Part 2: Covenant of Blood: John Brown and His Jewish Associates in Kansas

 

Video Summary

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.