“His last words.- “I die for the inalienable right of mankind to freedom, whatever hue the skin may be.””
These are printed at the top of this civil war period envelope. On the right it says “John Brown” and beneath that is a drawing of John Brown as a younger man. Below the drawing is written: “Copyright secured by Stimson & Co., 79 Cedar Street, New York”
Many envelopes had timely mottoes or images printed on them. Here I quote wikipedia: “John H. Brown was an American abolitionist leader. Brown felt that violence was necessary to end American slavery, as years of speeches, sermons, petitions, and moral persuasion had failed. An intensely religious man, Brown believed he was raised up by God to strike the death blow to American slavery.” John Brown is famous for his raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859 with only 22 men, which he intended as an action to get weapons to arm the enslaved and join them in revolt. But his group, which included 18 men besides himself (13 white men, 5 black men). failed and 10 of his men were killed immediately, while 7 others would be hanged. But Brown didn’t fail completely in his mission. He had been maligned as a mad man because he had been one of the first to see that the South would not peacefully give up slavery and that the nation would have to use weapons to end this practice. Harper’s Ferry is considered a prelude to the Civil War. And, with his thoughtful words during his trial, public opinion and reporting on Brown changed from portraying him as fanatic and crazy, to seeing him as a passionate brave man. His action led to catalyzing more people to be willing to take up arms against slavery.