Abolitionist John Brown Executed for Raid on Harper’s Ferry

Perhaps no figure was more controversial in nineteenth-century America than John Brown, the radical abolitionist who led a raid on the United States Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, (West) Virginia, on Oct. 16-18, 1859—a failed attempt to use the Arsenal’s 100,000 muskets and rifles to lead an armed rebellion to free slaves throughout the South. Brown’s execution on Dec. 2, 1859, sparked a debate that is unsettled to this day: was he a martyr for the cause of freedom and the ending of slavery, or was he a terrorist who broke the law and murdered innocent people (six civilians were killed by Brown and his men, and nine wounded, during their raid—and one soldier was killed and another wounded during his capture)?

Here is how the Albany Evening Journal (Albany, New York) reported Brown’s execution in its Dec. 2, 1859, issue:

The Execution of John Brown

Charlestown, December 1st.—The reporter of the Associated Press has been refused, by Gov. Wise, permission to attend the execution. No facilities will be extended to reporters. The day has passed quietly.

Mrs. Brown was escorted over the ferry at 3 o’clock, when the entire military were brought out to make a demonstration. She was received with full military honors, but her companions were not allowed to accompany her from the ferry. After remaining four hours with her husband she was escorted back to the ferry at 9 o’clock, there to await the reception of her husband’s body.

Prayers for John Brown

Philadelphia, Dec. 2.—A meeting assembled in the National Hall this morning, where there was an overflowing attendance to offer prayers for John Brown. The Rev. Mr. Furniss read a number of letters from Brown. Addresses were delivered by Lucretia Mott, Morry, Green and others.

Boston, Dec. 2.—Rev. Mr. Grimes, colored, held late prayer meetings at his church last night for Brown, and continues them today. The bells in Plymouth and New Bedford were tolled at noon today in memory of John Brown.

John Brown Hung at 11 ¼ O’clock

Baltimore, Dec. 2.—A special despatch from Charlestown says that John Brown was hung at quarter past eleven this forenoon, and that there was no unusual excitement.

Charlestown, Dec. 2.—Brown was taken to the scaffold in a furniture wagon, about 11 o’clock. He spoke freely to the soldiers around him. The body hung about thirty-five minutes; he died, apparently, very easy. The body will be sent to Harper’s Ferry at 4 o’clock.

One of the most powerful anti-slavery newspapers in America was William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator. The paper marked the day of John Brown’s execution by publishing a letter he wrote from his prison cell. Somewhat surprisingly, Garrison also published that day a letter from a Southern law judge which called Brown a “ferocious and bloody savage.” The two following letters were published in The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts) in its Dec. 2, 1859, issue:

Letter from John Brown in Prison

The following letter from John Brown has been received by a gentleman in Boston:

Charlestown, Jefferson Co., Va., Nov. 15, 1859.
My Dear Sir,
Your kind mention of some things in my conduct here which you approve, is very comforting indeed to my mind. Yet I am conscious that you do me no more than justice. I do certainly feel that through divine grace I have endeavored to be “faithful in a very few things,” mingling with even these much of imperfection. I am certainly “unworthy even to suffer affliction with the people of God,” yet in infinite grace he has thus honored me. May the same grace enable me to serve him in a “new obedience,” through my little remainder of this life; and to rejoice in him forever. I cannot feel that God will suffer even the poorest service we may any of us render him or his cause to be lost or in vain. I do feel, “dear brother,” that I am wonderfully “strengthened from on high.”

May I use that strength in “showing his strength unto this generation,” and his power to everyone that is to come. I am most grateful for your assurance that my poor, shattered, heart-broken “family will not be forgotten.” I have long tried to recommend them to “the God of my Fathers.” I have many opportunities for faithful plain dealing with the more powerful, influential and intelligent classes in this region, which I trust are not entirely misimproved. I humbly trust that I firmly believe that “God reigns,” and I think I can truly say “Let the earth rejoice.” May God take care of his own cause, and of his own great name, as well as of those who love their neighbors.

Farewell! Yours in truth,

John Brown

John Brown a Ferocious and Bloody Savage!

From the N.Y. Journal of Commerce.

You have repeatedly urged that John Brown should not be executed; and this on ground of policy, not from any consideration of mercy due to him. “Don’t make him” (say you) “a martyr instead of a felon.” Then it is by putting Brown to death in due course of law, and by the acknowledged behests of justice, that will make him a martyr. Then he would have been, a fortiori, a martyr, if he had been killed, flagrante bello, at Harper’s Ferry; and his comrades who were slain must be martyrs. I don’t mean in your opinion, but in that of those sympathizing traitors and felons whom you would advise us to conciliate by a politic mercy. What do those sympathizing traitors call those who were slain by Brown and his confederates at Harper’s Ferry? Are they martyrs, or not? Have we of the South no right to sympathize with the memory of our martyrs? Shall we forget the death of the Marylander who was slain (without consequent redress) by people of Pennsylvania, while in pursuit of his property under an unquestionable constitutional right? If such a ferocious and bloody savage as Brown cannot, by a proper policy, be offered up as a sacrifice to a due course of law, do you not see that we must resort (and we will resort, perhaps, in any event) to the Lynch code? If the sympathizing traitors of the Higher-Law party cannot stand the due course of law towards one of their justly-convicted and deeply-guilty confederates, why observe the rules of any law but that of force, towards such transcendental sympathizers?

Pray, answer me this: was Magna Charta devised for wild beasts, or those in human form who are worse, those who are hostes humani generis? Again: if Washington (Lewis) had slain those who dragged him from his bed at 1 o’clock at night, and led him captive, would he not have done right, as much so as if he had slain a Rocky Mountain bear? Why shall not the community do the same towards those, worse than the bear, who are preparing the torch, the pike, the sword and the rifle for their dwellings and the inmates thereof?

Strange though it be to you, these are the sentiments of one of your subscribers, and of a Southern Law Judge.