Mary Thacher Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson: the story of his life

‘ [194] need help greatly.’ Meetings were held in Boston and Worcester, in which Mr. Higginson took part, to plead for help for Brown's family. An anonymous letter from Alabama to the militant pastor is included in the John Brown Collection, condemning him for trying to procure counsel for the prisoner, and warning him that should he and his friends attempt ‘any such work a little farther South, we will burn every mother's son of you.’

Mr. Higginson's wish now was to rescue Brown from prison, but the latter absolutely prohibited any such attempt. Thinking that perhaps Mrs. Brown could shake her husband's determination and ultimately help in his rescue, Mr. Higginson travelled to the mountains of North Elba, New York, to take her to visit him in prison. This visit to Brown's home the author has described in a paper called ‘John Brown's Household’ included in his ‘Contemporaries.’ In this article he says:—

It had been my privilege to live in the best society all my life—namely, that of Abolitionists and fugitive slaves. . . . But I had not known the Browns.

. . . Here was a family out of which four young men had within a fortnight been killed. I say nothing of a father under sentence of death and a brother fleeing for his life, but only speak of those killed .. Yet there was not one of that family who could not pronounce that awful word with perfect quietness.