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Letter From John Brown to George Stearns, August 10,
1857
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In August 1857, at the time abolitionist John Brown wrote
this letter to a New England benefactor, he had become
both feared and hunted in Kansas and was seeking refuge
in Tabor, Iowa. The year before, in the guerrilla war
against pro-slavery forces, Brown with his sons had led
a murderous attack against five intended victims in Osawatomie.
But now with Kansas resorting more to ballots than bullets,
Brown was laying plans for another, bigger scheme—a
large slave insurrection back east in Virginia at Harpers
Ferry. “I am in immediate want,” wrote Brown,
“of from Five Hundred to One Thousand Dollars for
secret service & no questions asked.” |
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John Brown
Letter, 1857
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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