A JOHN BROWN JAIL LETTER RESURFACES
In his last days as a prisoner in Virginia, John Brown wrote a good many letters to family, associates, and strangers. Brown received hundreds of letters, perhaps more, many of them requesting autographs. These letters went unanswered and were thrown into the pot belly stove in his jail cell. Brown's reason for doing so was that because he could not answer all such requests, he preferred to answer none of them. Yet he did write a good many letters to friends and associates, some of which were published in newspapers in the North.
In 2015, Rowman and Littlefield published my collection of John Brown's jailhouse letters, John Brown Speaks: Letters and Statements from Charlestown. My goal in producing this collection was to be as comprehensive as possible, publishing and contextualizing every surviving John Brown letter. To my knowledge, fifty-one of his jailhouse letters have survived, not counting other documents in his hand, such as written directions for his wife and other special writings. Many of the surviving letters survive in their original manuscripts, although others have been lost, now existing only in published transcriptions from the newspaper or other sources.
One
interesting letter, which heretofore has been available only in Franklin
Sanborn's 1885 biography of Brown, recently surfaced on an auction
website. It was written by John Brown to Mary Gale, the sister of
the Charles P. Tidd. Tidd was one of the several of Brown’s men who
were able to escape after the failure at Harper’s Ferry. (In the
aftermath of the Harper’s Ferry raid, Tidd joined the Union army at the start
of the Civil War, enlisting as a private in 1861. He died of illness during
the Battle of Roanoke Island the following year.) After the raid, a
number of attempts by Tidd's family were made to request information about him from Virginia officials, but apparently these went unanswered. However, Mary Tidd Gale was successful,
writing to John Brown in Charlestown jail.
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Last month I was informed by Mick
Konowal, a collector and documentary specialist in the John Brown study, that
not only had Brown's original response to Gale surfaced, but that it was
written on the verso side of her letter to him. Several years ago,
Konowal identified a similar jail letter from Brown to a Charlestown publisher,
in which the abolitionist similarly wrote on the verso side of the
inquiry. Heretofore, I assumed that the Gale-Brown correspondence was
lost; the only version of Brown's letter that had survived is in a
"sanitized" transcription in F. B. Sanborn's Life and Letters
of John Brown (1885, page 615). To no surprise, Sanborn's
transcription needs to be improved. What follows, then, is a literal
transcription based upon the original:
Charlestown,
Jefferson County, Va., 30 Nov. 1859. Mrs. Mary
Gale (or the writer of the writing). Dear Friend,
I have only time to give you the
names of those that I know were killed of my company at Harper's Ferry, or that
are said to have been killed; namely, two Thompsons, two Browns, J.
Anderson, J. H. Kagi, Stewart Taylor, A. Hazlett, W. H. Leman, and three
colored men. Would most gladly give you further information had I the time and
ability. Your friend,
John
Brown
One
may consult my John Brown Speaks for details about this letter. One point worth
mentioning, however, is that while it was a common feature in a prevalently
racist society to segregate blacks from whites even in reference, Brown is certainly not
doing so here by referring to "Three colored men." Rather, it seems
he's being intentionally vague and misleading. Two of his black raiders
were killed during the raid and two were captured. The fifth black
raider, Osborne Anderson, had escaped. From Brown’s standpoint, then, if the
public thought he was dead too, it would be better for his chances of
escape. Happily, Anderson did escape by means of the underground railroad and
returned safely to Chatham, Ontario, whence he had joined Brown. Thankfully, Anderson penned the only primary sketch of Brown and the raid as a participant and survivor in his book, A Voice from Harper's Ferry (1861).
Brown's
original letter was apparently sold on April 22 for $95,000. The price
tag suggests that perhaps he has become of greater interest to manuscript collectors
than in the past. At the same time, however, this letter may have been purchased by
collector who will hide it from scholars and students in a collection, perhaps for years to come as has often been the case. At least,
however, we have had this opportunity to glimpse the original. As Mick
Konowal points out, hopefully the collector who purchased the document will
invest in having the verso side restored, so that Gale's letter and Brown's response both will also be
preserved for history.
=================
JOHN
BROWN'S FAMOUS AKRON HOMESTEAD GETS A MAKEOVER
In the
May 2 online edition of the Akron Beacon Journal, Mark Price
reported that the house that John and Mary Brown lived in during their Akron
years is having its exterior restored thanks to a $375,000 plan. Price reported
that about two-thirds of the cost is covered by a grant from the State of
Ohio. The structure, which is nearly 190-years-old, will keep it
"warm, safe and dry. According to Price, "the original
old-growth tulip poplar had deteriorated beyond repair, so it has been
carefully replaced to the precise dimensions with quarter-sawn cedar from
Oregon." The roof, foundations, chimneys, gutters and spouts were
all modernized. The structure will also be made wheelchair accessible and
its restrooms improved so that house will be accessible to everyone. Interior
work will also be done that will feature a new exhibit, Family, Farm,
Freedom" that is being installed "in the original two-room section of
the 1830 house and will debut Thursday during a 219th birthday celebration for
Brown." The John Brown House is located at Copley and Diagonal roads,
across from Perkins Stone Mansion in Akron.As Prince points out, Brown rented the home for $30 a year between 1844 and 1854 from Col. Simon Perkins (Jr.), who lived in nearby Perkins Stone Mansion and was the son of Akron’s co-founder, Gen. Simon Perkins. The men were business partners in the wool industry, and Brown raised sheep on the Perkins property."
 |
John Brown's Akron Residence
(Karen Schiely, Beacon Journal photo) |
The
ten-year association of Brown and Perkins put the lie to the notion that Brown
was entirely a business failure. What failed for Brown and Perkins was
their wool commission operation in Springfield, Massachusetts; but even this
operation did not decline so much because of Brown's failures as it did because
of the intense, systematic opposition the firm received from the manufacturing
powers of New England, who did not want the woolgrowers to gain an upper hand.
In his correspondence, Brown complained about how the manufacturers united to
undermine the operation by not purchasing U.S. wools in favor of foreign
wools. At one point, according to the great Boyd Stutler, it appears they
even infiltrated the commission house by planting an agent provocateur named
Flint. Yet even after the firm failed in 1849, Perkins strongly
appealed to Brown to continue managing his agricultural interests, and Brown
accepted, remaining with Perkins from 1849-1855, when he finally removed to
North Elba, New York. In the 1840s, John Brown was one of the
most renowned and respects specialists in fine sheep and wool in the North.
The
article says that the Perkins Stone Mansion is open for tours from 1 to 4 p.m.
Wednesday to Saturday through December. The John Brown House will have
identical hours following its opening this month.
================
AKRON-BASED
ARTIST SCULPTS BUSTS OF BROWN AND HIS BLACK RAIDERS
 |
Sculptor Woodrow Nash
(Phil Masturzo, Akron Beacon Journal) |
According
to a May 8 report by Craig Webb in the Akron Beacon-Journal, the
artist Woodrow Nash of Akron is preparing busts of John Brown and his black
Harper's Ferry raiders, Osborne Anderson, Dangerfield Newby, John Copeland,
Lewis Leary, and Shields Green. Webb reports that Nash, a veteran artist,
has crated "everything from commissioned paintings to jazz album covers
and fashion art." A native of Akron, Nash lived in New York City and
found his passion for sculpture before returning to his hometown. He
serves as a board member of the Summit County Historical Society and has sold
sculptured pieces in a variety of sizes in galleries, commissions (including
one of a well-known rapper) and museums. Webb says that Nash has made
about forty life-size depictions of enslaved children for the historic
Whitney Plantation museum and grounds in Louisiana.
The idea of larger-than-life sculptures of Brown and his men is a recent idea that Nash promoted to enhance the experience of visitors to John Brown's house. His intention is to have the John Brown bust installed by next month, and the remaining busts of the raiders installed in the months following.
He
hopes to have the John Brown bust finished and installed sometime in late June,
and the ones of the men who fought beside him installed every subsequent month
or so.
This
particular project holds a special place in his heart since it involves a
historical figure who called Summit County home.
Nash
"fears there are kids who live not far from the historic home, and a
nearby monument that lies hidden by trees and brush, who have no idea who John
Brown was or the role he and the others played in sparking the Civil War and
the end of slavery."
Tony was an award-winning journalist and author with a large following and a legacy of some fascinating and influential works. He is remembered prominently for Confederates in the Attic, although those of us in the John Brown community think of him primarily as the author of Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (Holt, 2011; Picador, 2012). In my exchanges with Tony, in conversation and correspondence, we had our differences concerning John Brown. But he was always thoughtful, considerate, and gracious in discussing those points over which we differed. Of course, while I am no fan of Midnight Rising, my retrospective on his work will wait for another time. Personally, I am saddened by his death. Anyone who had the opportunity to meet Tony Horwitz and spend time speaking with him would agree that he was a very fine person, a brilliant and caring man, and one with considerable gifts and abilities. The landscape of prominent historical writing has been drastically altered by his loss, and one can only imagine what such a writer might have produced had the arc of his life and work been extended another quarter of a century or more. I wish that Tony had a much longer life and his sudden departure is only a matter of sorrow.
