Fine Letter Pertaining to the John Brown Rebellion

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2018

Autograph Letter with good content, Rock Hall, October 19, 1859, and reads in part: “...I write to assure you we are all alive & well....We heard of the insurrection about twelve noon. Ma and I were at home alone & many were the conjecturs as to the cause...Pa wrote you & Nat the exaggerated account in circulation the first day. I doubtless you have seen published ones as much so & even further from the truth...you may like to hear in very few words the exact facts. Well some twenty odd men from some part of the world came in the night took possession of the armory & magazine. A part of them went up to Mr. L. Washington...and Mr. Allstat’s took both of them & the son of the latter, carried them to the Ferry (where they were secured with all the men connected with the government in any way) as hostages. Every man who was not obliged to return to their frightened familes went down to defend their rights & take the rebels. They were many more than I can tell you, but did not succeed in taking them before the arrival of the troops from Washington who in twenty minutes did the work. Never were people more astonished when they found out twenty men had been the cause of so much excitement...Indeed it makes me sick to think of the way the poor miserable men were butchered. One while dying asked for water and was told there was none there for him. Every man of them was killed but two, one an old man of 75 [John Brown] The other a negro. They are in jail in Charles Town. A yankee [John S. Cooke] who has lived at Harpers Ferry some years, they confess to be their Captain, escaped Monday morning but will doubtless be taken as Governor Wise has offered $1,000 reward....Pa came home from H. Ferry in the morning & said they had found concealed in the mountain a great many rifles of the most deadly nature & a great many spears, such as have not been seen or heard of in this century. They were about eight inces of steel, sharp on both sides, & about three in middle with a handle of wood about 4 ft. long. I don’t know that you can imagine the shape of the spear from that description <----- [drawn pike] Each of these was in a wooden case, so that anyone might carry them safely. Oh dear can you think of the misery wer might have been plunged in had such instruments been in the hands of our slaves. It is generally thought that they knew of it but were afraid to join. We can’t find out if the servants here knew or not. They are all dreadfully frightened. Rachel says she can’t sleep at night for fear some one will come & kill her & her children...A. Newton says he would have killed one man but let Mr. F. Brisco do it. Mr. R. Washington shot the man that shot Mr. Turner. Mr. Cockrel at the mill shot one...” Fine condition. Very rare account of the John Brown Raid. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harper's Ferry) was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's party of 22 was defeated by a company of U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Israel Greene. Colonel Robert E. Lee was in overall command of the operation to retake the arsenal. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom he had met in his transformative years as an abolitionist in Springfield, Massachusetts, to join him in his raid, but Tubman was prevented by illness, and Douglass declined, as he believed Brown's plan would fail.

Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).