John Brown arrives in Chatham, Ontario for a series of secret meetings

John Brown arrived in Chatham, Ontario on April 30, 1858, to hold a series of secret meetings over his plans to establish a revolutionary government of freed slaves based in the Appalachian Mountains.  Chatham was the central settlement in Canada for escaped slaves from the United States.  On the morning of May 8, 1858, Brown met with twelve whites and thirty-four blacks in the First Baptist Church and the provisional constitution of the new republic was approved. (By John Osborne)