Posted on 11/12/2019 5:00:07 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Brown certainly seems accepting of his fate.
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, an autobiography
The insurrection of Capt. Brown excites much attention in America, as well it may. But it is the beginning of the birth-pains of liberty. There is a logic in the history of freedom.
“Its purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.”
SOURCE: John Weiss, Life and correspondence of Theodore Parker, Volume 2, p. 387
CHARLESTOWN, JEFFERSON COUNTY, VA., Nov. 16, 1859.
MY DEAR WIFE, — I write you in answer to a most kind letter of November 13 from dear Mrs. Spring. I owe her ten thousand thanks for her kindness to you particularly, and more especially than for what she has done and is doing in a more direct way for me personally. Although I feel grateful for every expression of kindness or sympathy towards me, yet nothing can so effectually minister to my comfort as acts of kindness done to relieve the wants or mitigate the sufferings of my poor distressed family. May God Almighty and their own consciences be their eternal rewarders! I am exceedingly rejoiced to have you make the acquaintance and be surrounded by such choice friends, as I have long known by reputation some of those to be with whom you are staying. I am most glad to have you meet with one of a family (or I would rather say of two families) most beloved and never to be forgotten by me. I mean dear gentle ——. Many and many a time have she, her father, mother, brother, sisters, uncle, and aunt, like angels of mercy, ministered to the wants of myself and of my poor sons, both in sickness and health. Only last year I lay sick for quite a number of weeks with them, and was cared for by all as though I had been a most affectionate brother or father. Tell her that I ask God to bless and reward them all forever. “I was a stranger, and they took me in.” It may possibly be that would like to copy this letter, and send it to her home. If so, by all means let her do so. I would write them if 1 had the power.
Now let me say a word about the effort to educate our daughters. I am no longer able to provide means to help towards that object, and it therefore becomes me not to dictate in the matter. I shall gratefully submit the direction of the whole thing to those whose generosity may lead them to undertake in their behalf, while I give anew a little expression of my own choice respecting it. You, my wife, perfectly well know that I have always expressed a decided preference for a very plain but perfectly practical education for both sons and daughters. I do not mean an education so very miserable as that you and I received in early life; nor as some of our children enjoyed. When I say plain but practical, I mean enough of the learning of the schools to enable them to transact the common business of life comfortably and respectably, together with that thorough training to good business habits which best prepares both men and women to be useful though poor, and to meet the stem realities of life with a good grace. You well know that I always claimed that the music of the broom, wash-tub, needle, spindle, loom, axe, scythe, hoe, flail, etc., should first be learned at all events, and that of the piano, etc., afterwards. I put them in that order as most conducive to health of body and mind; and for the obvious reason, that after a life of some experience and of much observation, I have found ten women as well as ten men who have made their mark in life right, whose early training was of that plain, practical kind, to one who had a more popular and fashionable early training. But enough of that.
Now, in regard to your coming here. If you feel sure that you can endure the trials and the shock which will be unavoidable (if you come), I should be most glad to see you once more; but when I think of your being insulted on the road, and perhaps while here, and of only seeing your wretchedness made complete, I shrink from it. Your composure and fortitude of mind may be quite equal to it all; but I am in dreadful doubt of it. If you do come, defer your journey till about the 27th or 28th of this month. The scenes which you will have to pass through on coming here will be anything but those you now pass, with tender, kind-hearted friends, and kind faces to meet you everywhere. Do consider the matter well before you make the plunge. I think I had better say no more on this most painful subject. My health improves a little; my mind is very tranquil, I may say joyous, and I continue to receive every kind attention that I have any possible need of. I wish you to send copies of all my letters to all our poor children. What I write to one must answer for all, till I have more strength. I get numerous kind letters from friends in almost all directions, to encourage me to “be of good cheer,” and I still have, as I trust, “the peace of God to rule in my heart.” May God, for Christ's sake, ever make his face to shine on you all!
SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 591-3
CHARLESTOWN, JEFFERSON COUNTY, VA., Nov. 17, 1859.
T. B. MUSGRAVE, Esq.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, — I have just received your most kind and welcome letter of the 15th inst., but did not get any other from you. I am under many obligations to you and to your father for all the kindnesses you have shown me, especially since my disaster. May God and your own consciousness ever be your rewarders. Tell your father that 1 am quite cheerful; that I do not feel myself in the least degraded by my imprisonment, my chains, or the near prospect of the gallows. Men cannot imprison, or chain, or hang the soul. I go joyfully in behalf of millions that “have no rights” that this great and glorious, this Christian Republic “is bound to respect.” Strange change in morals, political as well as Christian, since 1776! I look forward to other changes to take place in God's good time, fully believing that “the fashion of this world passeth away.” I am unable now to tell you where my friend is, that you inquire after. Perhaps my wife, who I suppose is still with Mrs. Spring, may have some information of him. I think it quite uncertain, however.
Farewell. May God abundantly bless you all!
* The father of this gentleman was Mr. Musgrave, the English manufacturer at Northampton, mentioned in Chapter III.
SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 593
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
“Miss Annie Leavenworth being (conventionally) under deep domestic affliction ...”
Her father doesn’t let her leave the house? It was “that time of the month”?
“There was a prolonged German, but it was over by one.”
I’m sure that means something to George.
Makes as much sense as anything I can come up with. Miss Annie Leavenworth appears in George's diary on a regular basis. She attends many of their social engagements and buys cool Christmas presents for the Strong boys, but I haven't learned anything about her background.
I’m sure that means something to George.
George is cryptic today. A wild guess. Pianist F.B. Helmsmuller (later leader of the 22nd Regiment band and composer of "President Lincoln's Grand March") brought a Teutonic friend along to the dance, and that individual kept insisting on more music after everyone else was ready to call it quits.
Yes, that seems likely enough, especially in light of Harper’s articles about how into musical entertainment Germans are.
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