Diary of Gerrit Smith, April 11, 1858

Captain John Brown of Kansas, and his friend Mr. Anderson came at 11 A. M.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 236

Diary of Gerrit Smith, April 14, 1858

Captain Brown and Mr. Anderson leave us at 6 this morning.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 236

John Brown to His Family, October 31, 1859

Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., Oct. 31, 1859.

My Dear Wife And Children, Every One, — I suppose you have learned before this by the newspapers that two Weeks ago today we were fighting for our lives at Harper's Ferry; that during the fight Watson was mortally wounded, Oliver killed, William Thompson killed, and Dauphin slightly wounded; that on the following day I was taken prisoner, immediately after which I received several sabre-cuts on my head and bayonet-stabs in my body. As nearly as I can learn, Watson died of his wound on Wednesday, the second — or on Thursday, the third — day after I was taken. Dauphin was killed when I was taken, and Anderson I suppose also. I have since been tried, and found guilty of treason, etc., and of murder in the first degree. I have not yet received my sentence. No others of the company with whom you were acquainted were, so far as I can learn, either killed or taken. Under all these terrible calamities, I feel quite cheerful in the assurance that God reigns and will overrule all for his glory and the best possible good. I feel no consciousness of guilt in the matter, nor even mortification on account of my imprisonment and irons; and I feel perfectly sure that very soon no member of my family will feel any possible disposition to “blush on my account.” Already dear friends at a distance, with kindest sympathy, are cheering me with the assurance that posterity, at least, will do me justice. I shall commend you all together, with my beloved but bereaved daughters-in-law, to their sympathies, which I do not doubt will soon reach you. I also commend you all to Him “whose mercy endureth forever,” — to the God of my fathers, “whose I am, and whom I serve.” “He will never leave you nor forsake you,” unless you forsake Him. Finally, my dearly beloved, be of good comfort. Be sure to remember and follow my advice, and my example too, so far as it has been consistent with the holy religion of Jesus Christ, — in which I remain a most firm and humble believer. Never forget the poor, nor think anything you bestow on them to be lost to you, even though they may be black as Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch, who cared for Jeremiah in the pit of the dungeon; or as black as the one to whom Philip preached Christ. Be sure to entertain strangers, for thereby some have — “Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.”

I am in charge of a jailer like the one who took charge of Paul and Silas; and you may rest assured that both kind hearts and kind faces are more or less about me, while thousands are thirsting for my blood. “These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” I hope to be able to write you again. Copy this, Ruth, and send it to your sorrow-stricken brothers to comfort them. Write me a few words in regard to the welfare of all. God Almighty bless you all, and make you “joyful in the midst of all your tribulations!” Write to John Brown. Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., care of Captain John Avis.

Your affectionate husband and father,

John Brown.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 579-80

Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson

Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson was born April 17, 1833, in Indiana, and was therefore in his twenty-seventh year when killed at Harper's Ferry. He was the son of John Anderson, and was the grandson of slaveholders; his maternal grandfather, Colonel Jacob Westfall, of Tygert Valley, Virginia, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; he went to school at Galesburg, Illinois, and Kossuth, Iowa; was a peddler, farmer, and employee of a saw-mill, before emigrating to Kansas in August, 1857, where he settled on the Little Osage, Bourbon County, a mile from Fort Bain. He was twice arrested by proslaveryites, and for ten weeks imprisoned at Fort Scott; he then became a lieutenant of Captain Montgomery, and was with him in the attack on Captain Anderson's troop of the First U. S. Cavalry. He also witnessed the murder on his own doorstep of a Mr. Denton by Border Ruffians. He was with John Brown on the slave raid into Missouri, and thereafter followed Brown's fortunes. Writing July 5, 1859, of his determination to continue to fight for freedom, he said: “Millions of fellow-beings require it of us; their cries for help go out to the universe daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help them? Is it yours? Is it mine? It is every man's, but how few there are to help. But there are a few who dare to answer this call, and dare to answer it in a manner that will make this land of liberty and equality shake to the centre.”

SOURCE: Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After, p. 681

Jeremiah G. Anderson to His Brother in Iowa, Late September 1859

Our mining company will consist of between twenty-five and thirty well equipped with tools. You can tell Uncle Dan it will be impossible for me to visit him before next spring. If my life is spared, I will be tired of work by that time, and I shall visit my relatives and friends in Iowa, if I can get leave of absence. At present, I am bound by all that is honorable to continue in the course. We go in to win, at all hazards. So if you should hear of a failure, it will be after a desperate struggle, and loss of capital on both sides. But that is the last of our thoughts. Everything seems to work to our hands, and victory will surely perch upon our banner. The old man has had this operation in view for twenty years, and last winter was just a hint and trial of what could be done. This is not a large place,² but a precious one to Uncle Sam, as he has a great many tools here. I expect (when I start again travelling) to start at this place and go through the State of Virginia and on south, just as circumstances require; mining and prospecting, and carrying the ore with us. I suppose this is the last letter I shall write before there is something in the wind. Whether I shall have a chance of sending letters then I do not know, but when I have an opportunity, I shall improve it. But if you don't get any from me, don't take it for granted that I am gone up till you know it to be so. I consider my life about as safe in one place as another.

_______________

² Haper’s Ferry.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 545