Brown, John

Autograph letter, signed ("John Brown"), 1 page (7 ¾ x 7 1/8 in.; 196 x 180 mm, sight), on blue lined paper, Ingersol, Canada West, 16 April 1858, to William H[oward] Day, asking him to send Harriet Tubman to join him at the Chatham convention; sun-faded at edges. Matted, glazed and framed with a portrait print.

Autograph letter, signed ("John Brown"), 1 page (7 ¾ x 7 1/8 in.; 196 x 180 mm, sight), on blue lined paper, Ingersol, Canada West, 16 April 1858, to William H[oward] Day, asking him to send Harriet Tubman to join him at the Chatham convention; sun-faded at edges. Matted, glazed and framed with a portrait print.
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Brown wants Harriet Tubman to join him in planning the invasion of Virginia.

Brown had long planned an invasion of northwest Virginia with a view to liberating slaves, taking over the Federal armory at Harper's Ferry, and raiding neighboring plantations. Approximately 75,000 blacks lived in the British-governed Canada West, mostly ex-slaves who had fled there. A majority led productive lives, establishing schools and churches, entering the trades and professions. Brown hoped to make use of this rich sources of potential recruits. He planned a convention in Chatham, the hub of culture and politics for Canadian blacks.

On 7 April 1858, he arrived in St. Catherines, Ontario. During his stay, he visited Harriet Tubman, who had escaped north in the 1840s and become a leader of the Underground Railroad. Brown wanted to involve Tubman in the Virginia plan; in his view Tubman was tougher than anyone he had ever met, intentionally referring to her as "he" or "the General."

In his letter, written to William H. Day (1825–1900), a Cleveland abolitionist newspaper editor, then in St. Catherines, he shows his anxiety, and asks the help of Day in getting her to come: "On reaching the cars yesterday at St. Catharines [sic] I did not find my friend Hariet[sic] as I expected; but believed she would certainly be on every moment until the train left, having my bagage[sic] in and my ticket bought I came on expecting she would be on by next train. Yet she has not come. May I trouble you to see her at once; and if she is well, by all means have her come on immediately, and if she is unwell get her to send on Thomas Eliot. ... I would not on any account fail [emphasis original] of having her come if she is able to do so. ... I am sorry to trouble you in the matter but I am very anxious to have her come."

Tubman never attended the convention. Extending over two sessions, it was attended by 34 blacks and twelve whites. Only one black recruit from this convention participated in the Harper's Ferry raid, the printer Osborne Perry Anderson, who went on to write a pamphlet account of the raid.