John Brown 1859

John Brown’s Last Note


Source: Franklin B. Sanborn, John Brown, Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia. The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids Iowa, 1910;
Copy Left: this work is free of copyright;
Transcribed: by Mitch Abidor.

The note was handed to a guard on the morning of his execution.


Charlestown, Virginia Dec 2, 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.