After a trip to New England to raise funds, Brown called a “Constitutional Convention” of his followers to meet on May 8, 1858, at Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Besides Brown’s group, 34 Negroes attended the meeting and heard the Kansas guerrilla chieftain outline his plan for the deliverance of their enslaved brethren. First, he told them, he intended to strike at a point in the South. This blow would be followed by a general slave uprising in which even free Negroes in the Northern States and Canada would flock to his banner. He would lead them into the mountains and “if any hostile action ... were taken against us, either by the militia of the separate States or by the armies of the United States, we purposed to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were possible, the troops of the United States....”
The convention unanimously adopted a “Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States” to serve as the law of the land while the army of liberation instituted a new government—one that would not supplant but exist side-by-side with the U.S. Government and which would explicitly prohibit slavery. John Brown was elected “Commander in Chief” of the new provisional army to be formed, other officers were appointed, and the convention adjourned. Before leaving again for New England to gather supplies and money for the attack, Brown sent Cook to Harpers Ferry to act as a spy; the others scattered, seeking employment to maintain themselves until called together for the march into Virginia.
The moral and financial backing of these men, known as “The Secret Six,” made the raid on Harpers Ferry possible.
Samuel Gridley Howe
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Franklin B. Sanborn
