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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Preface xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction 3
1.1 Overview of the Text 3
1.2 The Design Process: Relationship
of Analysis to Design 4
1.3 Strength and Serviceability 6
1.4 Historical Development
of Structural Systems 7
1.5 Basic Structural Elements 10
1.6 Assembling Basic Elements to Form
a Stable Structural System 19
1.7 Analyzing by Computer 22
1.8 Preparation of Computations 23
Summary 24

Chapter 2 Design Loads and Structural Framing 27

2.1 Building and Design Code 27
2.2 Loads 28
2.3 Dead Loads and Gravity Framing 29
2.4 Live Loads 36
2.5 Snow Loads 42
2.6 Lateral Load-Resisting Systems 43
2.7 Natural Hazards 45
2.8 Wind Loads 46
2.9 Earthquake Loads 59
2.10 Tsunami Loads 64
2.11 Other Loads 70
2.12 Load Combinations 71
Summary 72

Chapter 3 Statics of Structures—Reactions 81

3.1 Introduction 81
3.2 Forces 82
3.3 Supports 89
vii
viii  Table of Contents

3.4 Idealizing Structures 93

3.5 Free-Body Diagrams 94
3.6 Equations of Static Equilibrium 96
3.7 Equations of Condition 102
3.8 Influence of Reactions on Stability
and Determinacy of Structures 105
3.9 Classifying Structures 113
3.10 Comparison between Determinate
and Indeterminate Structures 116
Summary 119

Chapter 4 Trusses 131

4.1 Introduction 131
4.2 Types of Trusses 134
4.3 Analysis of Trusses 135
4.4 Method of Joints 136
4.5 Zero Bars 140
4.6 Method of Sections 142
4.7 Determinacy and Stability 150
4.8 Computer Analysis of Trusses 156
Summary 159

Chapter 5 Beams and Frames 175

5.1 Introduction 175
5.2 Scope of Chapter 180
5.3 Equations for Shear and Moment 181
5.4 Shear and Moment Curves 188
5.5 Principle of Superposition 206
5.6 Sketching the Deflected Shape
of a Beam or Frame 210
5.7 Degree of Indeterminacy 215
5.8 Approximate Indeterminate
Structural Analysis 218
Summary 219

Chapter 6 Cables and Arches 235

6.1 Cables 235
6.2 Characteristics of Cables 236
6.3 Variation of Cable Force 237
6.4 Analysis of a Cable Supporting
Concentrated Gravity Loads 238
6.5 General Cable Theorem 240
6.6 Arches 245
6.7 Types of Arches 245
6.8 Three-Hinged Arches 247
 Table of Contents  ix

6.9 Funicular Shape of an Arch 249

6.10 Funicular Shape for an Arch That
Supports a Uniformly Distributed Load 252
Summary 256

Chapter 7 Deflections of Beams and Frames 267

7.1 Introduction 267
7.2 Double Integration Method 268
7.3 Moment-Area Method 275
7.4 Elastic Load Method 293
7.5 Conjugate Beam Method 297
7.6 Design Aids for Beams 305
Summary 307

Chapter 8 Work-Energy Methods

for Computing Deflections 319
8.1 Introduction 319
8.2 Work 320
8.3 Strain Energy 322
8.4 Deflections by the Work-Energy
Method (Real Work) 325
8.5 Virtual Work: Trusses 326
8.6 Virtual Work: Beams and Frames 343
8.7 Finite Summation 355
8.8 Bernoulli’s Principle of Virtual
Displacements 357
8.9 Maxwell-Betti Law of Reciprocal
Deflections 360
Summary 364

Chapter 9 Analysis of Indeterminate

Structures by the Flexibility Method 377
9.1 Introduction 377
9.2 Concept of a Redundant 378
9.3 Fundamentals of the Flexibility
Method 379
9.4 Alternative View of the Flexibility
Method (Closing a Gap) 382
9.5 Analysis Using Internal Releases 392
9.6 Support Settlements, Temperature
Change, and Fabrication Errors 399
9.7 Analysis of Structures with Several
Degrees of Indeterminacy 404
9.8 Beam on Elastic Supports 411
Summary 414
x  Table of Contents

Chapter 10 Analysis of Indeterminate Beams

and Frames by the Slope-Deflection
Method 423
10.1 Introduction 423
10.2 Illustration of the Slope-Deflection Method 424
10.3 Derivation of the Slope-Deflection
Equation 425
10.4 Analysis of Structures by the
Slope-Deflection Method 431
10.5 Analysis of Structures That Are Free
to Sidesway 447
10.6 Kinematic Indeterminacy 457
Summary 458

Analysis of Indeterminate Beams

Chapter 11 
and Frames by the Moment Distribution 467
11.1 Introduction 467
11.2 Development of the Moment
Distribution Method 468
11.3 Summary of the Moment Distribution
Method with No Joint Translation 473
11.4 Analysis of Beams by Moment
Distribution 474
11.5 Modification of Member Stiffness 482
11.6 Analysis of Frames That Are Free
to Sidesway 497
11.7 Analysis of an Unbraced Frame for
General Loading 503
11.8 Analysis of Multistory Frames 508
11.9 Nonprismatic Members 509
Summary 520

Chapter 12 Influence Lines for Moving Loads 529

12.1 Introduction 529
12.2 Influence Lines 529
12.3 Construction of Influence Line for
Determinate Beams 530
12.4 Müller–Breslau Principle for
Determinate Beams 538
12.5 Use of Influence Lines 541
12.6 Influence Lines for Determinate
Girders Supporting Floor Systems 544
12.7 Influence Lines for Determinate Trusses 550
12.8 Live Loads for Highway and
Railroad Bridges 555
12.9 Increase–Decrease Method 558
12.10 Moment Envelope and Absolute
Maximum Live Load Moment 562
 Table of Contents  xi

12.11 Shear Envelope 567

12.12 Influence Lines for Indeterminate
Structures: Introduction 568
12.13 Construction of Influence Lines Using
Moment Distribution 569
12.14 Proof of Müller–Breslau Principle 573
12.15 Qualitative Influence Lines for
Indeterminate Beams and Frames 578
12.16 Live Load Patterns to Maximize Member
Forces in Multistory Buildings 584
12.17 Influence Lines for Indeterminate Trusses 588
Summary 591

Chapter 13 Approximate Analysis

of Indeterminate Structures 605
13.1 Introduction 605
13.2 Continuous Beams for Gravity Load 607
13.3 One-bay Rigid Frames for Vertical Load 613
13.4 Trusses with Single Diagonals 617
13.5 Estimating Deflections of Trusses 623
13.6 Trusses with Double Diagonals 625
13.7 Multistory Rigid Frames
for Gravity Load 628
13.8 Single-story Rigid Frames
for Lateral Load 637
13.9 Multistory Rigid Frames for Lateral Load:
Portal Method 640
13.10 Multistory Rigid Frames for Lateral Load:
Cantilever Method 648
Summary 653

Chapter 14 Introduction to the General

Stiffness Method 661
14.1 Introduction 661
14.2 Comparison between Flexibility
and Stiffness Methods 662
14.3 Analysis of an Indeterminate Structure
by the General Stiffness Method 666
Summary 679

Matrix Analysis of Trusses by

Chapter 15 
the Direct Stiffness Method 685
15.1 Introduction 685
15.2 Member and Structure Stiffness Matrices 690
15.3 Construction of a Member Stiffness
Matrix for an Individual Truss Bar 691
15.4 Assembly of the Structure Stiffness Matrix 692
xii  Table of Contents

15.5 Solution of the Direct Stiffness Method 695

15.6 Member Stiffness Matrix of an Inclined
Truss Bar 699
15.7 Coordinate Transformation of a Member
Stiffness Matrix 711
Summary 712

Matrix Analysis of Beams and Frames

Chapter 16 
by the Direct Stiffness Method 717
16.1 Introduction 717
16.2 Structure Stiffness Matrix 719
16.3 The 2 × 2 Rotational Stiffness Matrix
for a Flexural Member 720
16.4 The 4 × 4 Member Stiffness Matrix
in Local Coordinates 731
16.5 The 6 × 6 Member Stiffness Matrix
in Local Coordinates 741
16.6 The 6 × 6 Member Stiffness Matrix in
Global Coordinates 750
16.7 Assembly of a Structure Stiffness
Matrix—Direct Stiffness Method 752
Summary 755

Appendix A 759
Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems 763
Index 769
P R E FAC E

This text introduces engineering and architectural students to the basic

techniques required for analyzing the majority of structures and the ele-
ments of which most structures are composed, including beams, frames,
trusses, arches, and cables. Although the authors assume that readers
have completed basic courses in statics and strength of materials, we
briefly review the basic techniques from these courses the first time we
mention them. To clarify the discussion, we use many carefully chosen
examples to illustrate the various analytic techniques introduced, and
whenever possible, we select examples confronting engineers in real-life
professional practice.

Features of This Text

1. Major reorganization. The number of chapters has been reduced
from 18 in the previous editions to 16 for a more concise presentation
of the materials. This is done by combining the cable and arch
chapters into one as well as presenting the influence lines for both
determinate and indeterminate structures in one chapter to avoid
repeating information.
2. Expanded treatment of design loads. Chapter 2 is devoted to a
discussion of loads based on the most recent ANSI/ASCE 7 Standard.
This includes dead and live loads, snow, earthquake, and wind loads,
and, new to this edition (and the ASCE Standard), tsunami loading.
Further, a discussion on natural hazards and the ASCE Standard’s
probabalistic approach to natural hazard design loads is added. The
presentation aims to provide students with a basic understanding of
how design loads are determined for practical design of multistory
buildings, bridges, and other structures.
3. New homework problems. A substantial number of the problems
are new or revised for this edition (in both metric and U.S. Cus-
tomary System units), and many are typical of analysis problems
encountered in practice. The many choices enable the instructor
to select problems suited for a particular class or for a particular
emphasis.
4. Computer problems and applications. Computer problems,
some new to this edition, provide readers with a deeper under-
standing of the structural behavior of trusses, frames, arches,

xiii
xiv  Preface

and other structural systems. These carefully tailored problems

illustrate significant aspects of structural behavior that, in the
past, experienced designers needed many years of practice to
understand and to analyze correctly. The computer problems are
identified with a computer screen icon and begin in Chapter 4 of
the text. The computer problems can be solved using the Educa-
tional Version of the commercial software RISA-2D that is avail-
able to users at the textbook website. However, any software that
produces shear, moment, and axial load diagrams, and deflected
shapes can be used to solve the problems. An overview on the use
of the RISA-2D software and an author-written tutorial are also
available at the textbook website.
5. Problem solutions have been carefully checked for accuracy. The
authors have carried out multiple checks on the problem solutions
but would appreciate hearing from users about any ambiguities or
errors. Corrections can be sent to Professor Chia-Ming Uang (cmu@
ucsd.edu).
6. Textbook web site. A text-specific website is available to users. The
site offers an array of tools, including lecture slides, an image bank
of the text’s art, helpful web links, and the RISA-2D educational
software.

Contents and Sequence of Chapters

We present the topics in this book in a carefully planned sequence to
facilitate the student’s study of analysis. In addition, we tailor the expla-
nations to the level of students at an early stage in their engineering
education. These explanations are based on the authors’ many years of
experience teaching analysis. In this edition, we have streamlined the
presentation by restructuring the book from 18 to 16 chapters while still
keeping all the important materials.
Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of structural engineering
(from earliest post and lintel structures to today’s high-rises and
cable-stayed bridges) and a brief explanation of the interrelation-
ship between analysis and design. We also describe the essential
characteristics of basic structures, detailing both their advantages
and their disadvantages.
Chapter 2 on loads is described above in Features of This Text.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 cover the basic techniques required to determine
by statics bar forces in determinate trusses, and shear and moment
in determinate beams and frames. Methods to identify if the struc-
ture is determinate are also presented.
Chapter 6 interrelates the behavior of arches and cables, and covers
their special characteristics (of acting largely in direct stress and
using materials efficiently).
 Preface  xv

Chapters 7 and 8 provide methods used to compute the deflections of

structures. One direct application is to use it to analyze indeterminate
structures by the method of consistent deformations in Chapter 9.
Chapters 9, 10, and 11 introduce three classical methods for analyz-
ing indeterminate structures. The method of consistent deforma-
tions in Chapter 9 is classified as a flexibility method, while the
slope-deflection and moment distribution methods in the other two
chapters are classified as the stiffness method.
Chapter 12 introduces the concept of influence lines and covers
methods for positioning live load that can vary in space on deter-
minate and indeterminate structures to maximize the internal
force at a specific section of a beam, frame, or bars of a truss.
Engineers use this important concept to design bridges or other
structures subject to moving loads or to live loads whose position
on the structure can change.
Chapter 13 gives approximate methods of analysis, used to esti-
mate the value of forces at selected points in highly indeter-
minate structures. With approximate methods, designers can
perform preliminary member sizing, verify the accuracy of
computer studies analysis results, or check the results of more
traditional, lengthy hand analyses described in earlier chapters.
Chapters 14, 15, and 16 introduce matrix methods of analysis.
Chapter 14 extends the general direct stiffness method to a
variety of simple structures. The matrix formulation of the stiffness
method, which is the basis of modern structural analysis software,
is applied to the analysis of trusses (Chapter 15) and to the analysis
of beams and frames (Chapter 16).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This text was originally authored by Kenneth M. Leet and was published by
Macmillan in 1988. Dionisio P. Bernal at Northeastern University contrib-
uted Chapters 15 and 16. Anne Gilbert served as a coauthor in the third and
fourth editions.
For their assistance with the first McGraw-Hill edition, we thank Amy Hill,
Gloria Schiesl, Eric Munson, and Patti Scott of McGraw-Hill and Jeff Lachina
of Lachina Publishing Services.
For their assistance with the second and third editions, we thank Amanda
Green, Suzanne Jeans, Jane Mohr, and Gloria Schiesl of McGraw-Hill; Rose
Kernan of RPK Editorial Services Inc.; and Patti Scott, who edited the second
edition.
For their assistance with the fourth edition, we thank Debra Hash, Peter
Massar, Lorraine Buczek, Joyce Watters, and Robin Reed of McGraw-Hill, and
Rose Kernan of RPK Editorial Services Inc.
For their assistance with this fifth edition, we thank Thomas Scaife, Jolynn
Kilburg, Chelsea Haupt, and Jane Mohr of McGraw-Hill Education.
Visit https://ebooksecure.com
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xvi  Preface

We also wish to thank Bruce R. Bates of RISA Technologies for provid-

ing an educational version of the RISA-2D computer program with its many
options for presenting results. Mr. Nathanael Rea assisted in preparing the
answers for the fifth edition.
We would like to thank the following reviewers for their much appreciated
comments and advice:
Robert Hamilton, Boise State University
Blair McDonald. Western Illinois University–Quad Cities
Azadeh Parvin, The University of Toledo
Christopher Pastore, Philadelphia University
Jose Pena, Perdue University Calumet
Jey Shen, Iowa State University
Michael Symans, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Steve Wojtkiewicz, Clarkson University

Kenneth M. Leet
Emeritus Professor
Northeastern University
Chia-Ming Uang
Professor
University of California,
San Diego
Joel T. Lanning
Assistant Professor,
California State University,
Fullerton
Anne M. Gilbert PE, SECB
Structural Engineer Consultant
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 Fundamentals of
Structural Analysis
© Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Skyway construction of the San

Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
Segmental bridge construction was used for the mile-long viaduct, or Skyway, of the new
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (see the book cover). The Skyway’s decks comprise
452 precast concrete segments, which were transported by barge to the site and were
lifted into place by winches. In balanced cantilever construction, as shown in this photo,
the superstructure is erected by cantilevering out from opposite sides of the pier to main-
tain a relatively balanced system. As such, controlling deflection during the construction
stage is very important for segmental bridge construction.
C H A P T E R

Introduction 1
1.1
Overview of the Text
As an engineer or architect involved with the design of buildings, bridges,
and other structures, you will be required to make many technical decisions
about structural systems. These decisions include (1) selecting an effi­cient,
economical, and attractive structural form; (2) evaluating its safety, that is,
its strength and stiffness; and (3) planning its erection under temporary con-
struction loads.
To design a structure, you will learn to carry out a structural analysis
that establishes the internal forces and deflections at all points produced by
the design loads. Designers determine the internal forces in key members in
order to size both members and the connections between members. And de-
signers evaluate deflections to ensure a serviceable structure—one that does
not deflect or vibrate excessively under load so that its function is impaired.

Analyzing Basic Structural Elements

During previous courses in statics and strength of materials, you developed
some background in structural analysis when you computed the bar forces in
trusses and constructed shear and moment curves for beams. You will now
broaden your background in structural analysis by applying, in a s­ ystematic
way, a variety of techniques for determining the forces in and the deflections
of a number of basic structural elements: beams, trusses, frames, arches, and
cables. These elements represent the basic components used to form more
complex structural systems.
Moreover, as you work analysis problems and examine the distribution
of forces in various types of structures, you will understand more about how
structures are stressed and deformed by load. And you will gradually develop
a clear sense of which structural configuration is optimal for a particular de-
sign situation.
Further, as you develop an almost intuitive sense of how a structure be-
haves, you will learn to estimate with a few simple computations the approxi-
mate values of forces at the most critical sections of the structure. This ability
3
4  Chapter 1 ■ Introduction

will serve you well, enabling you (1) to verify the accuracy of the results of
a computer analysis of large, complex structures and (2) to estimate the pre-
liminary design forces needed to size individual components of multimember
structures during the early design phase when the tentative configuration and
proportions of the structure are being established.

Analyzing Two-Dimensional Structures

As you may have observed while watching the erection of a multistory
building frame, when the structure is fully exposed to view, its structure is
a complex three-dimensional system composed of beams, columns, slabs,
walls, and diagonal bracing. Although load applied at a particular point in
a three-dimensional structure will stress all adjacent members, most of the
load is typically transmitted through certain key members directly to other
supporting members or into the foundation.
Once the behavior and function of the various components of most three-
dimensional structures are understood, the designer can typically simplify the
analysis of the actual structure by subdividing it into smaller two-dimensional
subsystems that act as beams, trusses, or frames. This pro­­­­­cedure also significantly
reduces the complexity of the analysis be­cause two-dimensional structures are
much easier and faster to analyze than three-dimensional structures. Since with
few exceptions (e.g., g­ eodesic domes constructed of light tubular bars) design-
ers typically analyze a series of simple two-dimensional structures—even when
they are design­ing the most complex three-dimensional structures—we will de-
vote a large portion of this book to the analysis of two-dimensional or planar
structures, those that carry forces lying in the plane of the structure.
Once you clearly understand the basic topics covered in this text, you will
have acquired the fundamental techniques required to analyze most buildings,
bridges, and structural systems typically encountered in professional practice.
Of course, before you can design and analyze with confidence, you will require
some months of actual design experience in an engineering office to gain fur-
ther understanding of the total design process from a practitioner’s perspective.
For those of you who plan to specialize in structures, mastery of the top-
ics in this book will provide you with the basic structural principles required
in more advanced analysis courses—those covering, for example, matrix
methods or plates and shells. Further, because design and anal­ysis are closely
interrelated, you will use again many of the analy­tical procedures in this text
for more specialized courses in steel, reinforced concrete, and bridge design.

1.2
The Design Process: Relationship
of Analysis to Design
The design of any structure—whether it is the framework for a space vehicle,
a high-rise building, a suspension bridge, an offshore oil drilling platform,
a tunnel, or whatever—is typically carried out in alternating steps of design
Other documents randomly have
different content
and hardest man’s work, driving, carting and plowing. Finally the
slave family was broken up in 1849, when she ran away. Then began
her wonderful career as a rescuer of fugitive slaves. Back and forth
she traveled like some dark ghost until she had personally led over
three hundred blacks to freedom, no one of whom was ever lost
while in her charge. A reward of $10,000 for her, alive or dead, was
offered, but she was never taken. A dreamer of dreams as she was,
she ever “laid great stress on a dream which she had had just before
she met Captain Brown in Canada. She thought she was in ‘a
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a serpent raise its head among the rocks, and as it did so, it became
the head of an old man with a long white beard, gazing at her,
‘wishful like, jes as ef he war gwine to speak to me,’ and then two
other heads rose up beside him, younger than he,—and as she stood
looking at them, and wondering what they could want with her, a
great crowd of men rushed in and struck down the younger heads,
and then the head of the old man, still looking at her so ‘wishful!’
This dream she had again and again, and could not interpret it; but
when she met Captain Brown, shortly after, behold he was the very
image of the head she had seen. But still she could not make out
what her dream signified, till the news came to her of the tragedy of
Harper’s Ferry, and then she knew the two other heads were his two
sons.”[178]
In this woman John Brown placed the utmost confidence. Wendell
Phillips says: “The last time I ever saw John Brown was under my
own roof, as he brought Harriet Tubman to me, saying: ‘Mr. Phillips,
I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent—
General Tubman, as we call her.’ He then went on to recount her
labors and sacrifices in behalf of her race.”[179]
Only sickness, brought on by her toil and exposure, prevented
Harriet Tubman from being present at Harper’s Ferry.
From St. Catherines John Brown went to Ingersoll, Hamilton and
Chatham. He also visited Toronto, holding meetings with Negroes in
Temperance Hall, and at the house of the “late Mr. Holland, a
colored man, on Queen Street West. On one occasion Captain Brown
remained as a guest with his friend, Dr. A. M. Ross, who is
distinguished as a naturalist, as well as an intrepid Abolitionist, who
risked his life on several occasions in excursions into the South to
enable slaves to flee to Canada!”[180]
Having finally perfected plans for a convention, Brown hurried
back to Iowa for his men. During his three months’ absence they
had been working and drilling in the Quaker settlement of
Springdale, Ia., as most persons supposed, for future troubles in
“bleeding Kansas.” On John Brown’s arrival they all hurriedly packed
up—Owen Brown, Realf, Kagi, Cook, Stevens, Tidd, Leeman, Moffett,
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recruits, Gill and Taylor. The Coppocs were to come later. “The leave-
taking between them and the people of Springdale was one of tears.
Ties which had been knitting through many weeks were sundered,
and not only so, but the natural sorrow at parting was intensified by
the consciousness of all that the future was full of hazard for Brown
and his followers. Before quitting the house and home of Mr. Maxon,
where they had spent so long a time, each of Brown’s band wrote
his name in pencil on the wall of the parlor, where the writing still
can be seen by the interested traveler.” They all immediately started
for Canada by way of Chicago and Detroit. At Chicago they had to
wait twelve hours, and the first hotel refused to accommodate
Richardson at the breakfast table. John Brown immediately sought
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at a hotel kept by Mr. Barber, a colored man. While at Chatham,
John Brown, as Anderson relates, “made a profound impression
upon those who saw or became acquainted with him. Some
supposed him to be a staid but modernized ‘Quaker’; others a solid
business man, from ‘somewhere,’ and without question a
philanthropist. His long white beard, thoughtful and reverent brow
and physiognomy, his sturdy, measured tread, as he circulated about
with hands, portrayed in the best lithograph, under the pendant
coat-skirt of plain brown tweed, with other garments to match,
revived to those honored with his acquaintance and knowing his
history the memory of a Puritan of the most exalted type.”[181]
 John Brown’s choice of Canada as a centre of Negro culture, was
wise. There were nearly 50,000 Negroes there, and the number
included many energetic, intelligent and brave men, with some
wealth. Settlements had grown up, farms had been bought, schools
established and an intricate social organization begun. Negroes like
Henson had been loyally assisted by white men like King, and
fugitives were welcomed and succored. Near Buxton, where King
and the Elgin Association were working, was Chatham, the chief
town of the county of Kent, with a large Negro population of
farmers, merchants and mechanics; they had a graded school,
Wilberforce Institute, several churches, a newspaper, a fire-engine
company and several organizations for social intercourse and uplift.
One of the inhabitants said:
“Mr. Brown did not overestimate the state of education of the
colored people. He knew that they would need leaders, and require
training. His great hope was that the struggle would be supported by
volunteers from Canada, educated and accustomed to self-
government. He looked on our fugitives as picked men of sufficient
intelligence, which, combined with a hatred for the South, would
make them willing abettors of any enterprise destined to free their
race.”
There were many white Abolitionists near by, but they distrusted
Brown and in this way he gained less influence among the Negroes
than he otherwise might have had. Martin R. Delaney, who was a
fervid African emigrationist, was just about to start to Africa, bearing
the mandate of the last Negro convention, when John Brown
appeared. “On returning home from a professional visit in the
country, Mrs. Delaney informed him that an old gentleman had
called to see him during his absence. She described him as having a
long, white beard, very gray hair, a sad but placid countenance. In
speech he was peculiarly solemn. She added, ‘He looked like one of
the old prophets. He would neither come in nor leave his name, but
promised to be back in two weeks’ time.’”
Finally Delaney met John Brown who said:
 “‘I come to Chatham expressly to see you, this being my third visit
on the errand. I must see you at once, sir,’ he continued, with
emphasis, ‘and that, too, in private, as I have much to do and but
little time before me. If I am to do nothing here, I want to know it at
once.’”
Delaney continues:
“Going directly to the private parlor of a hotel near by, he at once
revealed to me that he desired to carry out a great project in his
scheme of Kansas emigration, which, to be successful, must be
aided and countenanced by the influence of a general convention or
council. That he was unable to effect in the United States, but had
been advised by distinguished friends of his and mine, that, if he
could but see me, his object could be attained at once. On my
expressing astonishment at the conclusion to which my friends and
himself had arrived, with a nervous impatience, he exclaimed, ‘Why
should you be surprised? Sir, the people of the Northern states are
cowards; slavery has made cowards of them all. The whites are
afraid of each other, and the blacks are afraid of the whites. You can
effect nothing among such people,’ he added, with decided
emphasis. On assuring him if a council was all that was desired, he
could readily obtain it, he replied, ‘That is all; but that is a great deal
to me. It is men I want, and not money; money I can get plentiful
enough, but no men. Money can come without being seen, but men
are afraid of identification with me, though they favor my measures.
They are cowards, sir! Cowards!’ he reiterated. He then fully
revealed his designs. With these I found no fault, but fully favored
and aided in getting up the convention.”[182]
Meantime John Brown proceeded carefully to sound public
opinion, got the views of others, and, while revealing few of his own
plans, set about getting together a body who were willing to ratify
his general aims. He consulted the leading Negroes in private, and
called a series of small conferences to thresh out preliminary
difficulties. In these meetings and in the personal visits, many points
arose and were settled. A member of the convention says:
 “One evening the question came up as to what flag should be
used; our English colored subjects, who had been naturalized, said
they would never think of fighting under the hated ‘Stars and
Stripes.’ Too many of them thought they carried their emblem on
their backs. But Brown said the old flag was good enough for him;
under it freedom had been won from the tyrants of the Old World,
for white men; now he intended to make it do duty for the black
men. He declared emphatically that he would not give up the Stars
and Stripes. That settled the question.
“Some one proposed admitting women as members, but Brown
strenuously opposed this, and warned the members not to intimate,
even to their wives, what was done.
“One day in my shop I told him how utterly hopeless his plans
would be if he persisted in making an attack with the few at his
command, and that we could not afford to spare white men of his
stamp, ready to sacrifice their lives for the salvation of black men.
While I was speaking, Mr. Brown walked to and fro, with his hands
behind his back, as was his custom when thinking on his favorite
subject. He stopped suddenly and bringing down his right hand with
great force, exclaimed: ‘Did not my Master Jesus Christ come down
from Heaven and sacrifice Himself upon the altar for the salvation of
the race, and should I, a worm, not worthy to crawl under His feet,
refuse to sacrifice myself?’ With a look of determination, he resumed
his walk. In all the conversations I had with him during his stay in
Chatham of nearly a month, I never once saw a smile light upon his
countenance. He seemed to be always in deep and earnest
thought.”[183]
The preliminary meeting was held in a frame cottage on Princess
Street, south of King Street, then known as the “King Street High
School.” Some meetings were also held in the First Baptist Church on
King Street. In order to mislead the inquisitive, it was pretended that
the persons assembling were organizing a Masonic Lodge of colored
people. The important proceedings took place in “No. 3 Engine
House,” a wooden building near McGregor’s Creek, erected by Mr.
Holden and other colored men.
 The regular invitations were issued on the fifth:
“Chatham, Canada, May 5, 1858.

“My Dear Friend:

“I have called a quiet convention in this place of true friends of freedom. Your
attendance is earnestly requested....
“Your friend,
“John Brown.”

The convention was called together at 10 A. M., Saturday, May

8th, and opened without ceremony. There were present the
following Negroes: William Charles Monroe, a Baptist clergyman,
formerly president of the emigration convention and elected
president of this assembly; Martin R. Delaney, afterward major in the
United States Army in the Civil War; Alfred Whipper, of Pennsylvania;
William Lambert and I. D. Shadd, of Detroit, Mich.; James H. Harris,
of Cleveland, O., after the war a representative in Congress for two
terms from North Carolina; G. J. Reynolds, an active Underground
Railroad leader of Sandusky City; J. C. Grant, A. J. Smith, James M.
Jones, a gunsmith and engraver, graduate of Oberlin College, 1849;
M. F. Bailey, S. Hunton, John J. Jackson, Jeremiah Anderson, James
M. Bell, Alfred Ellisworth, James W. Purnell, George Aiken, Stephen
Dettin, Thomas Hickerson, John Cannel, Robinson Alexander,
Thomas F. Cary, Thomas M. Kinnard, Robert Van Vauken, Thomas
Stringer, John A. Thomas, believed by some to be John Brown’s
earlier confidant and employee at Springfield, Mass., afterward
employed by Abraham Lincoln in his Illinois home and at the White
House also; Robert Newman, Charles Smith, Simon Fislin, Isaac
Holden, a merchant and surveyor and John Brown’s host; James
Smith, and Richard Richardson.
Hinton says: “There is no evidence to show that Douglass,
Loguen, Garnet, Stephen Smith, Gloucester, Langston, or others of
the prominent men of color in the states who knew John Brown,
were invited to the Chatham meeting. It is doubtful if their
appearance would have been wise, as it would assuredly have been
commented on and aroused suspicion.”[184]
The white men present were: John and Owen Brown, father and
son; John Henri Kagi, Aaron Dwight Stevens, still known as Charles
Whipple; John Edwin Cook, Richard Realf, George B. Gill, Charles
Plummer Tidd, William Henry Leeman, Charles W. Moffett, Luke F.
Parsons, all of Kansas; and Steward Taylor of Canada, twelve in all.
It has been usually assumed that Jeremiah Anderson was white but
the evidence makes it possible that he was a mulatto. John J.
Jackson called the meeting to order and Monroe was chosen
president. Delaney then asked for John Brown, and Brown spoke at
length, followed by Delaney and others.
The constitution was brought forward and, after a solemn parole
of honor, was read. It proved to be a frame of government based on
the national Constitution, but much simplified and adapted to a
moving band of guerrillas. The first forty-five articles were accepted
without debate. The next article was: “The foregoing articles shall
not be so as in any way to encourage the overthrow of any state
government, or the general government of the United States, and
look to no dissolution of the Union, but simply to amendment and
repeal, and our flag shall be the same that our fathers fought for
under the Revolution.”
To this Reynolds, the “coppersmith,” one of the strongest men in
the convention, objected. He felt no allegiance to the nation that had
robbed and humiliated him. Brown, Delaney, Kagi and others,
however, earnestly advocated the article and it passed. Saturday
afternoon the constitution was finally adopted and signed. Brown
induced James M. Jones, who had not attended all the sittings, to
come to this one, as the constitution must be signed, and he wished
his name to be on the roll of honor. As the paper was presented for
signature, Brown said, “Now, friend Jones, give us John Hancock
bold and strong.”
The account continues:
 “During one of the sittings, Mr. Jones had the floor, and discussed
the chances of the success or failure of the slaves rising to support
the plan proposed. Mr. Brown’s scheme was to fortify some place in
the mountains, and call the slaves to rally under his colors. Jones
expressed fear that he would be disappointed, because the slaves
did not know enough to rally to his support. The American slaves,
Jones argued, were different from those of the West India Island of
San Domingo, whose successful uprising is a matter of history, as
they had there imbibed some of the impetuous character of their
French masters, and were not so overawed by white men. ‘Mr.
Brown, no doubt thought,’ says Mr. Jones, ‘that I was making an
impression on some of the members, if not on him, for he arose
suddenly and remarked, “Friend Jones, you will please say no more
on that side. There will be a plenty to defend that side of the
question.” A general laugh took place.’
“A question as to the time for making the attack came up in the
convention. Some advocated that we should wait until the United
States became involved in war with some first-class power; that it
would be next to madness to plunge into a strife for the abolition of
slavery while the government was at peace with other nations. Mr.
Brown listened to the argument for some time, then slowly arose to
his full height, and said: ‘I would be the last one to take the
advantage of my country in the face of a foreign foe.’ He seemed to
regard it as a great insult. That settled the matter in my mind that
John Brown was not insane.”[185]
At 6 P. M. the election of officers under the constitution took place,
and was finished Monday, the tenth. John Brown was elected
commander-in-chief; Kagi, secretary of war; Realf, secretary of
state; Owen Brown, treasurer; and George B. Gill, secretary of the
treasury. Members of congress chosen were Alfred Ellisworth and
Osborne P. Anderson, colored.
After appointing a committee to fill other offices, the convention
adjourned. Another and a larger body was also organized, as
Delaney says: “This organization was an extensive body, holding the
same relation to his movements as a state or national executive
committee holds to its party principles, directing their adherence to
fundamental principles.”[186]
This committee still existed at the time of the Harper’s Ferry raid.
With characteristic reticence Brown revealed his whole plan to no
one, and many of those close to him received quite different
impressions, or rather read their own ideas into Brown’s careful
speech. One of his Kansas band says: “I am sure that Brown did not
communicate the details of his plans to the members of the
convention, more than in a very general way. Indeed, I do not now
remember that he gave them any more than the impressions which
they could gather from the methods of organization. From those
who were directly connected with his movements he solicited plans
and methods—including localities—of operations in writing. Of
course, we had almost precise knowledge of his methods, but all of
us perhaps did not know just the locality selected by him, or, if
knowing, did not comprehend the resources and surroundings.”[187]
“John Brown, never, I think,” said Mr. Jones, “communicated his
whole plan, even to his immediate followers. In his conversations
with me he led me to think that he intended to sacrifice himself and
a few of his followers for the purpose of arousing the people of the
North from the stupor they were in on this subject. He seemed to
think such sacrifice necessary to awaken the people from the deep
sleep that had settled upon the minds of the whites of the North. He
well knew that the sacrifice of any number of Negroes would have
no effect. What he intended to do, so far as I could gather from his
conversation, from time to time, was to emulate Arnold Winkelried,
the Swiss chieftain, when he threw himself upon the Austrian
spearmen, crying, ‘Make way for Liberty.’”[188] Delaney in his own
bold, original way assumed that Brown intended another
Underground Railway terminating in Kansas. Delaney himself was on
his way to Africa and could take no active part in the movement.
The constitution adopted by the convention was an instrument
designed for the government of a band of isolated people fighting
for liberty. The preamble said:
 “Whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United
States, is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked and
unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion—
the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment and
hopeless servitude or absolute extermination—in utter disregard and
violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our
Declaration of Independence:
“Therefore, we, citizens of the United States, and the oppressed
people who, by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, are declared
to have no rights which the white man is bound to respect, together
with all other people degraded by the laws thereof, do, for the time
being, ordain and establish ourselves the following provisional
constitution and ordinances, the better to protect our persons,
property, lives, and liberties, and to govern our actions.”[189]
The Declaration of Independence referred to was probably
designed to be adopted July 4, 1858, when, as originally planned,
the blow was to be actually struck. It was a paraphrase of the
original declaration and ended by saying:
“Declaring that we will serve them no longer as slaves, knowing
that the ‘Laborer is worthy of his hire,’ We therefore, the
Representatives of the circumscribed citizens of the United States of
America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme
Judge of the World, for the rectitude of our intentions, Do in the
name, & by authority of the oppressed Citizens of the Slave States,
Solemnly publish and Declare: that the Slaves are, & of right ought
to be as free & as independent as the unchangeable Law of God
requires that All Men Shall be. That they are absolved from all
allegiance to those Tyrants, who still persist in forcibly subjecting
them to perpetual ‘Bondage,’ and that all friendly connection
between them and such Tyrants, is & ought to be totally dissolved,
And that as free and independent citizens of these states, they have
a perfect right, a sufficient and just cause, to defend themselves
against the Tyrrany of their oppressors. To solicit aid from & ask the
protection of all true friends of humanity and reform, of whatever
nation, & wherever found; A right to contract all Alliances, & to do
all other acts and things which free independent Citizens may of
right do. And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance
on the protection of divine Providence: We mutually pledge to each
other, Our Lives, and Our sacred Honor.”[190]
The constitution consisted of forty-eight articles. All persons of
mature age were admitted to membership and there was established
a congress with one house of five to ten members, a president and
vice-president and a court of five members, each one of whom held
circuit courts. All these officials were to unite in selecting a
commander-in-chief, treasurer, secretaries, and other officials. All
property was to be in common and no salaries were to be paid. All
persons were to labor. All indecent behavior was forbidden: “The
marriage relation shall be at all times respected, and families kept
together, as far as possible; and broken families encouraged to
reunite, and intelligence offices established for that purpose. Schools
and churches established, as soon as may be, for the purpose of
religious and other instructions; and the first day of the week
regarded as a day of rest, and appropriated to moral and religions
instruction and improvement, relief of the suffering, instruction of
the young and ignorant, and the encouragement of personal
cleanliness; nor shall any person be required on that day to perform
ordinary manual labor, unless in extremely urgent cases.”[191] All
persons were to carry arms but not concealed. There were special
provisions for the capture of prisoners, and protection of their
persons and property.
John Brown was well pleased with his work and wrote home: “Had
a good Abolition convention here, from different parts, on the 8th
and 10th inst. Constitution slightly amended and adopted, and
society organized.”[192]
Just now as everything seemed well started, came disquieting
news from the East. Forbes had been there since November, growing
more and more poverty-stricken and angry, and his threats, hints
and visits were becoming frequent and annoying. He complained to
Senator Wilson, to Charles Sumner, to Hale, Seward and Horace
Greeley, and to the Boston coterie. He could not understand why
these leaders of the movement against slavery, as he supposed,
should leave the real power in the hands of John Brown, and neglect
an experienced soldier like himself after raising false expectations.
John Brown had dealt with Forbes gently but firmly, and had sought
to conciliate him, but in vain. Brown was apparently determined to
outwit him by haste; he had written his Massachusetts friends to join
him at the Chatham Convention, but Sanborn and Howe had already
received threatening letters from Forbes which alarmed them. He
evidently had careful information of Brown’s movements and was
bent on making trouble. He probably was at this time in the
confidence of McCune Smith and the able Negro group of New York
who had developed a not unnatural distrust of whites, and a desire
to foster race pride. Using information thus obtained, Forbes sought
to put pressure on Republican leaders to organize more effective
warfare on slavery, and to discredit John Brown. Sanborn wrote
hastily: “It looks as if the project must, for the present, be deferred,
for I find by reading Forbes’s epistles to the doctor that he knows
the details of the plan, and even knows (what very few do) that the
doctor, Mr. Stearns, and myself are informed of it. How he got this
knowledge is a mystery. He demands that Hawkins [John Brown] be
dismissed as agent, and himself or some other be put in his place,
threatening otherwise to make the business public.”[193] Gerrit Smith
concluded, “Brown must go no further.” But Higginson wisely
demurred. “I regard any postponement,” he said, “as simply
abandoning the project; for if we give it up now, at the command or
threat of H. F., it will be the same next year. The only way is to
circumvent the man somehow (if he cannot be restrained in his
malice). When the thing is well started, who cares what he
says?”[194]
Further efforts were made to conciliate Forbes but he wrote wildly:
“I have been grossly defrauded in the name of humanity and anti-
slavery.... I have for years labored in the anti-slavery cause, without
wanting or thinking of a recompense. Though I have made the least
possible parade of my work, it has nevertheless not been entirely
without fruit.... Patience and mild measures having failed, I
reluctantly have recourse to harshness. Let them not flatter
themselves that I shall eventually become weary and shall drop the
subject; it is as yet quite at its beginning.”[195]
“To go on in face of this is madness,” wrote Sanborn, and John
Brown was urged to come to New York to meet Stearns and Howe.
Brown had already been delayed nearly a month at Chatham by this
trouble, but he obeyed the summons. Sanborn says: “When, about
May 20th, Mr. Stearns met Brown in New York, it was arranged that
hereafter the custody of the Kansas rifles should be in Brown’s
hands as the agent, not of this committee, but of Mr. Stearns alone.
It so happened that Gerrit Smith, who seldom visited Boston, was
coming there late in May.... He arrived and took rooms at the Revere
House, where, on the 24th of May, 1858, the secret committee
(organized in March, and consisting of Smith, Parker, Howe,
Higginson, Stearns, and Sanborn) held a meeting to consider the
situation. It had already been decided to postpone the attack, and
the arms had been placed under a temporary interdict, so that they
could only be used, for the present, in Kansas. The questions
remaining were whether Brown should be required to go to Kansas
at once, and what amount of money should be raised for him in the
future. Of the six members of the committee only one (Higginson)
was absent.... It was unanimously resolved that Brown ought to go
to Kansas at once.”
As soon as possible after this, on May 21st, Brown visited Boston,
and while there held a conversation with Higginson, who made a
record of it at the time. He states that Brown was full of regret at
the decision of the Revere House council to postpone the attack till
the winter or spring of 1859, when the secret committee would raise
for Brown two or three thousand dollars; he meantime was to blind
Forbes by going to Kansas, and to transfer the property so as to
relieve the Kansas committee of responsibility, they in future not to
know his plans.
“On probing Brown,” Higginson goes on, “I found that he ...
considered delay very discouraging to his thirteen men, and to those
in Canada. Impossible to begin in autumn; and he would not lose a
day (he finally said) if he had three hundred dollars; it would not
cost twenty-five dollars apiece to get his men from Ohio, and that
was all he needed. The knowledge that Forbes could give of his plan
would be injurious, for he wished his opponents to underrate him;
but still ... the increased terror produced would perhaps
counterbalance this, and it would not make much difference. If he
had the means he would not lose a day. He complained that some of
his Eastern friends were not men of action; that they were
intimidated by Wilson’s letter, and magnified the obstacles. Still, it
was essential that they should not think him reckless, he said; and
as they held the purse, he was powerless without them, having
spent nearly everything received this campaign, on account of delay,
—a month at Chatham, etc.”[196]
There was nothing now for Brown but to conceal his arms, scatter
his men and hide a year in Kansas. It was a bitter necessity and it
undoubtedly helped ruin the success of the foray. The Negroes in
Canada fell away from the plan when it did not materialize and
doubted Brown’s determination and wisdom. His son hid the arms in
northern Ohio in a haymow.
Meantime, a part of the company—Stevens, Cook, Tidd, Gill,
Taylor and Owen Brown—immediately after the adjournment of the
convention, had gone to Cleveland, O., and had found work in the
surrounding country. Brown wrote from Canada at the time:
“It seems that all but three have managed to stop their board
bills, and I do hope the balance will follow the manlike and noble
example of patience and perseverance set them by the others,
instead of being either discouraged or out of humor. The weather is
so wet here that no work can be obtained. I have only received $15
from the East, and such has been the effect of the course taken by
F. [Col. Forbes], on our Eastern friends, that I have some fears that
we shall be compelled to delay further action for the present. They
[his Eastern friends] urge us to do so, promising us liberal assistance
after a while. I am in hourly expectation of help sufficient to pay off
our bills here, and to take us on to Cleveland, to see and advise with
you, which we shall do at once when we shall get the means.
Suppose we do have to defer our direct efforts; shall great and noble
minds either indulge in useless complaint, or fold their arms in
discouragement, or sit in idleness, when we may at least avoid
losing ground? It is in times of difficulty that men show what they
are; it is in such times that men mark themselves. Are our difficulties
such as to make us give up one of the noblest enterprises in which
men ever were engaged?”[197]
Two weeks later the rest of the party, except Kagi, followed to
Cleveland, John Brown going East to meet Stearns. Kagi, who was
an expert printer, went to Hamilton, Canada, where he set up and
printed the constitution, arriving in Cleveland about the middle of
June when Brown returned from the East. Realf says that Brown did
not have much money, but sent him to New York and Washington to
watch Forbes and possibly regain his confidence. Realf, however, had
become timid and lukewarm in the cause and sailed away to
England. The rest of the men scattered. Owen Brown went to Akron,
O. Cook left Cleveland for the neighborhood of Harper’s Ferry; Gill
secured work in a Shaker settlement, probably Lebanon, O., where
Tidd was already employed; Steward Taylor went to Illinois; Stevens
awaited Brown at Cleveland; while Leeman got some work in
Ashtabula County. John Brown left Boston, on the 3rd of June,
proceeding to the North Elba home for a short visit. Then he, Kagi,
Stevens, Leeman, Gill, Parsons, Moffett, and Owen were gathered
together and the party went to Kansas, arriving late in June.
Thus suddenly ended John Brown’s attempt to organize the Black
Phalanx. His intimate friends understood that the great plan was
only postponed, but the postponement had, as Higginson predicted,
a dampening effect, and Brown’s chances of enlisting a large
Canadian contingent were materially lessened. Nevertheless, seed
had been sown. And there were millions of human beings to whom
the last word of the Chatham Declaration of Independence was
more than mere rhetoric: “Nature is mourning for its murdered and
afflicted children. Hung be the Heavens in scarlet!”
 CHAPTER X
THE GREAT BLACK WAY

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because of the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-
hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound.”

Half-way between Maine and Florida, in the Heart of the

Alleghanies, a mighty gateway lifts its head and discloses a scene
which, a century and a a quarter ago, Thomas Jefferson said was
“worth a voyage across the Atlantic.” He continues: “You stand on a
very high point of land; on your right comes up the Shenandoah,
having ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to
find a vent; on your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a
passage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together
against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea.”[198]
This is Harper’s Ferry and this was the point which John Brown
chose for his attack on American slavery. He chose it for many
reasons. He loved beauty: “When I met Brown at Peterboro in 1858,”
writes Sanborn, “Morton played some fine music to us in the parlor,
—among other things Schubert’s Serenade, then a favorite piece,—
and the old Puritan, who loved music and sang a good part himself,
sat weeping at the air.”[199] He chose Harper’s Ferry because a United
States arsenal was there and the capture of this would give that
dramatic climax to the inception of his plan which was so necessary
to its success. But both these were minor reasons. The foremost and
decisive reason was that Harper’s Ferry was the safest natural
entrance to the Great Black Way. Look at the map (page 274). The
shaded portion is “the black belt” of slavery where there were
massed in 1859 at least three of the four million slaves. Two paths
led southward toward it in the East:—the way by Washington,
physically broad and easy, but legally and socially barred to
bondsmen; the other way, known to Harriet Tubman and all
fugitives, which led to the left toward the crests of the Alleghanies
and the gateway of Harper’s Ferry. One has but to glance at the
mountains and swamps of the South to see the Great Black Way.
Here, amid the mighty protection of overwhelming numbers, lay a
path from slavery to freedom, and along that path were fastnesses
and hiding-places easily capable of becoming permanent fortified
refuges for organized bands of determined armed men.
The exact details of Brown’s plan will never be fully known. As
Realf said: “John Brown was a man who would never state more
than it was absolutely necessary for him to do. No one of his most
intimate associates and I was one of the most intimate was
possessed of more than barely sufficient information to enable
Brown to attach such companion to him.”[200]

Map Showing the Great Black Way

A glance at the map shows clearly that John Brown intended to

operate in the Blue Ridge mountains rising east of the Shenandoah
and known at Harper’s Ferry as Loudoun Heights. The Loudoun
Heights rise boldly 500 to 700 feet above the village of Harper’s
Ferry and 1,000 feet above the sea. They run due south and then
southwest, dipping down a little the first three miles, then rising to
1,500 feet, which level is practically maintained until twenty-five
miles below Harper’s Ferry where the mountains broaden to a dense
and labyrinthical wilderness, and rise to a height of 2,000 or more
feet. Right at this high point and insight of High Knob (a peak of
2,400 feet) began, in Fauquier County, the Great Black Way. In this
county in 1850 were over 10,000 slaves, and 650 free Negroes, as
compared with 9,875 whites. From this county to the southern
boundary of Virginia was a series of black counties with a majority of
slaves, containing in 1850 at least 260,000 Negroes. From here the
Great Black Way went south as John Brown indicated in his diary
and undoubtedly in the marked maps, which Virginia afterward
hastily destroyed.
The easiest way to get to these heights was from Harper’s Ferry.
An hour’s climb from the arsenal grounds would easily have hidden a
hundred men in inaccessible fastnesses, provided they were not
overburdened; and even with arms, ammunition and supplies, they
could have repelled, without difficulty, attacks on the retreat. Forts
and defenses could be prepared in these mountains, and before the
raid they had been pretty thoroughly explored and paths marked. In
Harper’s Ferry just at the crossing of the main road from Maryland
lay the arsenal. The plan without a doubt was first, to collect men
and arms on the Maryland side of the Potomac; second, to attack
the arsenal suddenly and capture it; third, to bring up the arms and
ammunition and, together with those captured, to cross the
Shenandoah to Loudoun Heights and hide in the mountain
wilderness; fourth, thence to descend at intervals to release slaves
and get food, and retreat southward. Most writers have apparently
supposed that Brown intended to retreat from the arsenal across the
Potomac. A moment’s thought will show the utter absurdity of this
plan. Brown knew guerrilla warfare, and the failure of Harper’s Ferry
raid does not prove it a blunder from the start. The raid was not a
foray from the mountains, which failed because its retreat was cut
off, but it was a foray to the mountains with the village and arsenal
on the way, which was defeated apparently because the arms and
ammunition train failed to join the advance-guard.
This then was the great plan which John Brown had been slowly
elaborating and formulating for twenty years—since the day when
kneeling beside a Negro minister he had sworn his sons to blood-
feud with slavery.
The money resources with which John Brown undertook his
project are not exactly known. Sanborn says: “Brown’s first request
in 1858 was for a fund of a thousand dollars only; with this in the
hand he promised to take the field either in April or May. Mr. Stearns
acted as treasurer of this fund, and before the 1st of May nearly the
whole the amount had been paid in or subscribed,—Stearns
contributing three hundred dollars, and the rest of our committee
smaller sums. It soon appeared, however, that the amount named
would be too small, and Brown’s movements were embarrassed from
the lack of money before the disclosures of Forbes came to his
knowledge.”[201] From first to last George L. Stearns gave in cash and
arms about $7,500, and Gerrit Smith contributed more than $1,000.
Merriam brought with him $600 in gold in October. Between March
10th and October 16th, Brown expended at least $2,500. In all
Sanborn raised $4,000 for Brown. Hinton says: “As near as can be
estimated, the money received by Brown could not have exceeded
$12,000, while the supplies, arms, etc., furnished may have cost
$10,000 more. Of course, there were smaller contributions and
support coming in, but if the total estimate be placed at $25,000, for
the period between the 15th of September, 1856, when he left
Lawrence, Kan., and the 16th of October, 1859, when he moved on
Harper’s Ferry, Va., with twenty-one men, it will certainly cover all of
the outlay except that of time, labor, and lives.”[202]
This total, however, does not include a fund of $1,000 raised for
his family.
The civic organization under which Brown intended to work has
been spoken of. The military organization was based on his Kansas
experience and his reading. In his diary is this entry:
 “Circassia has about 550,000
Switzerland 2,037,030
Guerrilla warfare See Life of Lord Wellington
Page 71 to Page 75 (Mina)
See also Page 102 some valuable hints in the Same Book.
See also Page 196 some most important instructions to
officers.
See also same Book Page 235 these words deep, and
narrow defiles where 300 men would suffice to check an
army.
See also Page 236 on top of Page ”
This life of Wellington, W. P. Garrison states,[203] was Stocqueler’s
and the pages referred to tell of the Spanish guerrillas under Mina in
1810, and of methods of cooking and discipline. In one place the
author says: “Here we have a chaos of mountains, where we meet
at every step huge fallen masses of rock and earth, yawning
fissures, deep and narrow defiles, where 300 men would suffice to
check an army.” The Alleghanies in Virginia and Carolina was similar
in topography and, for the operation here, Brown proposed a
skeleton army which could work together or in small units of any
size:
“A company will consist of fifty-six privates, twelve non-
commissioned officers, eight corporals, four sergeants and three
commissioned officers (two lieutenants, a captain), and a surgeon.
“The privates shall be divided into bands or messes of seven each,
numbering from one to eight, with a corporal to each, numbered like
his band.
“Two bands will comprise a section. Sections will be numbered
from one to four.
“A sergeant will be attached to each section, and numbered like it.
“Two sections will comprise a platoon. Platoons will be numbered
one and two, and each commanded by a lieutenant designed by like
number.”[204]
 Four companies composed a battalion, four battalions a regiment,
and four regiments a brigade.
So much for his resources and plans. Now for the men whom he
chose as co-workers. The number of those who took part in the
Harper’s Ferry raid is not known. Perhaps, including active slave
helpers, there were about fifty. Seventeen Negroes, reported as
probably killed, are wholly unknown, and those slaves who helped
and escaped are also unknown. This leaves the twenty-two men
usually regarded as making the raid. They fall, of course, into two
main groups, the Negroes and the whites. Six or seven of the
twenty-two were Negroes.
First in importance came Osborne Perry Anderson, a free-born
Pennsylvania mulatto, twenty-four years of age. He was a printer by
trade, “well educated, a man of natural dignity, modest, simple in
character and manners.” He met John Brown in Canada. He wrote
the most interesting and reliable account of the raid, and afterward
fought in the Civil War.
Next came Shields Green, a full-blooded Negro from South
Carolina, whence he had escaped from slavery, after his wife had
died, leaving a living boy still in bondage. He was about twenty-four
years old, small and active, uneducated but with natural ability and
absolutely fearless. He met Brown at the home of Frederick
Douglass, who says: “While at my house, John Brown made the
acquaintance of a colored man who called himself by different
names—sometimes ‘Emperor,’ at other times, ‘Shields Green’.... He
was a fugitive slave, who had made his escape from Charleston, S.
C.; a state from which a slave found it no easy matter to run away.
But Shields Green was not one to shrink from hardships or dangers.
He was a man of few words and his speech was singularly broken;
but his courage and self-respect made him quite a dignified
character. John Brown saw at once what ‘stuff’ Green ‘was made of,’
and confided to him his plans and purposes. Green easily believed in
Brown, and promised to go with him whenever he should be ready
to move.”[205]
 Dangerfield Newby was a free mulatto from the neighborhood of
Harper’s Ferry. He was thirty years of age, tall and well built, with a
pleasant face and manner; he had a wife and seven children in
slavery about thirty miles south of Harper’s Ferry. The wife was
about to be sold south at this time, and was sold immediately after
the raid. Newby was the spy who gave general information to the
party, and lived out in the community until the night of the attack.
John A. Copeland was born of free Negro parents in North
Carolina, reared in Oberlin and educated at Oberlin College. He was
a straight-haired mulatto, twenty-two years old, of medium size, and
a carpenter by trade. Hunter, the prosecuting attorney of Virginia,
says: “From my intercourse with him I regarded him as one of the
most respectable prisoners that we had.... He was a copper-colored
Negro, behaved himself with as much firmness as any of them, and
with far more dignity. If it had been possible to recommend a pardon
for any of them, it would have been for this man Copeland, as I
regretted as much, if not more, at seeing him executed than any
other one of the party!”[206]
Lewis Sherrard Leary was born in slavery in North Carolina and
also reared in Oberlin, where he worked as a harness-maker. An
Oberlin friend testified: “He called again afterward, and told me he
would like to keep to the amount I had given him, and would like a
certain amount more for a certain purpose, and was very chary in
his communications to me as to how he was to use it, except that he
did inform me that he wished to use it in aiding slaves to escape.
Circumstances just then transpired which had interested me contrary
to any thought I ever had in my mind before. I had had exhibited to
me a daguerreotype of a young lady, a beautiful appearing girl, who
I was informed was about eighteen years of age....”[207] But here
Senator Mason of the Inquisition scented danger, and we can only
guess the reasons that sent Leary to his death. He was said to be
Brown’s first recruit outside the Kansas band.
John Anderson, a free Negro from Boston, was sent by Lewis
Hayden and started for the front. Whether he arrived and was killed,
or was too late has never been settled.
 The seventh man of possible Negro blood was Jeremiah Anderson.
He is listed with the Negroes in all the original reports of the
Chatham Convention and was, as a white Virginian who saw him
says, “of middle stature, very black hair and swarthy complexion. He
was supposed by some to be a Canadian mulatto.”[208] He was
descended from Virginia slaveholders who had moved north and was
born in Indiana. He was twenty-six years old.
Of the white men there were, first of all, John Brown and his
family, consisting of three sons, and two brothers of his eldest
daughter’s husband, William and Dauphin Thompson.
Oliver Brown was a boy not yet twenty-one, though tall and
muscular, and had just been married. Watson was a man of twenty-
five, tall and athletic; while Owen was a large, red-haired
prematurely aged man of thirty-five, partially crippled, good-
tempered and cynical. The Thompsons were neighbors of John
Brown and part of a brood of twenty children. The Brown family and
their intermarried Anne Brown says that William, who was twenty-six
years of age, was “kind, generous-hearted, and helpful to others.”
Dauphin, a boy of twenty-two, was, she writes, “very quiet, with a
fair, thoughtful face, curly blonde hair, and baby-blue eyes. He
always seemed like a very good girl.”[209]
The three notable characters of the band were Kagi, Stevens and
Cook, the reformer, the soldier, and the poet. Kagi’s family came
from the Shenandoah Valley. He was twenty-four, had a good English
education and was a newspaper reporter in Kansas, where he
earnestly helped the free state cause. He had strong convictions on
the subject of slavery and was willing to risk all for them. “You will
all be killed,” cried a friend who heard his plan. “Yes, I know it,
Hinton, but the result will be worth the sacrifice.” Hinton adds: “I
recall my friend as a man of personal beauty, with a fine, well-
shaped head, a voice of quiet, sweet tones, that could be
penetrating and cutting, too, almost to sharpness.”[210] Anderson
writes that Kagi “left home when a youth, an enemy to slavery, and
brought as his gift offering to freedom three slaves, whom he piloted
to the North. His innate hatred of the institution made him a willing
exile from the state of his birth, and his great abilities, natural and
acquired, entitled him to the position he held in Captain Brown’s
confidence. Kagi was indifferent to personal appearance; he often
went about with slouched hat, one leg of his pantaloons properly
adjusted, and the other partly tucked into his high boot-top;
unbrushed, unshaven, and in utter disregard of ‘the latest style.’”[211]
Stevens was a handsome six-foot Connecticut soldier of twenty-
eight years of age, who had thrashed his major for mistreating a
fellow soldier and deserted from the United States army. He was
active in Kansas and soon came under John Brown’s discipline.
“Why did you come to Harper’s Ferry?” asked a Virginian.
He replied: “It was to help my fellow men out of bondage. You
know nothing of slavery—I know, a great deal. It is the crime of
crimes. I hate it more and more the longer I live. Even since I have
been lying in this cell, I have heard the crying of 3 slave-children
torn from their parents.”[212]
Cook was also a Connecticut man of twenty-nine years, tall, blue-
eyed, golden-haired and handsome, but a far different type from
Stevens. He was talkative, impulsive and restless, eager for
adventure but hardly steadfast. He followed John Brown as he would
have followed anyone else whom he liked, dreaming his dreams,
rushing ahead in the face of danger and shrinking back appalled and
pitiful before the grim face of death. He was the most thoroughly
human figure in the band.
One other deserves mention because it was probably his slowness
or obstinacy that ruined the success of John Brown’s raid. This was
Charles P. Tidd. He was from Maine, twenty-seven years old, trained
in Kansas warfare—a nervous, overbearing and quarrelsome man.
He bitterly opposed the plan of capturing Harper’s Ferry when it was
finally revealed, and as Anne Brown said, “got so warm that he left
the farm and went down to Cook’s dwelling near Harper’s Ferry to let
his wrath cool off.” A week passed before he sullenly gave in.
Besides these, there were six other men of more or less indistinct
personalities. Five were young Kansas settlers from Maine, the
Middle West and Canada, trained in guerrilla warfare under Brown
and Montgomery and thoroughly disliking the slave system which
they had seen. They were personal admirers of Brown and lovers of
adventure. The last recruit, Merriam, was a New England aristocrat
turned crusader, fighting the world’s ills blindly but devotedly. The
Negro Lewis Hayden met him in Boston, “and, after a few words,
said, ‘I want five hundred dollars and must have it.’ Merriam, startled
at the manner of the request, replied, ‘If you have a good cause,
you shall have it.’ Hayden then told Merriam briefly what he had
learned from John Brown, Jr.: that Captain Brown was at
Chambersburg, or could be heard of there; that he was preparing to
lead a party of liberators into Virginia, and that he needed money; to
which Merriam replied: ‘If you tell me John Brown is there, you can
have my money and me along with it.’”[213]
These were the men—idealists, dreamers, soldiers and avengers,
varying from the silent and thoughtful to the quick and impulsive;
from the cold and bitter to the ignorant and faithful. They believed in
God, in spirits, in fate, in liberty. To them, the world was a wild,
young unregulated thing, and they were born to set it right. It was a
veritable band of crusaders, and while it had much of weakness and
extravagance, it had nothing nasty or unclean. On the whole, they
were an unusual set of men. Anne Brown who lived with them said:
“Taking them all together, I think they would compare well [she is
speaking of manners, etc.] with the same number of men in any
station of life I have ever met.”[214]
They were not men of culture or great education, although Kagi
had had a fair schooling. They were intellectually bold and inquiring
—several had been attracted by the then rampant Spiritualism;
nearly all were skeptical of the world’s social conventions. They had
been trained mostly in the rough school of frontier life, had faced
death many times, and were eager, curious, and restless. Some of
them were musical, others dabbled in verse. Their broadest common
ground of sympathy lay in the personality of John Brown—him they
revered and loved. Through him, they had come to hate slavery, and
for him and for what he believed, they were willing to risk their lives.
They themselves, had convictions on slavery and other matters, but
John Brown narrowed down their dreaming to one intense deed.
Finally, there was John Brown himself. His appearance has been
often described—several times in these pages. In 1859 he was the
same striking figure with whitening hair, burning eyes, and the great
white beard which hardly hid the pendulous side lips of Olympian
Jove. One thing, however, must not be forgotten. John Brown was at
this time a sick man. From 1856 to 1859, scarce a mouth passed
without telling of illness. His health was “some improved” in May
1857, but soon he lost a week “with ague and fever and left home
feeble.” In August he wrote of “ill health” and “repeated returns of
fever and ague.” In September and October, his health was “poor.”
The spring and summer of 1858 found him “not very stout,” and in
July and August, he was “down with ague” and “too sick” to write.
In September he was “still weak,” and, although “some improved” in
December, the following spring found him “not very strong.” In April,
amid the feverish activity of his fatal year, he was “quite prostrated,”
with “the difficulty in my head and ear and with the ague in
consequence.” Late in July, he was “delayed with sickness” and there
can be little doubt that it was an illness and pain-racked body which
his indomitable will forced into the raid of Harper’s Ferry.
Having collected a part of the funds and organized the band, John
Brown was about to strike his blow in the early summer of 1858, as
we have seen, when the Forbes disclosures compelled him to hide in
Kansas, where the last massacre on the Swamp of the Swan invited
him. He left Canada for Kansas in June, 1858. Cook, somewhat
against the wishes of Brown who feared his garrulity, went to
Harper’s Ferry, worked as a booking agent and canal keeper, made
love to a maid and married her and then acted as advance agent
awaiting the main band. Ten months after leaving Canada, and in
mid-March, 1859, John Brown appeared again in Canada (as has
been told in Chapter VII) with twelve rescued slaves as an earnest of
the feasibility of his plan. He stayed long enough to spread the news
and then went to northern Ohio where he spoke in public of Kansas
and slavery. “He said that he had never lifted a finger toward any
one whom he did not know was a violent persecutor of the free
state men. He had never killed anybody; although, on some
occasions, he had shown the young men with him how some things
might be done as well as others, and they had done the business.
He had never destroyed the value of an ear of corn, and had never
set fire to any pro-slavery man’s house or property. He had never by
his action driven out pro-slavery men from the Territory; but if the
occasion demanded it, he would drive them into the ground, like
fence stakes, where they would remain permanent settlers.
“Brown remarked that he was an outlaw, the governor of Missouri
has offered a reward of $3,000, and James Buchanan $250 more,
for him. He quietly remarked, parenthetically, that John Brown would
give two dollars and fifty cents for the safe delivery of the body of
James Buchanan in any jail of the free states. He would never
submit to an arrest, as he had nothing to gain from submission; but
he should settle all questions on the spot if any attempt was made
to take him. The liberation of those slaves was meant as a direct
blow to slavery, and he laid down his platform that he had
considered it his duty to break the fetters from any slave when he
had an opportunity. He was a thorough Abolitionist.”[215]
Then, he went East to see his family and visit Douglass (where he
met and persuaded Shields Green), and to consult with Gerrit Smith
and Sanborn. Alcott at Concord wrote:
“This evening I heard Captain Brown speak at the town hall on
Kansas affairs and the part took by them in the late troubles there.
He tells his story with surpassing simplicity and sense, impressing us
all deeply by his courage and religious earnestness. Our best people
listen to his words,—Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar, my wife; and
some of them contribute something in aid of his plans without
asking particulars, such confidence does he inspire in his integrity
and abilities. I have a few words with him after his speech, and find
him superior to legal traditions, and a disciple of the Right in ideality
and the affairs of the state. He is Sanborn’s guest and stays for a
day only. A young man named Anderson accompanies him. They go
armed, I am told, and will defend themselves, if necessary. I believe
they are now on their way to Connecticut and farther south, but the
captain leaves us much in the dark concerning his destination and
designs for the coming months. Yet he does not conceal his hatred
of slavery, nor his readiness to strike a blow for freedom at the
proper moment. I infer he intends to run off as many slaves as he
can, and so render that property insecure to the master. I think him
equal to anything he dares,—the man to do the deed, if it must be
done, and with the martyr’s temper and purpose. Nature was deeply
intent in the making of him. He is of imposing appearance,
personally—tall, with square shoulders and standing; eyes of deep
gray, and couchant, as if ready to spring at the least rustling,
dauntless yet kindly; his hair shooting backward from low down on
his forehead; nose trenchant and Romanesque; set lips, his voice
suppressed yet metallic, suggesting deep reserves; decided mouth;
the countenance and frame charged with power throughout. Since
here last he has added a flowing beard, which gives the soldierly air
and the port of an apostle. Though sixty years old he is agile and
alert and ready for any audacity, in any crisis. I think him about the
manliest man I have ever seen,—the type and synonym of the
Just.”[216]
The month of May, John Brown spent in Boston collecting funds,
and in New York consulting his Negro friends, with a trip to
Connecticut to hurry the making of his thousand pikes. Sickness
intervened, but at last on June 20th, the advance-guard of five—
Brown and two of his sons, Jerry Anderson and Kagi—started
southward. They stayed several days at Chambersburg, where Kagi,
coöperating with a faithful Negro barber, Watson, was established as
a general agent to forward men, mail, and freight. Then passing
through Hagerstown, they appeared at Harper’s Ferry on July 4th.
Here they met Cook, who had been selling maps, keeping the canal-
lock near the arsenal, and sending regular information to Brown.
Brown and his sons wandered about at first, and a local farmer
greeted them cheerily: “Good-morning, gentlemen, how do you do?”
They returned the greeting pleasantly. The conversation is recounted
as follows:
 “I said, ‘Well, gentlemen,’ after saluting them in that form, ‘I
suppose you are out hunting minerals, gold, and silver?’ His answer
was, ‘No, we are not, we are out looking for land; we want to buy
land; we have a little money, but we want to make it go as far as we
can.’ He asked me about the price of the land. I told him that it
ranged from fifteen dollars to thirty dollars in the neighborhood. He
remarked, ‘That is high; I thought I could buy land here for about a
dollar or two dollars per acre.’ I remarked to him, ‘No, sir; if you
expect to get land for that price, you will have to go further west, to
Kansas, or some of those Territories where there is government
land.’ ... I then asked him where they came from. His answer was,
‘From the northern part of the state of New York.’ I asked him what
he followed there. He said farming and the frost had been so heavy
lately, that it cut off their crops there; that he could not make
anything, and sold out, and thought he would come further south
and try it awhile.”[217]
Through this easy-going, inquisitive farmer, Brown learned of a
farm for rent, which he hired for nine months for thirty-five dollars.
It was on the main road between Harper’s Ferry, Chambersburg, and
the North, about five miles from the Ferry and in a quiet secluded
place. The house stood about 300 yards back from the
Boonesborough pike, in plain sight. About 600 yards away on the
other side of the road was another cabin of one room and a garret,
which was largely hidden from view by the shrubbery. Here Brown
settled and gradually collected his men and material. The arms were
especially slow in coming. Most of the guns arrived at Chambersburg
from Connecticut about August, but the pikes did not come until a
month later. Then to the men were gathered slowly. They were at
the four ends of the country, in all sorts of employment and different
financial conditions, and they were not certain just when the raid
would take place. All this delayed Brown from July until October and
greatly increased the cost of maintenance. A daughter, Anne, and
Oliver’s girl wife came and kept the house from July 16th to October
1st.
 At this critical juncture, Harriet Tubman fell sick—a grave loss to
the cause—and there were other delays. By August 1st, there were
at Harper’s Ferry the two Brown daughters and three sons, and the
two brothers of a son-in-law, besides the two Coppocs, Tidd, Jerry
Anderson, and Stevens. Hazlett, Leeman, and Taylor came soon
after. Kagi was still at Chambersburg and John Brown himself
“labored and traveled night and day, sometimes on old Dolly, his
brown mule, and sometimes in the wagon. He would start directly
after night, and travel the fifty miles between the farm and
Chambersburg by daylight the next morning; and he otherwise kept
open communication between headquarters and the latter place, in
order that matters might be arranged in due season.”[218]
In the North John Brown, Jr., was shipping the arms and gathering
men and money. He was in Boston August 10th, at Douglass’s home,
soon after, and later in Canada with Loguen. All the chief branches
of the League were visited and then northern Ohio. The result was
meagre; not because of a lack of men but lack of the kind of men
wanted at this time. There were thousands of Negroes ready to fight
for liberty in the ranks. But most of these John Brown could not use
at present. No considerable band of armed black men could have
been introduced into the South without immediate discovery and
civil war. It was therefore picked leaders like Douglass, Reynolds,
Holden and Delaney that Brown wanted at first—discreet and careful
men of influence, who, as he said to Douglass, could hive the
swarming bees both North and South. To get these picked men
interested was, however, difficult. Each had his work and his theory
of racial salvation; they were widely scattered. A number of them
had been convinced in 1858, but the postponement had given time
for reflection and doubt. In many ways, the original enthusiasm had
waned, but it was not dead. The cause was just as great and all that
was needed was to convince men that this was a real chance to
strike an effective blow. They required the magic of Brown’s own
presence to impress this fact upon them. They were not sure of his
agents. Men continued to come, however, others began to prepare
and still, others were almost persuaded. An urgent summons went