“Nah, I’m good.”
— Black people, to John Brown
William Still was about that abolitionist life.
When Harriet Tubman wanted to rescue her family, she went to Philadelphia to train with the man known as the “Father of the Underground Railroad.” While Tubman helped free about 70 enslaved people, Still personally helped transport at least 649 slaves to freedom. His rescue of Jane Johnson and her two sons from her enslaver, U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Col. John Wheeler, sparked an international uproar. Still dedicated his entire life to helping Black people achieve freedom.
So when John Brown went looking for funding, soldiers and weapons for the infamous raid on an armory in Harpers Ferry, Va., it only made sense to ask the most radical abolitionist in America’s most anti-slavery city.
William Still said no.
Fortunately, Brown knew another guy. In January 1858, he went to Rochester, N.Y., to recruit another one of his famous homeboys who had escaped on the Underground Railroad. For weeks, Brown tried to convince his old friend to join the upcoming anti-slavery uprising. After staying with his unenslaved friend for a month, Brown realized that his efforts were futile.
Frederick Douglass had said no.
Brown knew New York abolitionists Henry Highland Garnet and Julia Ward WIlliams had called for a national rebellion, but they weren’t interested in joining the white preacher’s race war. Brooklyn pastor James Gloucester’s wife was one of the richest Black women in America. They gave Brown a few dollars but little else. Radical Chicago pastor John Jones thought the plan was crazy, as did outspoken Rev. J.W. Loguen.
Undeterred, Brown went to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, to talk to another prominent abolitionist. Unlike Douglass, this new acquaintance didn’t immediately dismiss his plans. When John wrote “He is the most of a man, naturally, that I ever met with,” he wasn’t talking about a man. He was referring to his new friend he tried to recruit on April 7, 1858.
Harriet Tubman didn’t show up at Harpers Ferry, either
John Brown met with the most prominent Black men in Detroit on March 12, 1859 and received more rejections. William Webb, a grocery store owner who used his home as an Underground Railroad station, turned Brown down. Wealthy entrepreneur George DeBaptiste secretly operated on the Underground Railroad, but he thought Brown’s plan was crazy. William and Julia Lambert founded Detroit’s first civil rights organization, the Detroit Colored Vigilant Committee and used their businesses as a stop on the Underground Railroad. But the Lamberts wouldn’t help John Brown, either.
Moses Dickson didn’t just turn Brown down; he tried to stop him.
Along with his Knights of Twelve, Dickson was secretly planning a national slave uprising in every Southern state. Despite being sworn to secrecy, Dickson told Brown to go sit down somewhere, assuring him that Black folks were already working on something. But Brown wouldn’t listen.
Convinced that white-on-white violence would end slavery, Brown came up with the whitest plan ever:
Abolitionist Fest.
On May, 5, 1859, the height of the Colored Convention movement, anti-slavery activists from across North America gathered in Chatham County, Ontario for what Brown hoped would be Abolitionist Freaknik. The guests included:
Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The first Black woman to publish a newspaper in North America
Martin Delany, a world-renowned doctor who was organizing an effort to purchase land in Africa.
Eunice Shadd: the first Black woman to graduate from Howard University College of Medicine
Alfred P. Whipper: a teacher who operated a school for free Blacks.
William P. Whipper: An Underground Railroad operator who literally wrote the manual for nonviolet resistance
Isaac Shadd: the journalist who settled escaped slaves in Canada and later served in Congress
When John Brown attacked Harpers Ferry on Oct. 16, 1859, 15 of the 22 raiders were white. Three were his sons. Only three free Black men participated (It goes without saying that Black women were not involved). Still it is interesting that, after crisscrossing the country and pleading his case, Brown couldn’t even find a dozen white people who were down for his cause. Still, what interests me more:
Why was Brown so convinced that Black people were wrong?
As you can see, he consulted with the foremost Black thinkers of his time. Nearly every single one expressed doubt in Brown’s plan. In all fairness, taking down a constitutionally enforced race-based, international system with bullets and a few few sticks of dynamite seems a little bit crazy.
Can you imagine not taking advice from Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Delaney and the smartest, radical revolutionaries America had to offer? Imagine considering the opinions of the most brilliant, militant Black geniuses who actually survived the most inhuman system the world has ever concocted and concluding:
“Nah, they’re wrong. I’m right. My way is the only way.”
Donald Trump might be the purest, most concentrated example of whiteness in the history of the world, but ask yourself this:
How was John Brown any different?
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Today’s Reading List
How to be a Black Ally by Michael Harriot
Does Ta-Nehisi Hate White People? By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black men, white lies and why Stacey Abrams couldn’t turn Georgia blue by Michael Harriot
A great reverse migration is shifting the balance of power in the U.S., by Theodore R. Johnson.
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