Sandra Weber’s forthcoming book, John Brown Farm: From Abolitionist Vision to Memorial Site, will be published next month by Purple Mountain Press. This brief excerpt explains how Sandra became interested in this subject and why she felt compelled to write this book. Preorder by clicking here.
My association with the John Brown Farm began in the 1980s, and I quickly came to know the farm caretaker, Edwin Cotter, and the local historian, Mary MacKenzie. They had spent decades researching the history of the farm, dispelling wonky myths, and discovering minute details of John Brown, his family, and his associates in North Elba, Essex County, New York.
During the final years of the millennium, a resurgence of interest developed at the farm. In 1996, I attended New York State’s celebration of its 100-year ownership of the John Brown Farm. In 1997, there was a pilgrimage to the farm, including a wreath placed at the Women Tablet. The next year, the farm became a National Historic Landmark, and Russell Banks released his historical novel, Cloudsplitter, about John Brown.
On August 30, 1999, a celebration was held to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the burial of ten of John Brown followers at the farm. The day also marked the 143-year anniversary of the Battle of Osawatomie. A larger event was held earlier that May to mark John Brown Day. One of the organizers from the New Abolition Society, said, “If the task of the nineteenth century was to overthrow slavery, and the task of the twentieth century was to end legal segregation, the key to solving this country’s problems in the twenty-first century is to abolish the white race as a social category—in other words, eradicate white supremacy entirely.”
That day, I walked with a group of about two hundred people from Trinity Church to the John Brown Farm. It was a short trek, yet long in nostalgia. A walk that would reestablish a grand tradition of thinking about history while bringing its messages to bear on present circumstances. When I reached the farm, I stood near John Brown’s grave and watched two boys climb onto the big boulder. The white boy reached out his hand to help the black boy climb up. Once atop the boulder, the black boy stood perched as a lookout, while the white boy sat at his feet.
I wish to say furthermore, that you had better . . .prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question…You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this negro question I mean; the end of that is not yet. —John Brown to his captors at Harpers Ferry, 1859
John Brown’s work is not done. His question still lingers in the air. The John Brown Farm tells the rare story of how black people and white people worked together and how they honored John Brown. Here, people resisted drawing the color line; they did not make judgements based on the constructed categories of white and black. The John Brown Farm shows the possibilities of understanding, cooperation, and fellowship within the human race.
Big rock at John Brown Farm, circa 1880. Library of Congress.
