Handwritten letter on 9 x 6 inch sheets, 27 pp. Near fine with slightest foxing
1888 · NP
by [Abolitionism - John Brown and His Circle - Aaron D. Stevens] Dunbar, Jenny; Brown, Edith M.
NP, 1888. Handwritten letter on 9 x 6 inch sheets, 27 pp. Near fine with slightest foxing. Near Fine. Following the October 1859 Harpers Ferry Raid, led by abolitionist John Brown, Brown and six co-conspirators were captured and executed by hanging that following spring. Among these six was Aaron Dwight Stevens, considered Brown's chief military aide and the only one among them with previous military experience. The Connecticut-born Stevens had served in the First Dragoons, where he had been court-martialed and imprisoned under dubious circumstances and later escaped from Fort Leavenworth to join the free state forces. In the final period of his life, Stevens became romantically involved with Jennie Dunbar (later June Leigh Dunbar Garcelon, 1835-1928), a music teacher from Ashtabula County, Ohio, who would work as a dressmaker in her later years following Stevens' death.
Offered here is a letter by Dunbar to her father Henry R. Smith on Sept. 1, 1860 from Cherry Valley, Ohio, previously unknown to scholarship, detailing her relationship with Stevens and giving a firsthand account of his death and the aftermath. Dunbar wrote this letter to her father, and somehow a copy ended up in the possession of Edith M. Brown, John Brown's granddaughter. The copy offered is in the hand of Edith M. Brown, copying the original, which is presumed lost.
The letter begins with in the summer preceding the raid, Stevens became acquainted with Jennie Dunbar,
"I was introduced to Mr. Stevens a year ago last June at Mr. Lindley's, (where he was then stopping for a while... where I was then giving lessons, going there twice a week during the summer time..."
"I can not say whether I saw him almost every time or not. I saw him often and often played and sung for him with the rest of the household but never was alone with him but once."
"I overtook him as I was coming home on horseback and he walking. He walked about a mile beside my horse and we talked of books and men, not of ourselves at all, that I remember. That was the only time we ever spent alone."
After these few encounters, Stevens soon departed, leaving Jennie with a [picture] of himself. Soon after he had communicated to a mutual acquaintance his affection for Jennie and his hope they'd get together :
"thinking me worthy him, there was no desire nearer her heart than that we should be united. I also found that he had told her that he loved me and could not be happy without me. He had also told her that she should write the same to me, and the letters, two of them, came through her to me"
Jennie did not however share his same level of interest, and speaks of her intend to write him to say as much, but before she is able to news of the raid, Stevens capture, and death sentenced reach her, and she decides it would be unkind to dissuade him of his affections:
" before the letters were mailed, tidings of the Harpers Ferry outbreak reached us and even if it had been possible to send him letters of such a character it would only have added pain to his death pangs we thought as he was reported in a dying state, you know."
After their capture, efforts were made by those in the Abolitionist movement to offer the prisoners support, or to find means to stay their executions. James Redpath, an anti-slavery activist and journalist, relayed to Jennie that Stevens had requested that he might see her. As the letter explains, Jennie at first did not want to do this, however entreaties from members of John Brown's family, and other anti-slavery friends,
convinced her to do her part to either help free Stevens or offer him what comfort she could.
"The Browns with other anti-slavery friends came to me to ask me to think of it again saying I might save his life. Then I resolved to go, for no effort was too great when there was even a faint hope of doing him good and I felt ashamed of my hesitation as I said, "It is so sad if, when he has so daringly and unselfishly laid down his life for the negro, there is not a woman strong and fearless enough to make at least an effort to save him or failing to do that, try to make his last hours as happy as may be"
Following this is an account of Jennie's journey from Ohio to New Jersey, and then to Virginia. Along the way she relates a number of personal anecdotes about her interactions with abolitionists, and other family and friends of the condemned prisoners.
Arriving in Virginia however, Jennie fails to persuade the Virginia Governor John Letcher to stay Steven's execution and writes with a poetic bitterness about her encounter:
" under the coldest snows, sweet little violets are often found, and I thought there might be some fresh green thing, even in the desolation of that Slave Holders heart, and there was even then a hope that I might be permitted to remove the ice, that had accumulated over the violets there, and being a proof that all was not dead yet, and it was only when I saw the cold man and heard from his lips the cruel words, which convinced me, that it was not as a prisoner and convict that Mr. Stevens was to be executed but as a man, who had proved himself so far superior to the brute Fletcher that enraged animal, because the man had gained his hatred and was in his power had determined to put the man to death for his audacity, in daring to be so much better than he. Hope died then."
What then follows is an intimate, poignant, detailed account of the time that she and other close relatives spent with the prisoners, both the evening before the execution,
"Mr. Stevens seemed to forget that there was any sadness in life or death, and indeed all the time there was strong and cheerful as if in his expectation he was to receive great joy, instead of pain... and during the evening Mr. Stevens talked, laughed, sung and read to us as naturally as he ever acted. I looked on in wonder, I had never before seen a Free Thinker near death and did not know a Moralists faith would serve" As well as the morning right before the execution:
"...the dear lips now speaking words of comfort to us would soon be hushed forever. We sat down to the last meal for them, both prisoners calm as if they had never heard of the scaffold which was then being prepared in the jail yard for them... young braves so soon to be offered up as a sacrifice to the spirit of Slavery..."
This is followed by her telling of her anguish at the funeral, and her weary journey home:
"You have seen a report of the funeral, no doubt, and I will not repeat it... The bodies could not be seen on account of their state. You have seen it stated that Mr. Stevens died in agony. His features were my fearfully distorted, his face very black and all of his flesh that was visible, the blood having gushed from mouth, nose and eyes, so as to completely saturate his hair.... In my exhaustion produced by bodily fatigue, loss of sleep and mental excitement, it seemed all I could bear, to know that the dear strong man had suffered so"
This letter, having been written soon after the occasion, provides the most contemporaneous articulation of Jennie Dunbar's part in this story. A review of archival holdings and writings on John Brown and Aaron Stevens show no reference to this letter having ever been cited. Only one other account originates from Jennie Stevens herself, but this account may be from over a decade after the incident when she is married.
Different sources speculate at the nature of Jenny's relationship with Stevens, and whether she was a lover, friend or fiancé. This account is notable in her clear articulation of their relationship, and what had transpired between them.
Names, dates and events described in the letter correspond with other sources to validate its authenticity and many of the details within the letter give a candid picture of her experience. The letter itself is not an original but is stated on the letter to have been copied by John Brown's granddaughter, Edith Brown, in 1888.
Effort was made in our research to verify that this letter has not been previously used in research. This included searches in the works of Richard Josiah Hinton and Oswald Garrison Villard who were lifetime experts on the subject of the John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid. Both additionally left archival material with the Kansas State Historical Society and the Columbia University, but neither contain this letter. Searches related to Jennie Dunbar generally were done in online databases and in Newspapers.com to corroborate the story told in the letter. In addition Lou DeCaro Jr., associate professor of Church History at Alliance Theological Seminary, and author of "Fire from the Midst of You": A Religious Life of John Brown and Freedom's Dawn: The Last Days of John Brown in Virginia - and "lifelong student of John Brown" - was
consulted and he confirmed this letter has not previously been cited in literature on the subject.
Overall a significant document that should be of interest to scholars of John Brown and his circle, the aftermath in Virginia and the Abolition movement more broadly.
Sources:
1894 Biennial Report, Kansas State Historical Society
Brown, John. The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown: Who was Executed at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859, for an Armed Attack Upon American Slavery; with Notices of Some of His Confederates. Smith, Elder & Company, 1861.
Butsch, Vic, A Journey to the Gallows: Aaron Dwight Stevens: The Story of a Forgotten American Hero, 2019.
Hinton, Richard Josiah. John Brown and His Men: With Some Account of the Roads They Traveled to Reach Harper's Ferry. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894.
Laughlin-Schultz, Bonnie. The Tie that Bound Us: The Women of John Brown's Family and the Legacy of Radical Abolitionism. Cornell University Press, 2017.
Villard, Oswald Garrison. John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After. Houghton Mifflin, 1910. (Inventory #: List2501)
Offered here is a letter by Dunbar to her father Henry R. Smith on Sept. 1, 1860 from Cherry Valley, Ohio, previously unknown to scholarship, detailing her relationship with Stevens and giving a firsthand account of his death and the aftermath. Dunbar wrote this letter to her father, and somehow a copy ended up in the possession of Edith M. Brown, John Brown's granddaughter. The copy offered is in the hand of Edith M. Brown, copying the original, which is presumed lost.
The letter begins with in the summer preceding the raid, Stevens became acquainted with Jennie Dunbar,
"I was introduced to Mr. Stevens a year ago last June at Mr. Lindley's, (where he was then stopping for a while... where I was then giving lessons, going there twice a week during the summer time..."
"I can not say whether I saw him almost every time or not. I saw him often and often played and sung for him with the rest of the household but never was alone with him but once."
"I overtook him as I was coming home on horseback and he walking. He walked about a mile beside my horse and we talked of books and men, not of ourselves at all, that I remember. That was the only time we ever spent alone."
After these few encounters, Stevens soon departed, leaving Jennie with a [picture] of himself. Soon after he had communicated to a mutual acquaintance his affection for Jennie and his hope they'd get together :
"thinking me worthy him, there was no desire nearer her heart than that we should be united. I also found that he had told her that he loved me and could not be happy without me. He had also told her that she should write the same to me, and the letters, two of them, came through her to me"
Jennie did not however share his same level of interest, and speaks of her intend to write him to say as much, but before she is able to news of the raid, Stevens capture, and death sentenced reach her, and she decides it would be unkind to dissuade him of his affections:
" before the letters were mailed, tidings of the Harpers Ferry outbreak reached us and even if it had been possible to send him letters of such a character it would only have added pain to his death pangs we thought as he was reported in a dying state, you know."
After their capture, efforts were made by those in the Abolitionist movement to offer the prisoners support, or to find means to stay their executions. James Redpath, an anti-slavery activist and journalist, relayed to Jennie that Stevens had requested that he might see her. As the letter explains, Jennie at first did not want to do this, however entreaties from members of John Brown's family, and other anti-slavery friends,
convinced her to do her part to either help free Stevens or offer him what comfort she could.
"The Browns with other anti-slavery friends came to me to ask me to think of it again saying I might save his life. Then I resolved to go, for no effort was too great when there was even a faint hope of doing him good and I felt ashamed of my hesitation as I said, "It is so sad if, when he has so daringly and unselfishly laid down his life for the negro, there is not a woman strong and fearless enough to make at least an effort to save him or failing to do that, try to make his last hours as happy as may be"
Following this is an account of Jennie's journey from Ohio to New Jersey, and then to Virginia. Along the way she relates a number of personal anecdotes about her interactions with abolitionists, and other family and friends of the condemned prisoners.
Arriving in Virginia however, Jennie fails to persuade the Virginia Governor John Letcher to stay Steven's execution and writes with a poetic bitterness about her encounter:
" under the coldest snows, sweet little violets are often found, and I thought there might be some fresh green thing, even in the desolation of that Slave Holders heart, and there was even then a hope that I might be permitted to remove the ice, that had accumulated over the violets there, and being a proof that all was not dead yet, and it was only when I saw the cold man and heard from his lips the cruel words, which convinced me, that it was not as a prisoner and convict that Mr. Stevens was to be executed but as a man, who had proved himself so far superior to the brute Fletcher that enraged animal, because the man had gained his hatred and was in his power had determined to put the man to death for his audacity, in daring to be so much better than he. Hope died then."
What then follows is an intimate, poignant, detailed account of the time that she and other close relatives spent with the prisoners, both the evening before the execution,
"Mr. Stevens seemed to forget that there was any sadness in life or death, and indeed all the time there was strong and cheerful as if in his expectation he was to receive great joy, instead of pain... and during the evening Mr. Stevens talked, laughed, sung and read to us as naturally as he ever acted. I looked on in wonder, I had never before seen a Free Thinker near death and did not know a Moralists faith would serve" As well as the morning right before the execution:
"...the dear lips now speaking words of comfort to us would soon be hushed forever. We sat down to the last meal for them, both prisoners calm as if they had never heard of the scaffold which was then being prepared in the jail yard for them... young braves so soon to be offered up as a sacrifice to the spirit of Slavery..."
This is followed by her telling of her anguish at the funeral, and her weary journey home:
"You have seen a report of the funeral, no doubt, and I will not repeat it... The bodies could not be seen on account of their state. You have seen it stated that Mr. Stevens died in agony. His features were my fearfully distorted, his face very black and all of his flesh that was visible, the blood having gushed from mouth, nose and eyes, so as to completely saturate his hair.... In my exhaustion produced by bodily fatigue, loss of sleep and mental excitement, it seemed all I could bear, to know that the dear strong man had suffered so"
This letter, having been written soon after the occasion, provides the most contemporaneous articulation of Jennie Dunbar's part in this story. A review of archival holdings and writings on John Brown and Aaron Stevens show no reference to this letter having ever been cited. Only one other account originates from Jennie Stevens herself, but this account may be from over a decade after the incident when she is married.
Different sources speculate at the nature of Jenny's relationship with Stevens, and whether she was a lover, friend or fiancé. This account is notable in her clear articulation of their relationship, and what had transpired between them.
Names, dates and events described in the letter correspond with other sources to validate its authenticity and many of the details within the letter give a candid picture of her experience. The letter itself is not an original but is stated on the letter to have been copied by John Brown's granddaughter, Edith Brown, in 1888.
Effort was made in our research to verify that this letter has not been previously used in research. This included searches in the works of Richard Josiah Hinton and Oswald Garrison Villard who were lifetime experts on the subject of the John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid. Both additionally left archival material with the Kansas State Historical Society and the Columbia University, but neither contain this letter. Searches related to Jennie Dunbar generally were done in online databases and in Newspapers.com to corroborate the story told in the letter. In addition Lou DeCaro Jr., associate professor of Church History at Alliance Theological Seminary, and author of "Fire from the Midst of You": A Religious Life of John Brown and Freedom's Dawn: The Last Days of John Brown in Virginia - and "lifelong student of John Brown" - was
consulted and he confirmed this letter has not previously been cited in literature on the subject.
Overall a significant document that should be of interest to scholars of John Brown and his circle, the aftermath in Virginia and the Abolition movement more broadly.
Sources:
1894 Biennial Report, Kansas State Historical Society
Brown, John. The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown: Who was Executed at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859, for an Armed Attack Upon American Slavery; with Notices of Some of His Confederates. Smith, Elder & Company, 1861.
Butsch, Vic, A Journey to the Gallows: Aaron Dwight Stevens: The Story of a Forgotten American Hero, 2019.
Hinton, Richard Josiah. John Brown and His Men: With Some Account of the Roads They Traveled to Reach Harper's Ferry. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894.
Laughlin-Schultz, Bonnie. The Tie that Bound Us: The Women of John Brown's Family and the Legacy of Radical Abolitionism. Cornell University Press, 2017.
Villard, Oswald Garrison. John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After. Houghton Mifflin, 1910. (Inventory #: List2501)
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