Meet the Secret Six that Financed John Brown

   "John Brown’s Body Lies A-Mouldering in the grave"[1]

​John Brown’s Harper Ferry Armory raid, October 16-18th, 1859, was 2 years in planning with Boston’s Secret Six.  He was the madman; they were the Brahmins.  Two ministers, an educator, a physician educator of the blind and two successful businessmen.  https://www.walkbostonhistory.com/apps/search?q=secret+six

Figure 1;The Secret Six From left to right, Gerrit Smith, Samuel Gridley Howe, George Luther Stearn, Theodore Parker (Bald), Thomas Wentworth Higginson & Franklin Sanborn. Collage attributed to UMKC Law.

Both ministers were prone to violence.  Read more of Higginson’s defiance of the law and military service during the Civil War and of Theodore Parker’s direct involvement in the Fugitive Slave Riots. For a bio of all six men click here.
 
Endnote:
​[1] John Brown’s Body Lies A-Mouldering in the Grave, by Julia Ward Howe, wife of Samuel Gridley Howe of the Secret Six.  Julia used the musical score from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
John Brown is buried in North Elba, N.Y., near Lake Placid.

John Brown before and after he met George Luther Stearn; mutual admiration!

George Luther Stearn, circa 1858