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History>eXplorations>John
Brown: Hero or Terrorist?> John
Brown and Frederick Douglass>Frederick Douglass' Last
Meeting with John Brown
Frederick
Douglass’s Last Meeting with John Brown, August
19-21, 1859
Source:
Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
(Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., 1881), pp. 323 25.
His face wore an anxious expression, and he was much worn by
thought and exposure. I felt that I was on a dangerous mission,
and was as little desirous of discovery as himself, though no
reward had been offered for me.
We Mr. Kagi, Captain Brown, Shields Green, and myself, sat down
among the rocks and talked over the enterprise which was about
to be undertaken. The taking of Harper's Ferry, of which Captain
Brown had merely hinted before, was now declared as his settled
purpose, and he wanted to know what I thought of it. I at once
opposed the measure with all the arguments at my command. To
me, such a measure would be fatal to running off slaves (as
was the original plan), and fatal to all engaged in doing so.
It would be an attack upon the federal government, and would
array the whole country against us. Captain Brown did most of
the talking on the other side of the question. He did not at
all object to rousing the nation; it seemed to him that something
startling was just what the nation needed. He had completely
renounced his old plan, and thought that the capture of Harper's
Ferry would serve as notice to the slaves that their friends
had come, and as a trumpet to rally them to his standard. He
described the place as to its means of defense, and how impossible
it would be to dislodge him if once in possession. Of course
I was no match for him in such matters, but I told him, and
these were my words, that all his arguments, and all his descriptions
of the place, convinced me that he was going into a perfect
steel trap, and that once in he would never get out alive; that
he would be surrounded at once and escape would be impossible.
He was not to be shaken by anything I could say, but treated
my views respectfully, replying that even if surrounded he would
find means for cutting his way out; but that would not be forced
upon him; he should have a number of the best citizens of the
neighborhood as his prisoners at the start, and that holding
them as hostages, he should be able if worse came to worse,
to dictate terms of egress from the town. I looked at him with
some astonishment, that he could rest upon a reed so weak and
broken, and told him that Virginia would blow him and his hostages
sky high, rather than that he should hold Harper's Ferry an
hour. Our talk was long and earnest; we spent the most of Saturday
and a part of Sunday in this debate Brown for Harper's Ferry,
and I against it; he for striking a blow which should instantly
rouse the country, and I for the policy of gradually and unaccountably
drawing off the slaves to the mountains, as at first suggested
and proposed by him. When I found that he had fully made up
his mind and could not be dissuaded, I turned to Shields Green
and told him he heard what Captain Brown had said; his old plan
was changed, and that I should return home, and if he wished
to go with me he could do so. Captain Brown urged us both to
go with him, but I could not do so, and could but feel that
he was about to rivet the fetters more firmly than ever on the
limbs of the enslaved. In parting he put his arms around me
in a manner more than friendly, and said: "Come with me,
Douglass, I will defend you with my life. I want you for a special
purpose. When I strike the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall
want you to help hive them." But my discretion or my cowardice
made me proof against the dear old man's eloquence perhaps it
was something of both which determined my course. When about
to leave I asked Green what he had decided to do, and was surprised
by his coolly saying in his broken way, "I_ b'leve I'll
go wid de ole man." Here we separated; they to go to Harper's
Ferry, I to Rochester. There has been some difference of opinion
as to the propriety of my course in thus leaving my friend.
Some have thought that I ought to have gone with him, but I
have no reproaches for myself at this point, and since I have
been assailed only by colored men who kept even farther from
this brave and heroic man than I did, I shall not trouble myself
much about their criticisms. They compliment me in assuming
that I should perform greater deeds than themselves . . . .
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