Sunday, June 4, 2023

J. N. B. to John Brown, November 24, 1859

BOSTON, Nov. 24.

My Dear Brother John Brown: I am an old man. I have for more than thirty years opposed Slavery in all its forms; though never with violence! I deeply sympathize with you in your present position, and commend you to that Jesus who preached, what Isaiah proclaimed, seven hundred years before his advent. God forbid that I should censure you for acting "deliverance to the captive," when it has the sanction of this "double inspiration." My brother, I respect and love you beyond expression. I have now a letter from my brother, now, I trust, in heaven. It was written in prison at Baltimore, by one whose life was sacrificed to Slavery's demand.

It tells me what I believe is true, that during the last few years of his life, he gave liberty to more than four hundred slaves. I have taken slaveholders to his monument in Mount Auburn, where the enduring marble tells that Charles Turner Torrey, in the early meridian of his life, was a martyr to Freedom. If you can find it possible to write me the smallest line, that I may place at its side, to bequeath to my children as a most valued legacy, you cannot tell how much I should value it. They are all Christians in the highest sense of that word; their abhorrence of Slavery is unquestioned. I have known you and your sons, and have had the pleasure of taking your honest hand in mine.

Yours in Christ,
J. N. B.

That I may be under no obligation to Virginia, I enclose a ten cent stamp to pay for the paper you may use.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 405

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