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John Brown

(Born May 9, 1800 – Hanged December 2, 1859)

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Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry. This mural is housed in the Kansas State Capitol Building in Topeka, KS.

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November 29 to December 5, 2009
150 Years Later

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Various Locations
Brought to you by:
The Charles Blockson Collection, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, The Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League, The National Archives at Philadelphia, The African American Museum of Philadelphia, Mother Bethel AME Church, Shiloh Baptist Church, The Library Company of Philadelphia, The School District of Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, The Civil War History Consortium, The Philadelphia Tribune, Cliveden of the National Trust, Drexel University, Philadelphia Quest for Freedom, The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Constitution High School, Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom, and Millicent Sparks Productions.

Organized by the Moonstone Arts Center

Funded by: The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, The National Archives: Mid-Atlantic Region, The Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League, The Pennsylvania Humanities Council and The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.

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Why John Brown Matters

1847 daguerrotype taken by Augustus Washington, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

There is a very special thread that runs through American history. It is the thread of people fighting for freedom and equality for everyone, regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. It started with a group of radicals in Philadelphia who inspired Tom Paine to write Common Sense in 1776. It is embodied in the lives of many individuals who we have never heard of, but who struggle daily in their communities for these ideals. Every once in a while there emerges a giant whose words and actions so inspire the people around them that they change the world. They are always controversial. They inspire great love among the oppressed and great fear and hate among the status quo. In the middle of the nineteenth century that person was John Brown.

Many people in the nineteenth century who were against slavery, also believed that the freed slaves should leave the United States for Africa or the Caribbean. Not John Brown. He believed that the Golden Rule applied to all people and that the founding document of the United States was the Declaration of Independence, which was also meant for everyone. Brown believed that slavery was such an evil that it should be ended by any means necessary. He believed that all people should be free and treated equally and with respect. Brown addressed all individuals as Mister or Miss, regardless of their race or position. He also believed that there was a point when one needed to stop talking and start taking action.

During the War of 1812, at the age of twelve, while Brown was delivering cattle to General William Hull’s army on the Detroit front, he witnessed a young slave being abused by his host. Why, he thought, am I being treated so nicely while this other young man is being mistreated? Thus began Brown’s struggle against slavery.

In 1851, Brown organized the League of Gilead in Springfield, Massachusetts, an armed group that pledged to free any person caught by slave catchers. This group was formed in response to Congress passing the Fugitive Slave Act, which gave slave owners the use of federal law enforcement powers to go into the North to seek the return of escaped slaves. However, these agents not only captured escaped slaves, but any black person who could not prove they were free.

Beyond the League of Gilead, John Brown was also active in the Underground Railroad helping escaped slaves to reach Canada. He was friends with prominent black abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and also many notable Philadelphia Abolitionists. In the late 1850s, he took up arms to defend Kansas as a “free state” against pro-slavery forces. This action is commemorated in John Steuart Curry’s famous mural “Tragic Prelude,” which is displayed directly across from the Governor’s office in Topeka, Kansas and depicts John Brown as “The Moses of Kansas.”

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“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
- John Brown’s last letter, written the day he was hanged.
December 2, 1859

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As his anti-slavery commitments continued to deepen, Brown presented his plan for a provisional constitution and guerilla war against slavery to the 1858 convention in Chatham, Canada. This convention was unlike any other: organized by a white man, attended largely by blacks, and designed to raise a black army to trigger an African American revolution that would wipe out slavery. It was here that plans for the attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry were begun.

The actual attack took place on October 16, 1859. As a result Brown was captured, tried by the State of Virginia, and hung on December 2, 1859.

Most of Brown’s white supporters ran for cover. The South, as well as pro-slavery and southern sympathizers in the North, demonized him. On December 2, 1859, Philadelphia abolitionists and the black community honored Brown by declaring “Martyr Day.” Black homes and businesses were draped in black and two vigils were held in his honor. At National Hall (12th and Market) an abolitionists’ vigil was set upon by 20,000 “good” Philadelphia citizens who supported Virginia and the South. At Shiloh Baptist Church, a vigil was led by Rev. Jeremiah Asher, a highly vocal Brown supporter. In subsequent years, the church held other events to raise ongoing funds for Brown’s family.

John Brown’s stature among whites rose when Ralph Waldo Emerson promoted him in the lecture, Courage (delivered on November 8, 1859), noting: “John Brown is that new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led by love of men into conflict and death. – the new saint waiting his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross.”

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“Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him.”
- Frederick Douglass

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John Brown’s Body

John Brown’s body lies
a-mold’ring in the grave
John Brown’s body lies
a-mold’ring in the grave
John Brown’s body lies
a-mold’ring in the grave
His soul goes marching on

Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
His soul is marching on

He captured Harper’s Ferry
with his nineteen men so true
He frightened old Virginia
till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor,
themselves the traitor crew
His soul is marching on

Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
His soul is marching on

John Brown died that
the slave might be free,
John Brown died that
the slave might be free,
John Brown died that
the slave might be free,
But his soul is marching on!

Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
His soul is marching on

The stars above in Heaven
are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven
are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven
are looking kindly down
On the grave of old John Brown

Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!
His soul is marching on

Written in 1861, this song originated with soldiers of the Massachusetts 12th Regiment and soon spread to become the most popular anthem of Union soldiers during the Civil War. Many versions of the song exist. The Brown tune inspired Julia Ward Howe, after she heard troops sing the song while parading near Washington, to write her lyrics for the same melody, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

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The Moonstone Arts Center, directed by Larry Robin, is responsible for coordinating this week of events and for producing this newspaper.

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John Brown’s
Philadelphia Connections
Written by V. Chapman-Smith,
Regional Administrator, National Archives at Philadelphia

2009 marks the 150th Anniversary of the Harpers Ferry Raid (October 16th) and the hanging of John Brown (December 2). This year is also the 160th Anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s flight to freedom and arrival in Philadelphia. Harriet Tubman and John Brown were both contemporaries and colleagues in the struggle to end slavery and bring equality to black people. John Brown reverently called Tubman “General,” while his men, Tubman, and others called him “Captain Brown”. Both individuals rooted their work in a strong spirituality and framed their efforts as “God’s work.” The two greatly admired each other, and if not for other circumstances, Tubman would have been with Brown at Harpers Ferry. Tubman nonetheless helped Brown with recruitment and some tactical planning. As a result of this ill-fated raid, John Brown became one of the most controversial figures of 19th Century America, viewed as a fanatic by some and a martyr by others, while Harriet Tubman was largely consecrated as a heroine in the American freedom struggle.

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U.S. Marines storming the armoury at Harpers Ferry, Va. (now in West Virginia), after its capture by abolitionist John Brown on Oct. 18, 1859.

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While the Harpers Ferry Raid is a landmark event, what is not always widely presented or discussed is the connection of the Raid to the larger African American experience in Philadelphia or the meaning of the Raid to black Americans and their allies in the city before the Civil War. No other white abolitionist worked as closely or as intimately with blacks as John Brown did. By the early 1850’s Brown’s credibility and relationship within the black world was solidly established. During the first fifty years of his life, Brown helped finance the publication of David Walker’s Appeal and Henry Highland’s “Call to Rebellion” speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves. He and his wife agreed to raise a black youth as one of their own. He also participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves from slave catchers. In 1849, Brown moved to the black community of North Elba, New York, established with the philanthropy of Gerrit Smith, who donated tracts of at least 50 acres to black families willing to clear and farm the land. Brown, knowing that many of the families were finding life in this isolated area difficult, offered to establish his own farm there as well, to assist the developing black community.

In the eyes of a majority of black Americans both Brown and Tubman were viewed in much the same way: as front line soldiers for freedom and equality. This was particularly true in Philadelphia. As the largest free black community in the North before the Civil War, Philadelphia became an important center for black political and social life in America, as well as a major hub in the abolition movement and the Underground Railroad. It is within this context that Brown and Tubman loomed as large figures and symbols, and their stories are connected in this region through their allies and supporters. Tubman arrived in Philadelphia from Maryland in 1840 and found allies in the abolitionist community who helped her as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. William Still’s diary even marks the day that Tubman brings members of her family to Philadelphia from one of her many trips back to the slave south. John Brown and his family also had allies and supporters among such blacks leaders and notables as Robert Purvis, William Still, Thomas J. Dorsey (caterer), David Bustill Bowser (painter), Elizabeth Greenfield (known as the Black Swan), and Shiloh Baptist’s Rev. Jeremiah Asher, as well as white abolitionists such as Unitarian minister William H. Furness, Presbyterian minister James Miller McKim (a Union League founder), and Lucretia and James Mott. Brown spent time in Philadelphia in the years between “Bleeding Kansas” and the Harpers Ferry Raid, staying in homes of black abolitionists such as painter David Bustill Bowser and engaging in discussion with individuals like William Still.

With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the years 1856-59 became a time of great national tensions over slavery and abolition; however, following the Raid in 1859 it became an even more contentious and bad time for abolitionists, particularly in Philadelphia. Acts of compassion and support for John Brown drew the anger of pro-slavery forces and also boiled up concerns from those who abhorred the use of violence. Philadelphia’s “good” citizens, numbering over 20,000, came out to voice their solidarity with the actions of the State of Virginia and support for the South. Conversely, these actions drew the concern of abolitionists. Members of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia began coming to church armed with pistols out of fear of being attacked by proslavery forces during church services.

Despite the mounting dangers, the black community in Philadelphia and abolitionists, both black and white, took on honoring Brown and his men, as well as providing support for Brown’s wife, Mary. Following the failed Raid and while waiting to hear word of her husband’s fate, Mary Brown stayed in the homes of several sympathetic Philadelphians, among them Thomas Dorsey and Lucretia and John Mott. Multiple Philadelphians also attended the hanging to give support and comfort to Mary Brown and accompanied her in transporting her husband’s body via Philadelphia to New York State. Blacks in the city observed his execution day as “Martyr Day” by draping their homes and businesses in black and participating in public prayer meetings at Shiloh Baptist and Union Baptist. Black abolitionist Robert Purvis spoke in praise of Brown at a gathering at National Hall with William Furness, who had met Brown’s body at the Broad and Washington train depot along with many black Philadelphians.

In the years following, black Philadelphians and white reformers (who included former abolitionists and those supporting the Equal Rights Leagues and Reconstruction) continued to honor Brown and to give ongoing support to his family with tribute concerts, and Emancipation Day commemorations. Painter David Bustill Bowser created one of the earliest memorial portraits of Brown, which is now held by the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. Bowser’s work is among the first of a long line of black artists’ memorials to John Brown extending into the 20th Century. In 1902, Eden Cemetery created the John Brown and Harriet Tubman sections at the historic black burial ground.

These and other historical connections demonstrate that the Harpers Ferry Raid 150th Anniversary is a meaningful time for Philadelphians. It provides a moment for us to discover and explore these stories, as well as other little or unknown aspects of the defining years before the Civil War. It also offers us an important opportunity to gain greater understanding of our region’s place in the national narrative around race and slavery, the legacy of which still lingers today.

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‘Yes, sir; I am the man who saved Fred. Douglass’ life when Old John Brown was captured at Harper’s Ferry. I suppressed a dispatch addressed to the sheriff of Philadelphia, instructing him to arrest Douglass, who was then in that city, as proofs of his complicity in the memorable raid were discovered when John Brown was taken into custody.’

‘At that time I was a telegraph operator located in Philadelphia,’ continued Mr. Hurn, ‘and when I received the dispatch I was frightened nearly out of my wits. As I was an ardent admirer of the great ex-slave, I resolved to warn Douglass of his impending fate, no matter what the result might be to me. The news had just been spread throughout the country of the bold action of John Brown in taking Harper’s Ferry. Everybody was excited and public feeling ran high. Before the intelligence came that Brown had been captured, the dispatch I have mentioned was sent by the sheriff of Franklin county, Penn., to the sheriff of Philadelphia, informing him that Douglass had been one of the leading conspirators, and requesting that he should be immediately apprehended.’

‘Though I knew it was illegal to do so, I quietly put the dispatch in my pocket, and, asking another operator to take my place, started on my search for Fred. Douglass…’

Frederick Douglass (photo) and statement by John White Hurn ca. 1860-1861, Philadelphia from the book by Jean Libby, which is a catalogue of the exhibit currently up at the National Archives of Phila.

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“Some 1800 years ago, Christ was crucified. This morning, Captain Brown was hung. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.”

- Henry David Thoreau

John Brown– A Timeline View through Philadelphia

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1800
May 9: John Brown is born in Torrington, CT. His father, Owen, is a strict Calvinist, who hates slavery and believes that holding humans in bondage is a sin against God.

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1812
A 12-year-old John Brown travels through the Michigan wilderness to deliver a herd of cattle. He lodges with a man who owns a boy slave. While Brown is treated well, the slave is beaten before his eyes with an iron shovel. This memory forever haunts John Brown.

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1837
Nov. 7: Elijah Lovejoy, publisher of an antislavery newspaper, is shot to death by a proslavery mob. During his memorial service, John Brown stands and makes a public vow to end slavery.

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1847
Frederick Douglass meets Brown for the first time in Springfield, MA. Of the meeting Douglass says, that “though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced by the iron of slavery.”

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1849
Harriet Tubman’s flight to freedom and arrival in Philadelphia.

Brown and his family settle in a black community in North Elba founded on land donated by the Anti-Slavery campaigner Gerrit Smith. While there, Brown gradually becomes convinced that the use of force will be necessary in order to overthrow the system.

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1850
The Fugitive Slave Act provides slave owners the use of federal law enforcement power to obtain the return of fugitives. The law is used to attack free black communities, as well as to seek the return of fugitives.

Brown recruits forty-four men into the U.S. League of Gileadites, an organization founded to resist slave-catchers.

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1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 is passed, sweeping aside the Missouri Compromise that previously limited the expansion of slavery. With a nod to Southern power, the federal government places the volatile issue of slavery into the hands of those settling the new territories. By popular vote, the people are to decide whether to be “free” or “slave.”

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1855
June: John Brown follows his sons to Kansas to help anti-slavery forces to control the region and to protect black communities.

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1856
May 22:
On the floor of the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks clubs Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner senseless following Sumner’s delivery of an abolitionist speech titled, “The Crime Against Kansas.” When Brown receives word of the caning, according to his son Jason, “it seemed to be the finishing, decisive touch.” Brown tells his supporters, “I am entirely tired of hearing that word ‘caution.’ It is nothing but the word of cowardice.”

June
Philadelphian Robert Purvis gives an extemporaneous and fiery speech before the American Anti-Slavery Society, declaring himself a “Disunion Abolitionist” and castigating the “abject servility of the North” in refusing to stand up to the slave-owning South.”

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1857
January: Franklin Sanborn, secretary for the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, introduces Brown to influential abolitionists in the Boston area in an effort to further the antislavery fight in Kansas.

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1858
April:
Harriet Tubman meets with John Brown in her North Street home in St. Catharine’s (Ontario, Canada). Tubman commits herself to helping Brown and recruits former slaves to join him on his planned raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

May:
John Brown writes his utopian Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States intended to reform the existing and flawed proslavery U.S. Constitution. Brown presents this document at an antislavery convention of African-Americans in Chatham, Ontario with the hope that it will create a better society built on the concept of racial equality.

December:
Brown rides with twenty men into Verona County, Missouri, where they forcibly liberate twelve slaves from two farms and begin leading them on a successful 82-day, one thousand mile winter journey to freedom in Canada.

John Brown – The Martyr, Currier & Ives, (1870), lithograph, Library of Congress.

1859
August:
In Chambersburg, PA, Brown makes a final plea to Douglass to join the raid on Harpers Ferry. Douglass refuses, warning that the raid will fail.

Oct. 16-18:
Brown and his group of 19 men take over the Harpers Ferry arsenal. Following Brown’s capture, federal marshals issue a warrant for Frederick Douglass’s arrest as an accomplice. Douglass flees abroad. When he returns five months later to mourn the death of his youngest daughter, he finds that he has been exonerated.

Oct. 27:
Trial of John Brown by the State of Virginia begins.

Nov. 2:
Brown is found guilty.

Nov. 8:
Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson’s lecture, “Courage,” is delivered in the Music Hall in Boston. This celebratory speech begins to turn the tide of white northern public opinion in John Brown’s favor.

Nov. 16:
The Executive Committee of Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society calls for a meeting on the day of Brown’s execution. Similar meetings are held elsewhere as abolitionists gather together to memorialize Brown.

Nov. 28:
Wendell Phillips and George William Curtis speak in Philadelphia in a program organized by the young Isaac H. Clothier (of Strawbridge & Clothier fame). Isaac Clothier’s father, Caleb Clothier, was a member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and co-founder of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.

Nov. 28:
John Brown’s wife arrives in Philadelphia and stays with the Motts, as well as the Thomas Dorsey and William Still families. James Miller McKim, a Union League founding member and a person on the receiving end of “Henry Box Brown,” attends the hanging and assists Brown’s wife in bringing his body home.

Dec. 2:
John Brown’s execution is attended by some 600 people. Six other men involved in the raid are also hanged. Artist Horace Pippin’s grandmother witnesses the hangings, as does John Wilkes Booth.

Blacks in Philadelphia observe the day as “Martyr Day,” draping their homes and businesses in black and holding public prayer meetings throughout the city.

The Anti-Slavery Meeting in Philadelphia honoring Brown is held at National Hall with James & Lucretia Mott, Unitarian minister William Furness, and Robert Purvis speaking.

At Shiloh Baptist, the Rev. Jeremiah Asher gives a passionate sermon to the more than 400 John Brown supporters in attendance.

Dec. 2:
Brown’s body passes through Philadelphia. The reception committee includes Unitarian minister William Furness and a large number of black supporters, who crowd the train depot to pay their homage.

Dec. 13:
“Union Meeting” held in Philadelphia to assure Virginia and the south that Lucretia Mott and others like her do not represent the views of Pennsylvanians. The meeting (reported by one to be attended by 20,000) elects to send a large American flag to Viginia Go. Henry Wise as a show of solidarity.

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1860
In Philadelphia, some 60 black leaders and activists from a host of religions, fraternal, and cultural associations sponsor a “Complimentary Concert” with Mary L. Brown (a local classical singer) and Elizabeth Greenfield (the “Black Swan”) leading the evening’s entertainment. Money raised by the concert goes to aid John Brown’s family.

Artist David Bustill Bowser, a personal friend to John Brown, completes a portrait of him.

Frederick Douglass writes his lecture on John Brown as a tribute to “a hero and martyr to the cause of liberty.”

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1870
April:
In celebration of Pennsylvania’s passage of the franchise for blacks, the Union League of Philadelphia presents a silk banner to Octavius V. Catto, founder of the PA State Equal Rights League. With a huge procession behind him, Catto marches through the streets of the city and out to Horticultural Hall, where tribute is paid to the “martyrs and apostles of liberty, among them John Brown and Abraham Lincoln.”

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1902
Eden Cemetery opens in Philadelphia. Burial sections are dedicated to John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and David Bustill Bowser.

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Special thanks to Christopher Densmore, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College for his assistance in creating the time line.

“Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable War of one portion of its citizens upon another portion; the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute extermination; in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence.”

John Brown

From John Brown’s Address to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Virginia on November 2, 1859:

Unattributed, 19th Century drawing from the Virginia Military Institute archive.

“[...] I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to “remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.” I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!”

“An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people until he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt which ends in little else than his own execution.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I have no doubt that our seeming disaster will ultimately result in the most glorious success. I have been whipped, but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital by only hanging a few moments by the neck.”

John Brown

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David Bustill Bowser, John Brown, oil, 1860, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. African American, Philadelphia artist, Bowser executed this sympathetic portrait of Brown the year after he was executed. Bowser’s portrait was used by many others who showed Brown, alternately, as a crazed agitator bent on ruining the country or a sainted martyr defending the nation’s most fundamental principles.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
November 29 – December 5

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Ongoing until April 30, 2010
National Archives at Philadelphia, Free
Picturing John Brown (exhibit)
John Brown scholar Jean Libby’s photographic exhibit of John Brown images. Supplemented with rare John Brown materials and artifacts in Philadelphia from the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia and a private collection. Exhibition will run until April 30, 2010. National Archives business hours. For more information, contact: www.archives.gov/midatlantic. Located at 9th and Chestnut Streets.

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A print of this painting, Last Moments of John Brown, by Thomas Hovenden is a part of The Charles L. Blockson Collection.

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Sunday, November 29
Mother Bethel Church, 11 a.m., Free
John Brown, A Man of Faith – A Program in Music and Words with the Mother Bethel Church choir at the 11 am service, followed by a talk by Charles L. Blockson
Charles Blockson is curator emeritus of The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University and a member of the John Brown Society. In this, he follows an extended family tradition that begins with his grandparents’ membership in the John Brown Club at their church in Norristown. Blockson’s grandfather would sing John Brown’s Body to him as a child and for the longest time Charles Blockson thought John Brown was a black abolitionist like Harriet Tubman. Some of Blockson’s family escaped to Canada guided by Harriet Tubman and an uncle of his was at the Chatham conference when John Brown was recruiting troops there in 1858. Had the raid on Harpers Ferry not been postponed, this uncle would probably have been with Brown at the time. This fascinating family legacy, as well as Blockson’s own diligent and renowned scholarly labors, will inform his talk on the ongoing importance of John Brown’s history. For more information, contact: Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, Pastor at markkellytyler@gmail.com. Located at 419 S 16th Street.

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Monday November 30
Cliveden, 6:30 p.m., Free
The North’s Slavery Legacy. Open House.
Through the lives of the Chew family, learn how slavery produced northern wealth and was engrained in northern life-styles. Learn about the enslaved people that worked for the Chews and how their story is changing the interpretive program at Cliveden. For more information contact: info@cliveden.org or David Young, Executive Director, 215.848.1777, dyoung@cliveden.org. Located at 6401 Germantown Avenue.

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Tuesday, December 1
Shiloh Baptist Church, 6 p.m., Free
My Lord What A Mornin….Vigil for John Brown – A Living History Program
When John Brown, leader of the abortive raid on Harpers Ferry to free the slaves, was hung on the bright balmy morning of December 2, 1859, cities and towns throughout the North declared it “Martyr Day,” a day of fasting and prayer in homage to the “Old Man.” Bells were tolled, and businesses and stores were closed and draped in black. Church services and public meetings were held at the hour of his hanging for the purpose of sanctifying the cause he represented. In most instances, these gatherings were initiated and conducted by Black people, although White abolitionists also certainly took part in them.

On Martyr Day in Philadelphia, hundreds of people came together for a Vigil at Shiloh Baptist Church to demonstrate their lasting affection and admiration for John Brown, as well as their deepened commitment to the ideals for which he sacrificed his life. In a sesquicentennial commemoration of this historic event, a living history program, My Lord What A Mornin’, will recreate the prayer vigil held for John Brown at Shiloh in 1859. Professional actors will portray prominent historical figures who came together to pay tribute to Captain Brown. Negro Spirituals sung by the “Black Swan,” the best-known black concert artist of the 19th century, and Shiloh’s Choir under the direction of Beverly Bradley, will be interspersed throughout the 60 minute program. For this reenactment, the “spiritual presence” of John Brown will provide additional dramatic witness and narrative exposition for the audience.

Veteran stage and screen actor, Norman Thomas Marshall, who has portrayed John Brown for nine years in his one-man show, “Trumpet of Freedom,” will portray Brown in the Vigil. Ironically, Marshall was born in Virginia (the state that executed Brown) and is the son of a Klansman and grandson of a slave owner. Shiloh’s current pastor, Rev. Edward Sparkman, will also appear in the production as Rev. Jeremiah Asher, the host pastor of the original vigil.

Other performers include:
Millicent Sparks as Harriet Tubman
Sharon Gary Dixon as Elizabeth Taylor
Greenfield, the “Black Swan”
Maria Wolf as Lucretia Mott
Karen Vicks as Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper
Larry Moses as Robert Purvis
Jack Hoffman as Minister White

A Reception will immediately follow the production. For more information, contact: Rev. Edward Sparkman, Pastor, 215.735.2089/2099, sparkmane1@comcast.net or Millicent Sparks, Millicent Sparks Productions, 215/.991.1788, mllsprks@aol.com. Located at 2040 Christian Street.

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John Brown Going to His Hanging, Horace Pippin in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Wednesday, December 2
Hamilton Auditorium, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Noon to 1 p.m., Free
In Memoriam: Horace Pippin’s John Brown Going to His Hanging
This day marks the 150th anniversary of the hanging of John Brown, one of the most controversial and celebrated men of the nineteenth century, whose raid on Harper’s Ferry and subsequent execution caused stirrings across the nation. For years, artists have depicted these events in myriad ways, including an iconic painting by Horace Pippin titled John Brown Going to His Hanging. Join art historian and Pippin expert Judith Stein on this historic anniversary for a discussion of Pippin’s painting and the quietly heroic figure of John Brown that it portrays. This program is part of the Art-at-Lunch Lecture Series and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact PAFA at 215-972-2105 or visit their website: www.pafa.org/aal. Or Monica Zimmerman, 215-972-2105, mzimmerman@pafa.org. Located at 118 N. Broad Street.

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Wednesday, December 2
Charles Blockson Collection, Temple University, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., Free
A Conversation on the Legacy of John Brown
with Charles Blockson and
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante.
Mr. Blockson will discuss his family’s personal connection to John Brown and the Underground Railroad, as well as John Brown’s relationship with the African American community more broadly. Dr. Asante will present “John Brown: An Authentic Hero of Liberty,” wherein he will examine the reasons why most Americans have forgotten Brown’s thoughts and deeds. Dr. Asante will reintroduce us to Brown and argue for why he should be received as an authentic actor for human freedom, someone who was not insane (as many have claimed) but who was rather living in an inhuman and insane context. Charles Blockson is Curator Emeritus and founder of the Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University. He is also a national authority on the Underground Railroad, about which he has written several books, as well as a major article for the July 1984 issue of National Geographic Magazine entitled “Escape From Slavery: The Underground Railroad.” Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is a Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. He is the author of seventy books, including African American History: A Journey of Liberation. For more information, contact: Dr. Diane Turner, ddturner@temple.edu. Located in Sullivan Hall in the Berks Mall at Temple University.

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Wednesday, December 2
Historical Society of Pennsylvania/Library Company of Philadelphia, 6 p.m., Free
The Empty Coffin: John Brown and Philadelphia A Talk by Louis A. DeCaro, Jr.
After his death, John Brown’s body traveled through Philadelphia. Worried about the possibility of riots in the streets, the mayor devised a plan in order to sneak Brown’s body away safely. DeCaro’s talk will allow us to learn this fascinating story and invite us to consider Brown’s pivotal importance in the larger struggle for civil rights. Louis A. DeCaro Jr., biographer and student of Brown’s life and letters, is one of a few scholars of our era who has closely and extensively examined the life of this controversial and often misrepresented figure in antebellum U.S. history. In Fire from the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown, DeCaro provided the first religiously-focused biography of the abolitionist, as well as the first full-length biography of Brown in the 21st century. Focusing on Brown’s unique family heritage, reformed evangelical faith, and unusual egalitarian- and justice-oriented relation to the black community, DeCaro furnished an accurate and thoroughly researched alternative to the hackneyed “violent” John Brown foisted upon the public by novelists, documentary-makers, and even academics. DeCaro’s subsequent John Brown–The Cost of Freedom provides another installment of in-depth research, as he revisits major themes in the abolitionist’s story. From Brown’s personality and temperament, to his business history, and finally the Harper’s Ferry raid, DeCaro overturns the fallacies and “hearsay” errors that have plagued Brown’s story for the better part of a century. After DeCaro’s lecture, guests can view original documents from the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Library Company of Philadelphia, including John Brown’s will. These documents will also be available as part of an online John Brown exhibit. To register or for more information, visit www.hsp.org or call 215-732-6200. Or contact: Lauri Cielo, (215) 732-6200 ext. 233, lcielo@hsp.org. Located at 1300 Locust Street.

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Friday, December 4
Mitchell Auditorium, Bossone Building,
Drexel University, 6 p.m. Free
John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights – A talk by David S. Reynolds
David S. Reynolds is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Reynold’s book, John Brown, Abolitionist, is the winner of the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award; winner of the Kansas State Book Award; finalist for the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship; listed among “The Outstanding Books of 2005” by the National Book Critics Circle; listed among “Top Picks” of “Notable Books of 2005” by the American Library Association; and noted as “the most widely reviewed book in America in major periodicals” for the period of April 19-May 5, 2005 by Publishers’ Lunch. Of the book, Sir Harold Evans, author of The American Century, has written: “Nobody could save John Brown from the gallows in Charles Town Virginia, on December 2, 1859, but David Reynolds dazzlingly rescues him from misreadings in American history occupying the extremes of the spectrum from Brown as a Christ martyred in the abolitionist cause to Brown as a cruel and wanton terrorist. Reynolds’ scholarly but vivid life [biography] is truly thrilling in the way it peels away the overpainting of 150 years to reveal the old-style Puritan whose soul went marching on into the Civil War and the end of slavery.” And Mason Lowance, Jr., author of A House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, praises: “A thoroughly researched, eloquently articulated study by America’s foremost cultural biographer. The book relates Brown’s militant abolitionism to contemporary cultural forces, to the Garrisonians, to Nat Turner and other slave revolts, to the legacy of New England Puritanism, and to prominent Transcendental abolitionists like Emerson and Thoreau. Reynolds defends John Brown’s place in history without apologizing for his actions, and John Brown, Abolitionist is the most important work on John Brown ever written.” For more information, contact Larry Robin, larry@moonstoneartscenter.org, or Jacqueline Rios, 215.895.6910, jsr62@drexel.edu.The Bossone Building at Drexel University is located at Market Street between 31st and 32nd Streets.

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Saturday, December 5
African American Museum of Philadelphia, 9:30 a.m., Free
John Brown for Educators and Students
Facilitated by Author David S. Reynolds
Join author David S. Reynolds to explore ways of bringing the John Brown story into the classroom. Program includes: teaching strategies, primary resources from some of Philadelphia’s premier cultural institutions, and a presentation from the Constitution High School students’ John Brown Debate. This is a collaborative initiative of the African American Museum of Philadelphia, the National Archives at Philadelphia, the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, the Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia School District. Act 48 credits awarded. Limited seating. To register, contact: Melvin Garrison at: mgarriso@phila.K12.pa.us. Or call: 215.400.5694. Located at 701 Arch Street.

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Saturday, December 5
African American Museum of Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m., Free with admission
John Brown’s Holy War – PBS Film
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents John Brown’s Holy War, produced and directed by Robert Kenner (Influenza 1918) and written by Ken Chowder. Narrated by Joe Morton, this ninety-minute special explores the reluctant revolutionary who helped to trigger the Civil War. For more information contact: www.aampmuseum.org or call: 215-574-0380. Or contact: Leslie Willis-Lowry, 215.574.0380 ext. 226, lwillis-lowry@aampmuseum.org. Located at 701 Arch Street.

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John Brown in Philadelphia, a Cell Phone Tour
Using your cell phone, explore the Philadelphia events, places and people that are part of the John Brown story and the struggle over slavery in the home of America’s largest northern free black community before the Civil War. To be launched by November 29 on: www.civilwarphilly.net/johnbrown/ and www.civilwarphilly.net/cell-phone/index.html. Contact: V. Chapman-Smith, 215.606.0101, v.chapman-smith@nara.gov.

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For decades now, John Brown has often been presented as a fanatic or an outright lunatic. However, there are those who have disputed those claims:

“ John Brown…was a white man who went to war against white people to help free slaves. And any white man who is ready and willing to shed blood for your freedom – in the sight of other whites, he’s nuts.”

Malcolm X

“What we Americans tell ourselves about John Brown provides some measure of the race relations of our age. The sacrifices of Schwerner, Goodman, Liuzzo and other white civil rights martyrs have slowly made possible John Brown’s return to sanity…. For as Brown himself said after his arrest, ‘This Negro question is still to be settled.’”

James W. Loewen – author, Lies My Teacher Told Me

John Brown: 150 Years Later is made possible by the efforts and cooperation of these organizations:

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Pennsylvania Abolition Society
Incorporated in 1789, the PAS is a not-for-profit organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded by Anthony Benezet in 1775 and reorganized by Benjamin Rush in 1784. For nearly 235 years, the PAS has maintained a commitment to improving the condition of African Americans and others adversely affected by slavery and social injustice. In its early years, the PAS provided protection to free blacks against the threat of kidnapping and enslavement, as well as education and employment training for the black community. In contrast to other pre-Civil War anti-slavery organizations, the PAS viewed the end of the Civil War and Emancipation as only partially addressing needs within the black community and among the new freedmen. Consequently, the PAS continued to work on education and quality of life issues for African Americans. Today, through legacy gifts provided by early members, the PAS supports, with small grants and gifts, community efforts in Southeastern Pennsylvania that seek to address the social, economic and educational inequities faced by African Americans, particularly disadvantaged youth. The PAS also supports and collaborates on initiatives that increase understanding of slavery’s imprint on contemporary life and also works to bridge the divisions in our modern society resulting from our nation’s history of slavery, inequality and injustice.

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Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League – 140 S. Broad Street
The Foundation makes the collections of the Union League available to the public through tours, exhibits, symposia and special programs. Their efforts help to shape an understanding of the history of the City of Philadelphia and the region through collaborations with the Civil War History Consortium, the Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom, the PA Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and area colleges.

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The African American Museum of Philadelphia -701 Arch Street
Founded in 1976, the AAMP is the first institution, built by a major American city, to house and interpret the life and work of African Americans. The museum has objectively interpreted and presented the achievements and aspirations of African-Americans from pre-Colonial times to the current day. Visit the museum’s new permanent exhibition, Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia, 1776-1876.

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Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia -15 South 7th Street
The Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia is the gateway to the city’s history. Founded 70 years ago as the history museum of the City of Philadelphia, the museum allows students, families, metropolitan residents, and visitors both national and international to discover the city and gain insight into contemporary urban life through its exhibitions and programs.

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The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University – 1330 W. Berks Street
The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection is one of the nation’s leading research facilities for the study of the history and culture of people of African descent. As a major research facility, it provides materials, expository programs and service for Black Studies research scholars. The collection is used by a wide spectrum of researchers ranging from high school students to well-established scholars.

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The Civil War History Consortium – 1300 Locust Street
The Civil War History Consortium is a group of almost 70 Philadelphia area institutions with sites, collections, and programs that relate to the Civil War era. It seeks to preserve, link, and promote the stories, collections, and locations that reveal the Philadelphia region’s crucial role in the nation’s search for liberty and unity during the Civil War era by providing meaningful heritage and educational experiences.

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Cliveden – 6401 Germantown Avenue
A National Trust Historic Site in the Germantown section of Philadelphia where you can hear two distinct stories of the struggle for freedom. The first tale is of the country’s struggle to achieve independence during the Revolutionary War and the Battle of Germantown. The other is of the private struggles for self-determination led by numerous enslaved servants at Cliveden and at the Chew plantations in Maryland and Delaware.

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Constitution High School – 18 S. 7th Street
Founded in 2006, Constitution High School is the only history themed high school in Pennsylvania. Their emphasis is on active citizenship, knowledge of history, and democratic deliberation. There will be a debate by these students on John Brown at AAMP on December 5

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The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation- 30 S. 17th Street , Suite 1710
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and its surrounding countryside a premier destination through marketing and image-building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality.

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Drexel University
Africana Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, Drexel University – 3141 Chestnut Street
Africana Studies at Drexel University is an exciting interdisciplinary field that offers students the opportunity to explore history, culture, and politics throughout the African Diaspora. Africana Studies is a department of The College of Arts and Sciences, a key provider and innovator for the education of virtually all Drexel students at various points in their careers.

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The Historical Society of Pennsylvania – 1300 Locust Street
The HSP is one of the nation’s oldest historical societies and one of its largest family history libraries. Following a complete merger with the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, it stands as a leading repository of immigrant and ethnic history, second only to the Library of Congress for material on the nation’s founding, and is a comprehensive destination for genealogical study. With approximately 21 million records including manuscripts, graphics, and books, HSP is an invaluable resource for historical research.

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The Library Company of Philadelphia – 1314 Locust Street
The Library Company of Philadelphia is an independent research library specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. It houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, ephemera, prints, photographs, and works of art. The mission of the Library Company is to preserve, interpret, make available, and augment the valuable materials within its care.

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Millicent Sparks Productions, Inc., – 5920 Wayne Ave
Millicent Sparks Productions, Inc. (MSPI) creates and produces exciting and thought-provoking living history performance programs. These productions bring American history alive and highlight the struggles and triumphs of Africans in America. MSPI uses professional actors committed to authentic portrayals of historical figures, thereby helping audiences to better reconstruct and interpret the past.

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The Moonstone Arts Center – 110A S. 13th Street
The Moonstone Arts Center promotes creative exchange through diverse cultural programs. Each year Moonstone produces over 200 programs of poetry, author readings, music, theater and film at our location in Center City, Philadelphia, as well as organizing collaborative programs such as Thomas Paine: The Forgotten Founding Father and John Brown: 150 Years Later. We believe that the arts, creativity, and imagination are essential aspects of life, learning and community. The Moonstone Arts Center is a division of Moonstone Inc., which also operates the Moonstone School in South Philadelphia.

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Mother Bethel AME Church – 419 S 6th Street
Reverend Richard Allen, along with wealthy sail maker James Forten and the Reverend Absalom Jones, founded the Free African Society, laying the groundwork for human and civil rights organizations to come. The church, which stands on the oldest parcel of African-American-owned land, was a major hub on the Underground Railroad, providing shelter, aid and a beacon of hope to freedom seekers. Well-known abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman spoke here.

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National Archives at Philadelphia – 9th & Chestnut
The National Archives at Philadelphia is a branch of the National Archives of the United States’ nationwide system of public facilities for archival research and public programming. The Philadelphia archival holdings include some of the most significant official evidence of the tensions within the nation to address slavery and inequality and have American democracy apply to everyone.

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The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts -
118 N. Broad Street
Founded in 1805, PAFA is America’s oldest continually operating school of fine arts. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of Arts, the Academy is a recognized leader in fine arts education. The institution’s world-class collection of American art continues to grow and provides what only a few other art institutions in the world offer: the rare combination of an outstanding museum and an extraordinary faculty known for its commitment to students

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Pennsylvania Humanities Council – 325 Chestnut Street, Suite 715
The Pennsylvania Humanities Council inspires individuals to enjoy and share a life of learning enriched by human experience across time and around the world. The John Brown: 150 Years Later program is funded by the Our Stories, Our Future initiative on American history, which is funded in turn by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of We The People, a national initiative exploring the history of the United States. Since 1973, the PHC has empowered local groups to offer high-quality public programs that have a positive impact on the everyday life of their communities.

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