Bibliographic Record Display

• Author/Creator:Brown family.
  
• Title:John Brown family letters : Kansas, 1855-1856.
  
• Physical Description:4 items.
  
• Links:View a selection of digital images in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:BEINECKE (Non-Circulating)
    Request for Use in the Beinecke Reading Room
    
    
  • Call Number: WA MSS S-1671 B8131
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    

   
• Notes:Purchased from King V. Hostick on the William Robertson Coe fund, 1965.
  
• Biographical / Historical note:Five of abolitionist John Brown's sons moved to Kansas in 1855. The unmarried sons, Owen, Salmon, and Frederick went first and were followed by John Jr. and Jason and their families later that spring. The Browns staked claims near Pottawatomie and were joined by their father and other family members in October. John Jr. became active in Free-State politics, served as a delegate to the Topeka Legislature, and was elected captain of the newly formed Pottawatomie Rifle Company. In May 1865 John Jr. and Jason set off with the Pottawatomie Rifles to defend Lawrence but were turned back. In the wake of the Pottawatomie Massacre, Jason and John Brown, Jr. were arrested and imprisoned. Frederick Brown was shot and killed shortly before the burning of Osawatomie in August 1865. The Browns left Kansas that fall.
  
• Summary:Four ALS. In a letter of June 12, 1855 Wealthy writes from Brownsville to her sister-in-law Ruth Thompson. She tells of the trip from Ohio to Kansas and of the cholera outbreak onboard the steamer "New Lucy". She comments on the other passengers, who were mainly slaveholders and their wives. Wealthy goes on to describe their claims, extols the virtues of the Kansas climate and countryside, and urges Ruth and Henry Thompson to join them. In a letter from Osawatomie dated February 10, 1856, Frederick Brown writes of the events of January 15th that culminated in the murder of Mr. E. P. Brown [R. P. Brown?] by a group of proslavery men.
  In the first of two letters to family and friends, Jason Brown writes from Osawatomie on June 28, 1856. He tells of answering the call to defend the city of Lawrence and of receiving word of the taking of Lawrence and of the murder of five proslavery men on Pottawatomie Creek. He describes at length his and John Jr.'s imprisonment and their forced march to Lecompton and then Tecumseh. He briefly describes the skirmish at Hickory Point in which Salmon Brown and Henry Thompson were wounded. In Jason's letter of August 13, 1856 he tells of his attempts to protect the claims from looting and burning and reports that Missourians are said to be gathering to attack Osawatomie.
  
• Other formats:Available on microfilm as part of the Beinecke Library's Frontier Women II microfilm set.
  
• Format:Archives or Manuscripts
• Cite as:John Brown Family Letters. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
  
• Subjects:Brown family.
  Brown, Frederick, b. 1830.
  Brown, Jason, 1823-1912.
  Brown, John, 1800-1859.
  Brown, John, Jr., 1821-1895.
  Brown, Wealthy.
  Pottawatomie Rifles.
  Abolitionists--United States.
  Frontier and pioneer life--Kansas.
  Antislavery movements--United States.
  Slavery--United States--Extension to the territories.
  Women pioneers--Kansas.
  Kansas--History--1854-1861.
  Kansas--Politics and government--1854-1861.
  Pottawatomie County (Kan.)