Obtain The Secret Six: The True Tale Of The Men Who Conspired With John Brown Prepared By Edward J. Renehan Jr. Displayed In Version

Americans know that John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia a raid he believed would ignite a bloody slave revolution was one of the events that sparked the Civil War.
But very few know the story of how Brown was covertly aided by a circle of prosperous and privileged Northeasterners who supplied him with money and weapons, and, before the raid, even hid him in their homes while authorities sought Brown on a murder charge.
These men called themselves the Secret Six,

The Secret Six included Thomas Wentworth Higginson, minister, author, and editor of the Atlantic Monthly Samuel Howe, worldfamous physician Theodore Parker, the Unitarian minister whose rhetoric helped shape Lincoln's Gettysburg Address Franklin Sanborn, an educator and close friend of Emerson and Thoreau and the immensely wealthy Gerrit Smith and George Luther Stearns.


The existence of the Six has been known to scholars, but there has never been a book devoted to them, Now, drawing on archives from Boston to Kansas, Edward J, Renehan, Jr. , has created a vivid portrait of this unlikely cabal, showing how six pillars of the establishment came to believe that armed conflict was necessary in order to purge the United States of a governmentsanctioned evil, slavery.
The messianic zealot Brown also brilliantly portrayedstreaked across their path like a meteor, Renehan traces how the Six became involved with Brown, and how their lives were forever changed by the events at Harpers Ferry and the war they helped to start.
I read this book as research, and learned an amazing amount about why John Brown had such an impact, What an illustrious following he had! It was not just the Secret Six those whose names were found in John Brown's possession but the entire town of Concord, Mass and all the Transcendentalists that lived there.
We're talking Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Black luminaries, too, such as Douglass and Tubman, were held riveted by John Brown's magnetic sway, When John Brown came to his hanging day, they had so deified him Emerson: "He shall make the gallows glorious like the cross" that he became a battle cry, the song of freedom sung as the first soldiers, Massachusetts and New York boys, marched off to war singing, "John Brown's Body Lies a'Moldering in the Grave.
" Lincoln vehemently denounced him, the South proclaimed him proof of the North's ill intentions, Thoreau proclaimed his martyrdom the best news the North had ever had,
Wow. So if I got all that out of skimming for research, then I imagine it's a

pretty good read for pleasure, But I can't really evaluate it on that level, I may have to read it again, and just enjoy it,

So, I slept on this and realized that some of what I wrote may have come from other sources, It's been awhile! And thinking more deeply about the book itself, I can safely remember that it is very suspenseful in its depiction of the Secret Six and others fleeing for their lives after his arrest.
Many went to Canada, others to Europe, Gerrit Smith checked into an insane asylum, Some stayed put as Massachusetts declared it would not extradite anyone to Virginia states' rights was not just a Southern issue then, These were "gentlemen," not used to thinking of themselves as criminals, Some refused to appear at Congressional hearings, putting themselves in contempt of court, All declared their innocence, that they did not know what John Brown would do with the money they gave him, The author gives some credence to this, though that seems to me "political correctness" as they certainly knew that John Brown intended to break the law,
From another source, Thoreau said from a pulpit in Concord as Brown was being hanged, "Ye needn't take so much pains, my friends, to wash your skirts of him.
No one will ever be convinced that he was any creature of yours, He went and came, as he himself informs us, under the auspices of John Brown, and nobody else, " Can't say enough about this book, It provides great context into each member of the Secret Six/Northern supporters, and how they all played a roll in John Brown's story, It also shed more light on Brown's Kansas escapades than I've previously read, Highly recommend. The title tells it all, Renehan's comprehensive research of letters and other primary sources of the people involved with John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry makes for a compelling narrative on one of the most polarizing figures in American history.
The constant inclusion of excerpts from these letters with their antebellum vernacular can slow the reader to a degree, However, there is no doubt the author has illuminated a powerful story of the beginnings of the Civil War that had remained in the shadows for much of the past century.
Such a dry read! It reads like a masters thesis or a Ph, D dissertation. But I think it is a necessary book, One of the subjects is quoted as saying in the laters, “arent we as important in knowing as the guy that sold Christ his mule on the way to the Last Supper” Id counter that point with these people played a bigger part than the mule salesman.
These people funded John Brown, functioned as sounding boards, provided the weapons used in the lead up to Harpers Ferry, Learning their story is learning the bigger picture of the Raid on Harpers Ferry, in addition to learning specifics on John Browns journey, learning that it was a movement or maybe the start of a movement rather than a lone crazed man.
Currently publishing as sitelink Edward RenehanEdward John Renehan, Jr, born cis a publisher, consultant and writer, and onetime professional musician, He made headlines inwhen he was convicted of document theft, Currently publishing as sitelink Edward RenehanEdward John Renehan, Jr, born cis a publisher, consultant and writer, and onetime professional musician, He made headlines inwhen he was convicted of document theft, sitelink.