Jacob's Pen 5

Our favorite diarist, Frederick's own Jacob Engelbrecht, covers the news on this day, one hundred fifty years ago. But first, a final message from Old Man Brown:

Images from: Nelson, Truman. The Old Man: John Brown at Harper's Ferry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.

Charlestown, Va. 2nd, December, 1859.


I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood. I had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.


Twenty-eight miles east of the gallows, Jacob notes the occasion:

Execution - This day between the hours of 8 o'clock AM & 12 o'clock M [noon], Captain John Brown (commonly called Ossawattamie Brown)is to be hung at Charlestown, Jefferson County, Virginia for insurrection & murder at Harpers Ferry on the 16, 17, & 18 of October 1859. He had his trial & was found guilty October 31 after 5 days of trial. Four others were subsequently found guilty for the same offence (abolitionists, freeing the Negroes)and are to be hung December 16. Their names are Captain John E. Cook & Edwin Coppie - white men, & Shields Green & John Copeland [-] Negroes.

- Friday, December 2d, 1859, 10 minutes till 10 o'clock AM.

PS - 2 1/2 o'clock afternoon. He was hanged 30 minutes after 11 o'clock AM. His body was taken by his widow to North (?) Essex County, New York.

All Engelbrecht photos and diary entries in the "Jacob's Pen" series come directly from The Diary of Jacob Engelbrecht, published by The Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc.