newby hoped to free his family from slavery. Newby was the first raider killed.

Leary, along with Copeland, came to the raid from Oberlin, Ohio. Leary and Copeland were both free blacks from North Carolina who emigrated in family groups. Leary, who was Copeland's uncle, died in the raid, while Copeland was captured, tried and hanged.

Green was a 23-year-old fugitive slave from South Carolina. He had once worked for Douglass. Green was captured, tried and hanged.

Copeland and Green were the only raiders found not guilty of treason. To be found guilty of treason, you must be a citizen. Blacks were property and not considered citizens.

When Brown died Dec. 2, 1859, on the gallows in Charles Town, he had done his work, told his story, and had nothing else to offer except his martyrdom for the cause.

Historians even to this day will say that Brown tried to incite slaves to rebel at Harpers Ferry, but that the slaves and free blacks did not show up. Do not believe them. The record shows otherwise.

Douglass said it best. "If we look over the dates, places, and men, for which this honor is claimed, we shall find that not Carolina, but Virginia - not Fort Sumter, but Harpers Ferry and the arsenal - not Colonel Anderson, but John Brown, began the war that ended American slavery."

Historians even to this day will say that Brown tried to incite slaves to rebel at Harpers Ferry, but that the slaves and free blacks did not show up. Do not believe them. The record shows otherwise.

This year, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and surrounding communities are commemorating the 150th anniversary of Brown's raid with at least 70 events. See www.johnbrownraid.org for details or call 1-866-HELLO-WV.

• Bob O'Connor is the author of The Perfect Steel Trap: Harpers Ferry 1859. This historical fiction account of the raid is available at www.boboconnor books.com.

Jean Libby scheduled to make two west coast presentations on John Brown photos, March 19 and 22
Jean Libby, a veteran researcher and documentary scholar has spent decades studying the abolitionist John Brown. Her tireless, enthusiastic efforts have not only inspired and encouraged others, but her work as a grassroots scholar has provided new and exciting insights in a study that has often been little more than "reheated and served" in the conventional academy. Jean's exploration of the Harper's Ferry raid and her research into the involvement of enslaved people in support of Brown has disproved a century of misinformation regarding Brown and his efforts in Virginia in 1859. In more recent years, she has made extensive study of the extant images of Brown, painstakingly tracing out the origin, background, and chronology of photographic (daguerreotype) images of the abolitionist.

This month she will be making presentations on her John Brown Photo Chronology at two west coast events: On March 19, Jean will appear before the Civil War Round Table at the United Irish Cultural Center 2700 45th Avenue, San Francisco, at 7:45 p.m. On March 22, she will be speaking at the Saratoga Historical Museum, 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, at 1 p.m.

According to a press release, "twelve different photo portraits made by John Brown and his supporters for the purpose of recruitment and promotion are gathered from the archives repositories by Jean Libby, an independent scholar and retired community college history instructor in California."

Libby's presentation features twenty high-resolution and finely printed enlarged and mounted images in the exhibit, showing historical perspectives of the original daguerreotypes. Five of the daguerreotypes are extant at archives and museums. Those by African American photographer Augustus Washington have been recovered since 1996, giving validity to the adage: “there is always something new about John Brown.” In addition, historian Libby has identified a second African American photographer who is now attributed to a John Brown original daguerreotype: Henry M. or Alfred C. Platt (brothers) who were daguerreotypists in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1856.
There are no photographs of Brown in Virginia in 1859. Contemporary drawings of John Brown at his arrest and in prison confirm that his famous long beard was trimmed close (perhaps even shaved) during the summer previous to the raid. Two enlarged drawings made from life in November and December 1859 are appended to the photo chronology of 15 x 20 mounted prints. One of the them is a long-missing original drawing of Brown in prison by Edward Spring, the twenty-two year old son of Rebecca Spring, a New Jersey abolitionist who obtained permission to visit Brown on November 5 and 6. The original sketch was acquired by Stanford University Special Collections Dept. with other papers of Rebecca Spring from her grandson in 1990.

The bottom of the pencil drawing shows a chart of the cells in the Charlestown jail where Brown and six of his men were housed. It was intended for use in a rescue mission, which Brown refused for himself, saying he was “worth much more to die than to live” to end slavery.

A forensic examination of the photo portraits was made by Eileen Barrow, anthropologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, in June 2003. Results and essay documentation were published by The Daguerreian Society in 2004, and by Palgrave Macmillan in The Afterlife of John Brown, edited by Andrew Taylor and Eldrid Herrington in 2005. Since then Jean Libby has conducted public workshops at Civil War Round Tables, the American Studies Association, and the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region (New York) to document and annotate the exhibition in a public history manner.

Libby's exhibit will be mounted in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in mid-2009 for public exhibition at the Harper's Ferry raid sesquicentennial from October through December. She will present a detailed projection at the Academic Symposium “John Brown Remembered” October 14 – 17 .

On behalf of the entire John Brown community, I would like to congratulate Jean Libby and wish her continued success in her superlative efforts. --LD

John Brown Coin Issued by the West African Country of Niger

According to international coin collector Joel Anderson, the nations of West Africa issued seven 2500 Franc coins in 2007, commemorating Great Britain's abolition of slavery. Anderson notes that the nation of Benin issued a coin in honor of Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa); Burkina Faso issued a coin honoring William Wilberforce; the seal of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade is on the Ivory Coast coin; a Frederick Douglass coin was issued by the nation of Mali; Senegal issued a Toussaint Louverture coin; Togo honored French abolitionist Victor Schoelcher; and Niger issued a John Brown coin. According to Anderson, because the members of the West African States utilize a common currency, they have issued few coins under their own name. The Brown coin, like the rest, is a silver Essai (pattern) and was issued privately. Each coin is 27mm in diameter, contains .25 troy oz of .999 fine silver and has a mintage of just 850 pieces. Each coin depicts an abolitionist on one side and the issuing nations arms on the other.

It should be mentioned that the United States is worlds away from issuing any kind of currency, paper or coin, commemorating any figure in the antislavery movement (apart from Alexander Hamilton, although he was hardly portrayed by reason of his abolitionist beliefs). The Haitians have a main thoroughfare named for Brown and the people of Niger have a commemorative Franc in honor of Brown, but here in the United States, we do not even have a public acknowledgment of Brown's heroism.

May we suggest that the United States consider begin to redress this problem by revising the $20 bill? Why not remove the image of Pres. Andrew Jackson, a white supremacist and replace him with Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman? Jackson is the least important figure to be pictured on U.S. currency, as well as the one with the least going for him on historical record. As he is not the kind of man that we would ever want in the White House again, it would be well for his image to be permanently retired from our currency. It is high time for an abolitionist figure to be portrayed on our money.

John Brown's Direct Descendant Speaks

One hundred and fifty years after they hanged John Brown, the abolitionist's great-great-great-granddaughter paid a visit to Saratoga to explain that history got his story mostly wrong — and to tell Saratogans how so many Browns ended up in the town's old cemetery, a long, long way from Harpers Ferry.

"I didn't know I was related to him until I was 16,'' Alice Keesey Mecoy said Sunday to a packed room at the Saratoga History Museum. "I said, 'What? I'm related to this crazy man?' ''

That's pretty much how Brown was portrayed in textbooks when Keesey Mecoy, now 49, was attending school up the road in Palo Alto. For generations — four by her family's count — textbook writers have taken their cue from President Abraham Lincoln, who called Brown a "misguided fanatic'' for leading armed, anti-slavery rebellions at Bleeding, Kan., in 1856 and three years later at Harpers Ferry, Va.

But now, as Keesey Mecoy said cheerfully to her audience, a more balanced revision of that one-sided view is afoot.

David S. Reynolds, a prizewinning historian and expert on the poet Walt Whitman and the Civil War, credits Brown in a recent biography as one of the men who "killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights."

After hearing about her ancestor for the first time, Keesey Mecoy didn't pay it much mind one way or the other.

"At 16, you really don't care as much that somebody really interesting was in your family,'' she said. Many years later — after marriage, children who left home for college, and numerous questions from historians — Keesey Mecoy has more than taken an interest. On the sesquicentennial anniversary of Brown's execution, she's embarked on a cross-country speaking tour and is writing a book about Annie Brown, her great-great-grandmother.

Keesey Mecoy now lives in Allen, Texas, and speaks with a slight twang.

"Y'all,'' she said, "My husband likes to say, 'When the kids went away to college, John Brown moved into our house!' ''

What the average American doesn't know about Brown, Keesey Mecoy said, is that he also advocated for equality and voting rights for women, American Indians and other minorities.

"This was very radical thinking in those days,'' she said.

She devoted much of her talk to the Brown family's migration to California after the execution and Civil War. While the family was supported financially by Brown's allies and befriended by literary giants, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Victor Hugo, family members were also regarded as terrorist-sympathizers or as unwanted nuisances by neighbors in upstate New York.

Keesey Mecoy said that Brown's widow, Mary, and a son from a previous marriage, decided to move west to give their children a chance of a normal life, "out of the shadow of John Brown."

After outrunning Southern vigilantes on the Oregon Trail, the Browns reached California safely and moved into a house in Red Bluff, where it was too hot. They then moved to Humboldt, which was too cold. Looking for nicer weather, Mary Brown settled in Saratoga in 1870 with her daughters Annie and Sarah.

According to Keesey Mecoy, Sarah taught English to Japanese migrant workers in what is now Silicon Valley and lobbied against the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

"There again, following her father, she was fighting the good fight," Keesey Mecoy said.

After her talk, she rode in a car to the town's Madronia Cemetery, where she laid a small bouquet of yellow flowers at the gravestones of Mary Brown and 16 other descendants.

------

Exhibit: "150th Anniversary of Harper"s Ferry and Saratoga Resident Mary Brown— features family photographs, newspaper reports, essays, magazines and other historical artifacts on abolitionist John Brown"s failed attempt to seize the arsenal in 1859, his execution for treason and his family"s search for refuge, which they finally found in Saratoga. The exhibit runs through March.

Where: Saratoga History Museum, 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, Saratoga. Hours are 1 p.m to 4 p.m Friday through Sunday

Special event: "John Brown, Bearded Patriarch," a chronology and interpretation of photo images by local historian Jean Libby, 1 p.m. Sunday, March 22.

For more information, go to www.saratogahistory.com.

Source: Joe Rodriguez, Mercury News [San Jose, Calif.], March 8, 2009

March Exhibit Focuses on 150th Anniversary of Harper’s Ferry and Saratoga Resident Mary Brown The National Park Service has planned events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Harper’s Ferry during 2009. The Saratoga History Museum will debut a personal version of Harper’s Ferry through the eyes of one-time resident Mary Day Brown and some of her children. Mary Brown, second wife of Abolitionist John Brown moved to California after his death to begin a new life. The Museum’s archives will provide a poignant portrait of the family. Mary Brown and 11 of her children and grandchildren are buried in Madronia cemetary in Saratoga. The exhibit opens March 6 in the Museum and includes items never before exhibited. A special reception will be held on March 8 at the Museum at 1pm. Light refreshments will be served. “Abolitionist John Brown and Family Remembered” A presentation by Alice Keesey Mecoy, the great, great, great granddaughter of John Brown will be given at the Saratoga History Museum on Sunday, March 8 at 1:00pm. “There was more to Brown than a hatred of slavery,” according to Mecoy. “Brown,” she said, “believed in equality for all men and women - no matter what their race. He wanted his sons to know how to do women's work, and his daughters to be able to do the work of men. He was so radical in what he thought. I think a lot of people misunderstood him at the time," said Mecoy. Mecoy grew up in Palo Alto California and has spent 20 years researching Brown. During her childhood her family did not talk about John Brown because of the way Brown was perceived. Other descendents of John Brown will also be in attendance. If weather permits, a walk to Madronia cemetary will be included in the event to see the gravesite ofMary A. Brown, wife of John Brown of Harper's Ferry and descendents. Saratoga Historical Foundation · 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, Saratoga, CA 95070-5935 · #408.867.4311 Kindly submitted by Jean Libby, 2 March 2009