_John Brown.--His Religious Zeal.--His Hatred to Slavery.--Organization
of his Army.--Attack on Harper’s Ferry.--His Execution.--John Brown’s
Companions, Green and Copeland.--The Executions._
The year 1859 will long be memorable for the bold attempt of John Brown
and his companions to burst the bolted door of the Southern house of
bondage, and lead out the captives by a more effectual way than they had
yet known: an attempt in which, it is true, the little band of heroes
dashed themselves to bloody death, but, at the same time, shook the
prison-walls from summit to foundation, and shot wild alarm into every
tyrant-heart in all the slave-land. What were the plans and purposes
of the noble old man is not precisely known, and perhaps will never be;
but, whatever they were, there is reason to believe they had been
long maturing,--brooded over silently and secretly, with much earnest
thought, and under a solemn sense of religious duty. As early as the
fall of 1857, he began to organize his band, chiefly from among the
companions of his warfare against the “Border Ruffians” in Kansas. Nine
or ten of these spent the winter of 1857-8 in Iowa, where a Col. Forbes
was to have given them military instruction; but he, having-fallen out
with Brown, did not join them, and Aaron D. Stevens, one of the company,
took his place.
About the middle of April, 1858, they left Iowa, and went to Chatham,
Canada, where, on the 8th of May, was held a convention, called by
a written circular, which was sent to such persons only as could be
trusted. The convention was composed mostly of colored men, a few of
whom were from the States, but the greater part residents in Canada,
with no white men but the organized band already mentioned. A
“Provisional Constitution,” which Brown had previously prepared, was
adopted; and the members of the convention took an oath to support it.
Its manifest purpose was to insure a perfect organization of all who
should join the expedition, whether free men or insurgent slaves, and to
hold them under such strict control as to restrain them from every act
of wanton or vindictive violence, all waste or needless destruction of
life or property, all indignity or unnecessary severity to prisoners,
and all immoral practices; in short, to keep the meditated movement
free from every possibly avoidable evil ordinarily incident to the armed
uprising of a long-oppressed and degraded people.
And let no one who glories in the revolutionary struggles of our fathers
for their freedom deny the right of the American bondsman to imitate
their high example. And those who rejoice in the deeds of a Wallace or a
Tell, a Washington or a Warren; who cherish with unbounded gratitude the
name of Lafayette for volunteering his aid in behalf of an oppressed
people in a desperate crisis, and at the darkest hour of their
fate,--cannot refuse equal merit to this strong, free, heroic man, who
freely consecrated all his powers, and the labors of his whole life, to
the help of the most needy, friendless, and unfortunate of mankind.
The picture of the Good Samaritan will live to all future ages, as the
model of human excellence, for helping one whom he chanced to find in
need.
John Brown did more: he went to _seek_ those who were lost that he might
save them.
On Sunday night, Oct. 16, John Brown, with twenty followers (five of
them colored), entered the town of Harper’s Ferry, in the State of
Virginia; captured the place, making the United-States Armory his
headquarters; sent his men in various directions in search of slaves
with which to increase his force.
The whole thing, though premature in its commencement, struck a blow
that rang on the fetters of the enslaved in every Southern State, and
caused the oppressor to tremble for his own safety, as well as for that
of the accursed institution.
John Brown’s trial, heroism, and execution, an excellent history of
which has been given to the public by Mr. James Redpath, saves me from
making any lengthened statement here. His life and acts are matters of
history, which will live with the language in which it is written. But
little can be said of his companions in the raid on slavery. They were
nearly all young men, unknown to fame, enthusiastic admirers of the old
Puritan, entering heartily into all of his plans, obeying his orders,
and dying bravely, with no reproach against their leader.
Of the five colored men, two only were captured alive,--Shields Green
and John A. Copeland. The former was a native of South Carolina, having
been born in the city of Charleston in the year 1832. Escaping to the
North in 1857, he resided in Rochester, N.Y., until attracted by the
unadorned eloquence and native magnetism of the hero of Harper’s Ferry.
The latter was from North Carolina, and was a mulatto of superior
abilities, and a genuine lover of liberty and justice. The following
letter, written a short time before his execution, needs no
explanation:--
“Charlestown, Va., Dec. 10, 1859.
“My dear Brother,--I now take my pen to write you a few lines to let you
know how I am, and in answer to your kind letter of the 5th inst. Dear
brother, I am, it is true, so situated at present as scarcely to know
how to commence writing: not that my mind is filled with fear, or that
it has become shattered in view of my near approach to death; not that I
am terrified by the gallows which I see staring me in the face, and
upon which I am so soon to stand and suffer death for doing what George
Washington, the so-called father of this great but slavery-cursed
country, was made a hero for doing while he lived, and when dead his
name was immortalized, and his great and noble deeds in behalf of
freedom taught by parents to their children. And now, brother, for
having lent my aid to a general no less brave, and engaged in a cause
no less honorable and glorious, I am to suffer death. Washington entered
the field to fight for the freedom of the American people,--not for the
white man alone, but for both black and white. Nor were they white men
alone who fought for the freedom of this country. The blood of black men
flowed as freely as that of white men. Yes, the _very first_ blood
that was spilt was that of a negro. It was the blood of that heroic
man (though black he was), Crispus Attucks. And some of the _very last_
blood shed was that of black men. To the truth of this, history, though
prejudiced, is compelled to attest. _It is true_ that black men did an
equal share of the fighting for American independence; and they were
assured by the whites that they should share equal benefits for so
doing. But, after having performed their part honorably, they were by
the whites most treacherously deceived,--they refusing to fulfil their
part of the contract. But this you know as well as I do; and I will
therefore say no more in reference to the claims which we, as colored
men, have on the American people....
“It was a sense of the wrongs which we have suffered that prompted the
noble but unfortunate Capt. Brown and his associates to attempt to give
freedom to a small number, at least, of those who are now held by cruel
and unjust laws, and by no less cruel and unjust men. To this freedom
they were entitled by every known principle of justice and humanity;
and, for the enjoyment of it, God created them. And now, dear brother,
could I die in a more noble cause? Could I, brother, die in a manner and
for a cause which would induce true and honest men more to honor me, and
the angels more readily to receive me to their happy home of everlasting
joy above? I imagine that I hear you, and all of you, mother, father,
sisters and brothers, say, ‘No, there is not a cause for which we, with
less sorrow, could see you die!’”
“Your affectionate brother,
“John A. Copeland.”
“The Baltimore Sun” says, “A few moments before leaving the jail,
Copeland said, ‘If I am dying for freedom, I could not die for a better
cause. _I had rather die than be a slave!_’ A military officer in charge
on the day of the execution says, ‘I had a position near the gallows,
and carefully observed all. I can truly say I never witnessed more firm
and unwavering: fortitude, more perfect composure, or more beautiful
propriety, than were manifested by young Copeland to the very last.’”
Shields Green behaved with equal heroism, ascending the scaffold with
a firm and unwavering step, and died, as he had lived, a brave man, and
expressing to the last his eternal hatred to human bondage, prophesying
that slavery would soon come to a bloody end.