Digital
History>eXplorations>John
Brown: Hero or Terrorist?> John
Brown in his Own Words>John Brown to Henry Stearns
Letter
from John Brown to Henry Stearns
July 15, 1857
Sources:
Franklin
B. Sanborn, ed., The Life and Letters of John Brown
(Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891), pp. 12-17.
The
letter is in the Oswald Garrison Villard [Collection of] John
Brown Manuscripts 1839-1943, George S. Stearns folder, Columbia
University Library, New York City.
Henry
Stearns was the thirteen-year-old son of George Luther Stearns,
a wealthy Boston merchant who headed the Massachusetts Kansas
Committee and a member of the "Secret Six." Henry
wrote the following account of how the letter came to be written:
"On Sunday, January 4th, 1857, John Brown came to our house
to consult with my father and mother about the troubles in Kansas.
I was at that time about twelve years old, and listened attentively
to the conversation, and to all he said about them, and young
as I was I had some idea of the meaning of it. Especially was
I touched by what he said about the suffering of the little
children there. When he was about to take his leave, I went
to my father, and in a whisper asked him if I could give what
pocket money I had to Captain Brown. I received permission to
do so, and running to the place where I kept it, I took it to
John brown and said, "Will you please buy something with
this for some poor little boy in Kansas?' He patted me on the
head, and replied, 'I will, my son, and God bless you for your
kind heart.' Then I said: 'Captain Brown, will you sometime
write me a letter, and tell me what sort of little boy you were?'
He smiled and said he would when he could spare the time. This
letter, which is the only record of John Brown's early life,
was the result."
MY
DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, I have not forgotten my promise to write you:
but my constant care, & anxiety: have obliged me to put if
off a long time. I do not flatter myself that I can write anything
that will very much interest you: but have concluded to send you
a short story of a certain boy of my acquaintance: & for convenience
& shortness of name, I will call him John. This story will
be mainly a narration of follies and errors; which it is to be
hoped you may avoid; but there is one thing connected with it,
which will be calculated to encourage any young person to persevering
effort; & that is the degree of success in accomplishing his
objects which to a great extent marked the course of this boy
throughout my entire acquaintance with him; notwithstanding his
moderate capacity; & still more moderate acquirements.
John was born May 9th, 1800, at Torrington, Litchfield Co. Connecticut;
of poor but respectable parents: a descendant on the side of his
Father of one of the company of the Mayflower who landed at Plymouth
1620. His mother was descended from a man who came at an early
period to New England from Amsterdam, in Holland. Both his Fathers
and his Mothers Fathers served in the war of the revolution: His
Father's Father; died in a barn at New York while in the service,
in 1776.
I cannot tell you of anything in the first Four years of John's
life worth mentioning save that at that early age he was tempted
by Three large Brass Pins belonging to a girl who lived in the
family & stole them. In this he was detected by his Mother;
& after having a full day to think of the wrong; received
from her a thorough whipping. When he was Five years old his Father
moved to Ohio; then a wilderness filled with wild beasts, &
Indians. During the long journey which was performed in part or
mostly with an Oxteam ; he was called on by turns to assist a
boy Five years older (who had been adopted by his Father &
Mother) & learned to think he could accomplish smart things
in driving the Cows; & riding the horses. Sometimes he met
with Rattle Snakes which were very large; & which some of
the company generally managed to kill. After getting in Ohio in
1805 he was for some time rather afraid of the Indians, &
of their Rifles; but this soon wore off : & he used to hang
about them quite as much as was consistent with good manners;
& learned a trifle of their talk. His father learned to dress
Deer Skins, & at 6 years old John was installed a young Buck
Skin. He was perhaps rather observing as he ever after remembered
the entire process of Deer Skin dressing; so that he could at
any times dress his own leather such as Squirrel, Raccoon, Cat,
Wolf or Dog Skins; and also learned to make Whip Lashes: which
brought him some change at times; & was of considerable service
in many ways. At Six years old John began to be quite a rambler
in the wild new country finding birds and Squirrels and sometimes
a wild Turkeys nest. But about this period he was placed in the
School of adversity; which my young friend was a most necessary
part of his early training. You may laugh when you come to read
about it ; but these were sore trials to John whose earthly treasures
were very few, & small. These were the beginning of a severe
but much needed course of discipline which he afterwards was to
pass through; & which it is to be hoped has learned him before
this time that the Heavenly Father sees it best to take all the
little things out of his hands which he has ever placed in them.
When John was in his Sixth year a poor Indian boy gave him a Yellow
Marble the first he had ever seen. This he thought a great deal
of; & kept it a good while; but at last he lost it beyond
recovery. It took years to heal the wound & I think he cried
at times about it. About Five months after this he caught a young
Squirrel tearing off his tail in doing it & getting severely
bitten at the same time himself. He however held on to the little
bob tail Squirrel; & finally got him perfectly tamed, so that
he almost idolized his pet. This too he lost; by its wandering
away; or by getting killed; & for year or two John was in
mourning; and looking at all the Squirrels he could see to try
& discover Bobtail, if possible. I must not neglect to
tell you of a very bad & foolish habit to which John was somewhat
addicted. I mean telling lies; generally to screen himself from
blame; or from punishment. He could not well endure to be reproached;
& I now think had he been oftener encouraged to be entirely
frank ; by making frankness a kind of atonement for some of his
faults; he would not have been so often guilty in after life of
this fault; nor have been obliged to struggle so long with so
mean a habit.
John was never quarrelsome; but was excessively fond of the hardest
& roughest kind of plays; & could never get enough [of]
them. Indeed when for a short time he was sometimes sent to School
the opportunity it afforded to wrestle, & Snow ball &
run & jump & knock off old seedy Wool hats; offered to
him almost the only compensation for the confinement, & restraints
of school. I need not tell you that with such a feeling &
but little chance of going to school at all : he did not become
much of a scholar. He would always choose to stay at home
& work hard rather than be sent to school; & during the
Warm season might generally be seen barefooted & bareheaded:
with Buck skin Breeches suspended often with one leather strap
over his shoulder but sometimes with two. To be sent off through
the wilderness alone to very considerable distances was particularly
his delight; & in this he was often indulged so that by the
time he was Twelve years old he was sent off more than a Hundred
Miles with companies of cattle; & he would have thought his
character much injured had he been obliged to be helped in any
such job. This was a boyish kind of feeling but characteristic
however. At Eight years old, John was left a Motherless boy which
loss was complete & permanent for notwithstanding his Father
again married to a sensible, intelligent, and on many accounts
a very estimable woman; yet he never adopted her in feeling; but
continued to pine after his own Mother for years. This operated
very unfavorably upon him; as he was both naturally fond of females;
&, with all, extremely diffident; & deprived him of a
suitable connecting link between the different sexes; the want
of which might under some circumstances, have proved his ruin.
When the war broke out with England: his Father soon commenced
furnishing the troops with beef cattle, the collecting & driving
of which afforded him some opportunity for the chase (on foot)
of wild steers & other cattle through the woods. During this
war he had some chance to form his own boyish judgment of men
& measures: & to become somewhat familiarly acquainted
with some who have figured before the country since that time.
The effect of what he saw during the war was to so far disgust
him with Military affairs that he would neither train, nor drill;
but paid fines; & got along like a Quaker until his age finally
has cleared him of Military duty. During the war with England
a circumstance occurred that in the end made him a most determined
Abolitionist: & led him to declare, or Swear: Eternal war
with Slavery. He was staying for a short time with a very gentlemanly
landlord since a United States Marshall who held a slave boy near
his own age very active, intelligent, and good feeling; &
to whom John was under considerable obligation for numerous little
acts of kindness. The Master made a great pet of John: brought
him to table with his first company; & friends; called their
attention to every little smart thing he said or did: & to
the fact of his being more than a hundred miles from home with
a company of cattle alone; while the negro boy (who was fully
if not more than his equal) was badly clothed, poorly fed; &
lodged in cold weather; & beaten before his eyes with Iron
Shovels or any other thing that came first to hand. This brought
John to reflect on the wretched, hopeless condition, of Fatherless
& Motherless slave children: for such children have neither
Fathers nor Mothers to protect & provide for them. He sometimes
would raise the question is God their Father?
At the age of Ten years, an old friend induced him to read a little
history, & offered him the free use of a good library; by
; which he acquired some taste for reading: which formed the principle
part of his early education: & diverted him in a great measure
from bad company. He by this means grew to be very fond of the
company & conversation of old & intelligent persons. He
never attempted to dance in his life; nor did he ever learn to
know one of a pack of Cards from another. He learned nothing of
Grammar; nor did he get at school so much knowledge of common
Arithmetic as the four grand rules.
This will give you some general idea of the first Fifteen years
of his life; during which time he became very strong & large
of his age & ambitious to perform the full labor of a man;
at almost any kind of hard work. By reading the lives of great,
wise & good men their sayings, and writings; he grew to a
dislike of vain & frivolous conversation & persons; &
was often greatly obliged by the kind manner in which older &
more intelligent persons treated him at their houses: & in
conversation; which was a great relief on account of his extreme
bashfulness. He very early in life became ambitious to excel in
doing anything he undertook to perform. This kind of feeling I
would recommend to all young persons both Male & female: as
it will certainly tend to secure admission to the company of the
more intelligent; & better portion of every community. By
all means endeavor to excel in some laudable pursuit. I had liked
to have forgotten to tell you of one of John's misfortunes which
set rather hard on him while a young boy. He had by some means
perhaps by gift of his Father become the owner of a little Ewe
Lamb which did finely till it was about Two Thirds grown; &
then sickened and died. This brought another protracted mourning
season: not that he felt the pecuniary loss so heavily: for that
was never his disposition; but so strong & earnest were his
attachments. John had been taught from earliest childhood to "fear
God & keep his commandments;" & though quite skeptical
he had always by turns felt much serious doubt as to his future
well being; & about this time became to some extent a convert
to Christianity & ever after a firm believer in the divine
authenticity of the Bible. With this book he became very familiar,
& possessed a most unusual memory of its entire contents.
Now some of the things I have been telling of; were just such
as I would recommend to you: & adopted them as part of your
own plan of life; & I wish you to have some definite plan.
Many seem to have none; & others never to stick to any that
they do form. This was not the case with John. He followed up
with tenacity whatever he set about so long as it answered his
general purpose: & hence he rarely failed in some good degree
to affect the "things he undertook. This was so much the
case that he habitually expected to 'Succeed in his undertakings.
With this feeling should be coupled; the consciousness that our
plans are right in themselves.
During
the period I have named, John had acquired a kind of ownership
to certain animals of some little value but as he had come to
understand that the title of minors might be a little imperfect:
he had recourse to various means in order to secure a more independent;
& perfect right of property. One of these means was to exchange
with his Father for something of far less value. Another was by
trading with other persons for something his Father had never
owned. Older persons have sometimes found difficulty with titles.
From fifteen to Twenty years old, he spent most of his time working
at the Tanner & Currier's trade keeping Bachelors hall; &
he officiating as Cook; & for most of the time as foreman
of the establishment under his Father. During this period he found
much trouble with some of the bad habits I have mentioned &
with some that I have not told you of: his conscience urging him
forward with great power in this matter: but his close attention
to business; & success in its management; together with the
way he got along with a company of men, & boys; made him quite
a favorite with the serious & more intelligent portion of
older persons. This was so much the case; & secured for him
so many little notices from those he esteemed; that his vanity
was very much fed by it : & he came forward to manhood quite
full of self-conceit; & self-confidant; notwithstanding his
extreme bashfulness. A younger brother used sometimes to remind
him of this: & to repeat to him this expression which you
may somewhere find, "A King against whom there is no rising
up."
The habit so early formed of being obeyed rendered him in after
life too much disposed to speak in an imperious or dictating way.
From Fifteen years & upward he felt a good deal of anxiety
to learn; but could only read & study a little; both for want
of time; & on account of inflammation of the eyes. He however
managed by the help of books to make himself tolerably well acquainted
with common Arithmetic; & Surveying; which he practiced more
or less after he was Twenty years old. At a little past Twenty
years led by his own inclination & prompted also by his Father,
he married a remarkably plain; but industrious & economical
girl; of excellent character; earnest piety; & good practical
common sense; about one year younger than himself. This woman
by her mild, frank, & more than all else; by her very consistent
conduct; acquired & ever while she lived maintained a most
powerful; & good influence over him. Her plain but kind admonitions
generally had the right effect; without arousing his haughty obstinate
temper. John began early in life to discover a great liking to
fine Cattle, Horses, Sheep, & Swine; & as soon as circumstances
would enable him he began to be a practical Shepherd; it being
a calling for which in early life he had a kind of enthusiastic
longing: together with the idea that as a business it bid fair
to afford him the means of carrying out his greatest or principal
object. I have now given you a kind of general idea of the early
life of this boy; & if I believed it would be worth the trouble;
or afford much interest to any good feeling person; I might be
tempted to tell you something of his course in after life; or
manhood. I do not say that I will do it.
You will discover that in using up my half sheets to save paper;
I have written two pages, so that one does not follow the other
as it should. I have no time to write it over; & but for unavoidable
hindrances in traveling I can hardly say when I should have written
what I have. With an honest desire for your best good, I subscribe
myself,
Your
Friend, J. BROWN.
P.S.
I had like to have forgotten to acknowledge your contribution
in aid of the cause in which I serve. God Almighty bless you;
my son. J. B.
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