John Brown Speaks

Louis DeCaro, Jr., associate professor of history at The Alliance Theological Seminary in New York City, is the author of Fire from the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown (2002) as well as works on Malcolm X and the urban church.

• Section I. “John Brown’s Prison Letters”October 21 “Do Not Send An Ultra Abolitionist”: Three Identical Letters, Requesting Legal Support October 31 “Thousands Are Thirsting For My Blood”: His First Letter to His Wife and Family November 1 “God Will Surely Attend to His Own Cause”: Response to an Anonymous Quaker (and) “Your Humble Servant, John Brown”: Requesting Legal Aid for One of His MenNovember 4 “Do Persuade Her to Remain at Home”: A Letter Urging that His Wife Not Come to Virginia (and) “You Can Do Me Immense Good Where You Are”: Turning Down a Visit November 8 “Think Too of the Crushed Millions”: A Letter to His Wife and FamilyNovember 10 “The Cause We Love”: Another Letter to His WifeNovember 12 “I Am Worth Inconceivably More to Hang”: A Letter to His BrotherNovember 15 “You Do Me More Than Justice”: Letter to a Christian Admirer in Boston (and) “I Have Enjoyed Much of Life”: A Letter to His Old TeacherNovember 16 “A Life of Some Experience & of Much Observation”: A Fourth Letter to His WifeNovember 17 “Men Cannot Imprison, or Chain, or Hang the Soul”: Letter to a Young AssociateNovember 19 “No Part of My Life Has Been More Happily Spent”: Letter to a Supportive Cousin (and) “Do Not Grieve for My Fate”: An Excerpt from Another Family LetterNovember 21 “This Is Just As It Should Be”: A Fifth Letter to His WifeNovember 22“Worthy to Suffer for the Truth”: A Letter to His Children in North Elba (and) “A Calm Peace Seems to Fill My Mind”: A Letter to His Son and Daughter-in-Law in Ohio (and) “The Slaves We Took About the Ferry”: A Letter to His Prosecutor (and) “Yours for God & the Right”: Letter of Thanks to One of His “Secret Six”November 23 “There Are No Ministers of Christ Here”: Letter to an Ohio ClergymanNovember 24 “Faithfully, Plainly & Kindly”: Letter to a Friend of Means and Support (and) “I Am Getting More Letters Constantly”: A Letter to His Young AttorneyNovember 25 “I Have No Reason to be Ashamed”: A Letter to a Critical Relative (and) “I Know Lucretia Mott”: Letter to a Philadelphia AbolitionistNovember 26 “The Time Passes Quite Pleasantly”: A Sixth Letter to His Wife (and) “Down to the River of Death”: A Letter of Thanks for a Generous GiftNovember 27 “Those Who Die for the Truth May Prove to Be Conquerors”: Letter to a Friend’s Daughter (and) A Missing Letter? (and) “I Am Weeping for Joy & Gratitude”: A Letter to His SistersNovember 28 “New & Very Different Scenes”: A Letter to An Ally and Supporter (and) “The Opportunity to Plead for the Right”: Letter to an Ohio Judge (and) “After I Am Disposed Of”: Another Letter to His Brother (and) “My Father’s Estate”: A Business LetterNovember 29 “Till ‘I Have Showed His Power to This Generation’”: A Warm Letter to a Clergyman (and) “When I Am Publicly Murdered”: A Letter to a Prominent Woman (and) “I Have No Doubt But Both Are Dead”: Letter to the Brother of a Fallen Raider (and) “The God of the Oppressed and the Poor”: A Letter of Appreciation to An ActivistNovember 30 “My Dear Shattered & Broken Family”: A Final Family Letter (and) “Time and Ability”: Letter to the Sister of an Escaped Raider (and)“It is Out of My Power”: A Letter to Another Supporter (and) “Gross and Intentional Misrepresentation”: Letter to a Virginia EditorDecember 1 A Lost Letter to His Nieces (and) “Your Brother Farewell”: A Last Letter to His Brother in Ohio (and) “Grateful for All the Good Feeling Expressed”: Letter to an Old Pennsylvania Friend (and) “My Earnest Thanks”: A Letter to An Old Wool Associate (and) “I Trust God Is With Me”: Two Friends, Two “Form Letters (and) “I Am Not Afraid to Die”: A Letter FragmentDecember 2 “My Last Great Change”: A Letter to An Old Friend (and) “Another Farewell”: An Addendum to His Will (and) “Better Than the Mighty”: A Double Entendre for His CellmateSection II. Statements and DocumentsStatements in Court, October 25-November 2, 1859Instructions to His Virginia Attorneys Remarks on a Published Sermon by Henry Ward BeecherFirst Last Will, December 1, 1859Memorial Stone Instructions, Addendum to First Will, and “True Last Will and Testament” with Codicil, December 2The so-called Prophecy (“Autograph” for Hiram O’Bannon), December 2John Brown’s Prison Bible: Selected TextsSection III. Antislavery and Proslavery InterviewsFriday, October 21 “A Visit to the Prisoners in Charlestown” Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser, 24 Oct. 1859, 1.Friday, October 21 “Interview with Capt. Brown” Reprinted from the Spirit of Jefferson [Charlestown, Va.], in Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser, 24 Oct. 1859, 1.Friday, October 21 An Interview Questionnaire, Independent Democrat [Charlestown, Va.], 22 Nov. 1859Sunday, October 30 “Visit of the Military to Old Brown.” New York Herald, 31 Oct. 1859, 1.Tuesday, November 1, 1859 “Brown in Jail.” (and) “Public Feeling—Sentence of Brown—State of the Prisoner,” New York Tribune, 5 Nov. 1859, 5.Wednesday, November 2, 1859 “Interviews with Old Brown.” (and) “A Visit to Charlestown,” New York Times, 7 Nov. 1859, 4, in The Boston Traveller.Thursday, November 3 “Brown And His Friends.”(and “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 7 Nov. 1859, 6.Friday, November 4, 1859 “About Brown.” (and) “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 9 Nov. 1859, 5.Friday, November 4, 1859 “What Brown’s Plan Really Was.” (and) “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 9 Nov. 1859, 5.Friday, November 4, 1859 “Visit to Old Brown.” (and) [Unidentified pro-slavery correspondent], New York Herald, 10 Nov. 1859, 5.Monday, November 7, 1859 “Appearance of the Prisoners.” (and) “Our Charlestown Correspondence,” New York Herald, 10 Nov. 1859, 5.Wednesday, November 9, 1859. “Brown And His Place Of Confinement.” (and) “The Trials at Charlestown,” New York Tribune, 12 Nov. 1859, 6.Monday, November 21, 1859. “The Prisoners.” (and) “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 24 Nov. 1859, 6.Tuesday, November 21, 1859. “Interview with Capt. Brown.” (and) “Charlestown Intelligence,” Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser, 23 Nov. 1859, 1. Tuesday, November 22, 1859. “What Brown Has Accomplished." (and) “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 25 Nov. 1859, 5.Wednesday, November 23, 1859. “Brown’s Interview with a Minister.” (and) “Affairs at Charlestown. Correspondence of the Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser,” New York Herald, 1 Dec. 1859, 10.Wednesday, October 26, 1859. “The Harper’s Ferry Outbreak,” New York Herald, 27 Oct. 1859, 3.Wednesday, October 26, 1859. “Old Brown’s Opinion of the Herald.”(and) “The Harper’s Ferry Outbreak,” New York Herald, 27 Oct. 1859, 3.Sunday, November 27, 1859. “Brown’s Condition.” (and) “John Brown’s Invasion,” New York Tribune, 30 Nov. 1859, 6.Monday, November 28, 1859. “A Visit to the Prisoners.” (and) “From Charlestown,” New York Tribune, 30 Nov. 1859, 6.Monday, November 28, 1859. “The Place of Execution.” (and) “John Brown’s Invasion. Correspondence of The N.Y. Tribune,” 1 Dec., 6.Tuesday, November 29, 1859. “Very Latest.” (and) “Special Dispatch to The N.Y. Tribune,” New York Tribune, 30 Nov. 1859, 5.Section IV. Reminiscences of John Brown in Jail1. “The Cause I Love So Much”: The Account of a Quaker Visitor (1859)2. “He Died Game”: The Final Assessment of the Tribune’s Undercover Journalist (1859)3. “A Man of One Idea”: A Proslavery Doctor’s Description (1860)4. “His Fortitude Was Sublime”: His Lawyer’s Recollections (1867)5. “The Pre-Present of the Great Idea”: A Virginia Unionist’s Reappraisal (1868)6. “A Very Able Man”: Reminiscence of a Virginia Secessionist (1883)7. “The End Cometh”: Reminiscence of a Kansas Associate (1887)8. “It Will Go Down in Blood and Carnage”: Recollections of an Old Journalist

After being captured following his ill-fated 1859 raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, John Brown became an object of fascination throughout a union increasingly riven by the sectional crisis over slavery. Many northerners, not just abolitionists, saw Brown as a hero. Many white southerners even exhibited a degree of fascination mingled with horror at his aims. Historian DeCaro offers a thorough and valuable collection of Brown's letters and public statements from the nearly six-week period in which Brown was jailed in Charlestown, awaiting his execution for treason against the state of Virginia. DeCaro's editorial apparatus keeps the larger context of Brown's trial and the national debate in sight as the volume's scrupulously edited documents take center stage. One is taken on a fascinating tour of Brown's mental state, ideology, beliefs, and efforts to shape the meaning of his life and raid for posterity. Reminiscences from various visitors to Brown's cell, as well as interviews with antislavery and proslavery newspapers, reveal Brown's formidable intellect and will. This collection gathers an excellent array of primary sources for students of the Civil War era. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.