Description:

Important Autograph Letter Signed, "John Brown," 1 page, 7.75" x 9.75", Rockford, Illinois, June 4, 1855, addressed in his hand on the integral transmittal leaf to "Henry Thompson North Elba Essex Co. New York."

Brown, who had set out to Illinois to sell of his herd of cattle, writes in full: "Dear Children[,] I write just to say I have finally sold my cattle without risking much sacrifise [sic]; & expect to be on the way home Tomorrow. Oliver expects to remain behind & go to Kansas. After I get home I expect to set out with the family for North Elba as soon as we can get ready; yet we may possibly get off this week; but hardly think we can. I have heard nothing yet from the Boys at Kansas. All were well at home a few days since. Your affectionate father, John Brown".

True to his word, Brown set out east reaching Hudson, Ohio on June 18, and on June 28 he arrived in Syracuse, New York, just in time for the first day of a major anti-slavery convention where he received "a most hearty approval of my intention of arming my sons and other friends in Kansas" from the likes of Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass and other prominent abolitionists. This "hearty approval" included sixty dollars in donations, with $20 from Gerrit Smith alone. At the convention, Smith proceeded to read aloud two letters from Kansas written by Brown's son John, "and read with such effect ... as to draw tears from numerous eyes ..." (Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, 1891, 193-194)

Brown continued on to Springfield, Massachusetts where he shipped some guns and other supplies to Cleveland, and then returned to North Elba to prepare for the journey to Kansas. On August 13, 1855, Brown departed North Elba in the company of the recipient of this letter, Henry Thompson, a staunch abolitionist, who married Brown's daughter Ruth (b. 1829) in 1850. Thompson and Brown arrived in Chicago fifteen days later (picking up Brown's son Oliver in Rockford, Illinois along the way) and purchased a young horse and loaded their wagon with supplies and concealed arms. The three arrived at Brown's Station on October 7, 1855. (David S. Reynolds, John Brown, Abolitionist, 2009, 135-136).

The following year, Brown would gain public notoriety when he took matters into his own hands, attacking a pro-slavery settlement north of Pottawatomie Creek, in response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas‹starting what became popularly known as "Bleeding Kansas."

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