John Brown had 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 constitution of the new republic was approved. The direct result of this meeting was the attack on Harpers Ferry in October 1859. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Charles M. Christian, Sari Bennett, Black Saga: the African American Experience : a Chronology, (New York: Civitas Press, 1999), 165.
Record Data
Type
Legal/Political
