Front cover image for Skeleton of a provisional constitution and ordinances of the people of the U.S., and related letter to his family : [Chatham, Ont.], [1858]

Skeleton of a provisional constitution and ordinances of the people of the U.S., and related letter to his family : [Chatham, Ont.], [1858]

John Brown
Holograph manuscript, with corrections, undated, written by John Brown. This provisional constitution was adopted by a convention of Brown and his followers in Chatham, Ontario, in 1858, as part of a plan to free Southern slaves. The manuscript is annotated in an unidentified hand: "Handed to Gov. Wise by John Brown on Wed Oct 19/59 before he was removed from the U.S. grounds at Harpers Ferry & while he lay wounded on his cot." A related ALS, dated May 1, 1858, 1 p., written by Brown at Chatham to his wife, Mary Anne Day Brown, and children, discusses arrival of his friends in Chatham and means of provision for their families
Archival Material, English, 1858