RANDOLPH1,
Nov. 21, 1834.
DEAR BROTHER, — As I have had only one letter from Hudson
since you left here, and that some weeks since, I begin to get uneasy and
apprehensive that all is not well. I had satisfied my mind about it for some
time, in expectation of seeing father here, but I begin to give that up for the
present. Since you left me I have been trying to devise some means whereby I
might do something in a practical way for my poor fellow-men who are in
bondage, and having fully consulted the feelings of my wife and my three boys,
we have agreed to get at least one negro boy or youth, and bring him up as we
do our own, — viz., give him a good English education, learn him what we can
about the history of the world, about business, about general subjects, and,
above all, try to teach him the fear of God. We think of three ways to obtain
one: First, to try to get some Christian slaveholder to release one to us.
Second, to get a free one if no one will let us have one that is a slave.
Third, if that does not succeed, we have all agreed to submit to considerable
privation in order to buy one. This we are now using means in order to effect,
in the confident expectation that God is about to bring them all out of the
house of bondage. I will just mention that when this subject was first
introduced, Jason had gone to bed; but no sooner did he hear the thing hinted,
than his warm heart kindled, and he turned out to have a part in the discussion
of a subject of such exceeding interest. I have for years been trying to devise
some way to get a school a-going here for blacks, and I think that on many
accounts it would be a most favorable location. Children here would have no
intercourse with vicious people of their own kind, nor with openly vicious
persons of any kind. There would be no powerful opposition influence against
such a thing; and should there be any, I believe the settlement might be so
effected in future as to have almost the whole influence of the place in favor
of such a school. Write me how you would like to join me, and try to get on
from Hudson and thereabouts some first-rate abolitionist families with you. I
do honestly believe that our united exertions alone might soon, with the good
hand of our God upon us, effect it all. This has been with me a favorite theme
of reflection for years. I think that a place which might be in some measure
settled with a view to such an object would be much more favorable to such an
undertaking than would any such place as Hudson, with all its conflicting
interests and feelings; and I do think such advantages ought to be afforded the
young blacks, whether they are all to be immediately set free or not. Perhaps
we might, under God, in that way do more towards breaking their yoke
effectually than in any other. If the young blacks of our country could once
become enlightened, it would most assuredly operate on slavery like firing
powder confined in rock, and all slaveholders know it well. Witness their
heaven-daring laws against teaching blacks. If once the Christians in the free
States would set to work in earnest in teaching the blacks, the people of the
slaveholding States would find themselves constitutionally driven to set about
the work of emancipation immediately. The laws of this State are now such that
the inhabitants of any township may raise by a tax in aid of the State
school-fund any amount of money they may choose by a vote, for the purpose of
common schools, which any child may have access to by application. If you will
join me in this undertaking, I will make with you any arrangement of our
temporal concerns that shall be fair. Our health is good, and our prospects about
business rather brightening.
Affectionately yours,
JOHN BROWN
__________
1 The town of Randolph in which it was written,
and where John Brown was appointed postmaster in the administration of John Quincy
Adams, seems to have included Richmond, which is now a separate town.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 40-1
No comments:
Post a Comment