by Tony Horwitz
“I am worth”: John Brown to Jeremiah Brown, Nov. 12, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 142.
“No theatrical”: Thoreau, quoted in Franny Nudelman, John Brown’s Body, 18.
“something more”: John Brown to Rebecca Spring, Nov. 24, 1859, quoted in letter from Spring to Mary Brown, Dec. 1, 1859, BSC.
“irascible”: New York Herald, Nov. 10, 1859.
“Mr. Brown”: George Sennott telegram to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Nov. 5, 1859, BPL.
“Mr. Brown fears”: George Hoyt to Mary Brown, Nov. 11, 1859, BSC.
“scanty means”: John Brown to family, Nov. 8, 1859, HSP.
“gazing stock”: ibid.
“Her presence here”: John Brown to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Nov. 4, 1859 (contents forwarded by Samuel Gridley Howe in letter to Higginson, Nov. 9, 1859), BPL.
“heeding”: John Brown to Mary Brown, Nov. 10, 1859, HSP.
“In the world”: ibid.
“If after”: ibid.
Chapter 11: A Full Fountain of Bedlam
“run off slaves”: Thomas Drew, “The John Brown Invasion,” 36, BSC.
“beings of”: Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857).
“more fully”: Voorhees is quoted in Charles S. Voorhees, ed., Speeches of Daniel W. Voorhees (Cincinnati: Robert Clark & Co., 1875), 1—26.
“a face”: ibid, 12. See also Virginia Free Press, Nov. 17, 1859, which reported that some were carried away by the “magic eloquence of Mr. Voorhees,” and “the sternest men had their hearts so opened that they wept like women.”
“Happily”: Virginia Free Press Extra, Nov. 11, 1859, BSC.
“Those who were”: Oswald Villard, John Brown, 469.
“The inhabitants”: New York Herald, Nov. 1, 1859.
“had at least”: ibid. See also Charles White, “John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry”: “One negro was drowned—a slave—the only one of whom we have doubts as to his complicity with them—& that because he ran with them.”
“Pneumonia and fright”: Office of the Circuit Court, Jefferson County, West Virginia, BSC. See also Virginia Free Press, Nov. 3, 1859.
“manifested many of”: “Petition John H. Allstadt of Jefferson County Virginia for compensation to the extent of the value of two negro slaves, his property, deceased from fright at their capture at night, by John Brown’s party,” Jan. 9, 1860, Dept. of Military Affairs, State Library of Virginia.
“destroyed by Civil War”: ibid.
“tractable and faithful”: “Memorial of W. McP. Fuller of Winchester Frederick Co. praying indemnity for the loss of his slave Jim at the Harpers Ferry Invasion,” Jan. 5, 1860, State Library of Virginia.
“in the common market”: “Petition John H. Allstadt.”
“being deprived of his property”: ibid.
“ready & glad”: “Conversation with Tidd,” Feb. 10, 1860, BPL.
“go over”: “Owen Brown’s Escape from Harper’s Ferry,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1874, 345.
“But when they heard firing”: “Conversation with Tidd,” BPL.
“It was not”: interview with Charles Conklyn, OGV.
“have a warlike”: Mary Mauzy letter to her daughter, Nov. 10, 1859, HFNHP.
“the great scamp Cook”: ibid.
“I asked them”: “John Cook’s confession,” Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 712.
“Abolitionist incendiaries”: Baltimore American, Nov. 12, 1859.
“monstrous scoundrel”: Virginia Free Press, Nov. 10, 1859. The paper also called him a “consummate villain” who insinuated himself among trusting Virginians so he could “whisper the blessings of freedom into the ears of our slaves, and to prepare them to aid in the blow that was to be struck for their liberation.”
“It is to his”: J. W. Ware to Henry Wise, Nov. 13, 1859, BSC.
“There is considerable excitement”: B. S. Brooke to John T. Blake, Nov 14, 1859, in online archives, The Valley of the Shadow, Valley Personal Papers, http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/. Panic also spread to other states, including Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, where it was feared “a squad of Brown’s emissaries” were hiding near Pine Mountain (New York Tribune, Nov. 21, 1859).
“They are”: Journal of James Hooff, Nov. 18, 1859, Virginia Historical Society.
“There is a”: New York Herald, Nov. 20, 1859. The excitable Colonel Davis had previously alerted Wise of the jail defenses: “If attack be made, the prisoners will be shot by the inside guards” (Villard, John Brown, 520).
“Dishonorable Gov Wise” and other threats: Governor’s Office, Letters Received, Henry A. Wise, State Library of Virginia, and “The John Brown Letters Found in Virginia State Library 1901,” Virginia Historical Magazine of History and Biography, Jan. 1902, 273–82.
“Contemptible Nonsense” and other notations: ibid.
“It is alarming”: Gov. Wise to Rev. James McKennan of Wheeling, undated, copied from original by Clarence Gee, HLHS.
“Everything”: Baltimore American, Nov. 26, 1859.
“too dry”: Journal of James Hooff, Nov. 3, 1859. He also comments on dryness and wind on Nov. 10, Nov. 14, and Nov. 17.
“that there are rockets”: John Thompson to wife, Nov. 27, 1859, Virginia Historical Society. Thompson wrote that he was about to go on patrol, adding “If any thing happens good bye darling, take care of mother.” Nothing happened that night. Thompson died five years later, in the Battle of the Wilderness.
“daguerreotype wagon” and “tragedy”: Baltimore American, Nov. 23–24, 1859.
The Filibuster: Michael Kaufmann, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (New York: Random House, 2004), 105. A further discussion of Booth and Brown appears on 103–7.
“He was a remarkably”: George Libby, “John Brown and John Wilkes Booth,” in The Confederate Veteran, April 1930.
“positively refused”: Villard, John Brown, 512.
“There is no”: ibid.
“Orsini bombs”: J. W. LeBarnes to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Nov. 22, 1859, BPL. This letter also speaks of the scheme to kidnap Wise. On November 28, LeBarnes telegraphed “projects abandoned.”
“If the prisoner”: Gov. Wise to Francis Stribling, Nov. 10, 1859, quoted in McGinty, John Brown’s Trial, 243.
“To hang”: Villard, John Brown, 501.
“Brown deserves”: John Tyler to Henry Wise, November 2 and 9, 1859, HSP.
“uncompromising abolitionist”: Lydia Maria Child to Gov. Wise, Oct. 26, 1859, in “Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason of Virginia,” BSC.
“the hoary-headed”: Eliza Mason to Lydia Child, Nov. 11, 1859, in Letters of Lydia Maria Child (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1883), 280.
“I will not”: Gov. Wise to Andrew Hunter, Nov. 6, 1859, in Magazine of History, Aug. 1908, HLHS.
“Gov. Wise told me”: Baltimore American, Nov. 30, 1859.
“Shall John Brown”: The quotations from Wise in this passage are from his speech to the Assembly on Dec. 5, 1850, in Governor’s Message and Reports of the Public Officers of the State.
“Governor Wise left”: New York Herald, Nov. 23, 1859.
“I have now”: John Brown to his children, Nov. 22, 1859, in Louis Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 150.
“able to sit up”: John Brown to Mary Brown, Nov, 26, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 159.
“I have many”: John Brown to Rebecca Spring, Nov. 24, 1859; an extract appears in a letter Spring wrote to Mary Brown, Dec. 1, 1859, BSC.
“He said”: Father Michael Costello to Father Harrington, Feb. 11, 1860, HFNHP.
“they had better pray”: Cleon Moore to David Strother, Nov. 4, 1859, BSC.
“amalgamation”: Baltimore American, Nov. 23, 1859.
“I feel no”: Independent-Democrat (Charlestown, Va.), Nov. 22, 1859, OGV.
“Question”: ibid.
“Life is made up”: John Brown to Mary Brown, Nov. 26, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Rea
der, 159–60.
“If you now feel”: ibid.
Chapter 12: So Let It Be Done!
“It was a”: Baltimore American, Oct. 24, 1859, citing interview by Spirit of Jefferson (Charlestown).
“I have been”: John Brown to Rev. H. L. Vaill, Nov. 15, 1859, in Louis Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 143–44.
“I cannot believe”: ibid.
“His raid”: William Lloyd Garrison to Oliver Johnson, Nov. 1, 1859, in Walter Merrill, The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), 661.
“wading in blood”: Rev. Heman Humphrey to John Brown, Nov. 20, 1859, in Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, 602.
“poor erring servant” and “He shall begin”: John Brown to Rev. Heman Humphrey, Nov. 25, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 157–58.
“strengthen me just once more”: Judges 16:30.
“For many years”: John Brown to Heman Humphrey, Nov. 25, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 157.
“without any bloodshed”: John Brown to Andrew Hunter, Nov. 22, 1859, in Sanborn, The Life and Letters, 584. On Brown’s men and what they thought, see, for instance, the confession of John Copeland, who stated he thought there would be a similar attack “in Kentucky about the same time” (New York Herald, Nov. 5, 1859). Also, see the testimony of Richard Realf, who said Brown believed “slaves would immediately rise” and join him as he worked diagonally south through the mountains from Maryland to Alabama, expanding his provisional state. Mason Report, A096–98.
“Captain Brown was all”: Osborne Anderson, “A Voice from Harper’s Ferry,” 36.
“Some of the boys begged”: statement of Annie Brown Adams, Chicago Historical Society.
“I sometimes feel”: ibid.
“most of all”: “Conversation with Tidd,” Feb. 10, 1860, BPL.
“I said to”: interview with Salmon Brown, OGV.
“Father’s idea”: ibid.
“strike terror”: Richard Hinton, “An Interview with John Brown and Kagi,” in Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 673.
“to alarm the”: ibid., 675.
“of no account”: testimony of William Arny, Mason Report, A088.
“relinquish”: William A. Phillips, “Three Interviews with Old John Brown,” Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1879, quoted in Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 681.
“I expect”: John Brown to Franklin Sanborn, Feb. 24, 1858, in Sanborn, The Life and Letters, 444.
“in the worst”: “John Brown to Rev. H. L. Vaill, Nov. 15, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 143–44.
“Declaration of Liberty” and “Nature is mourning”: Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 637, 643.
“It struck me at the time”: testimony of Andrew Hunter, Mason Report, A060.
“If you are assailed” and other advice: Hinton, John Brown and His Men, 585–88.
“My present”: John Brown to D. R. Tilden, Nov. 28, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 162.
“I have asked”: John Brown to Mary Stearns, Nov. 29, 1859, RWL.
“what is probably”: John Brown to family, Nov. 30, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 164–66.
“You have nursed”: Mary Brown to John Brown, Nov. 13, 1859, OGV.
“minister to your”: ibid.
“I do not”: ibid.
“tall, large” and other descriptions of Mary: interview by Theodore Tilton in the Independent (New York), Nov. 17, 1859, extracted in Virginia Free Press, Dec. 1, 1859.
“He is always cool”: ibid.
“I do not ask”: Mary Brown to Governor Wise, Nov. 21, 1859, HSP.
“I will rattle”: W. Hicks to Governor Wise, Nov. 19, 1859, Governor Henry Wise Executive Papers, State Library of Virginia. See also, Dr. Bickle to Gov. Wise, Nov. 1859, HSP.
“We desire”: Dr. A. E. Peticolas to Andrew Hunter, Nov. 1, 1859, HLHS.
“The Court”: Gov. Wise to Andrew Hunter, Nov. 2, 1859, HLHS.
“Madam”: Gov. Wise to Mary Brown, Nov. 26, 1859, HSP.
“from all mutilation”: Gov. Wise to Major-Gen. Taliaferro, Nov. 26, 1859, HSP.
“entirely willing”: John Brown to Mary Brown, Nov. 26, 1859, in Ruchames, A John Brown Reader, 159–60.
“I want you”: W. P. Smith to A. P. Shutt, Nov. 20, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper’s Ferry.
“excursionists”: Josiah Perham to President/Superintendent of B&O, Nov. 7, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper’s Ferry.
“Under cover”: Andrew Hunter to B&O President, Nov. 25, 1859, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper’s Ferry.
“for the use”: New York Herald, Nov. 30, 1859.
“STRANGERS”: Baltimore American, Nov. 30, 1859.
“information from various quarters”: Gov. Wise to Pres. Buchanan, Nov. 25, 1859, Governor’s Message and Reports of the Public Officers of the State.
“Necessity may”: Gov. Wise to the Governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Nov. 25, 1859, Governor’s Message and Reports of the Public Officers of the State.
“almost incredible”: Pres. Buchanan to Gov. Wise, Nov. 28, 1859, Governor’s Message and Reports of the Public Officers of the State.
“on the line”: Governor Wise’s order, Nov. 24, 1859, in Villard, John Brown, 523.
“The town”: New York Herald, Nov. 29, 1859.
“There is no”: Major-General William B. Taliaferro to Gov. Wise, Dec. 2, 1859, in Villard, John Brown, 527.
“the enemy”: Robert E. Lee to his wife, Dec. 1, 1859, quoted in Francis Adams, An Annotated Edition of the Personal Letters of Robert E. Lee, 551–52.
“It is a matter”: ibid.
“There seemed to be an evident”: Baltimore American, Dec. 3, 1859.
“stiff platitudes”: New York Tribune, Dec. 6, 1859.
“assured”: ibid.
“For some minutes”: ibid.
“they were”: Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Dec. 2, 1859.
“Wife, I am”: New York Tribune, Dec. 6, 1859.
“was soon”: Baltimore American, Dec. 3, 1859.
“For my sake”: New York Tribune, Dec. 3, 1859. The December 4, 1859, New York Herald quotes an “official” who adds: “His sole object was to prevent inconvenience in their transportation, and avoid any disagreeable odor.”
“in consideration”: John Brown’s will, Dec. 1, 1859, is in HSP.
“as good”: ibid.