John Brown family letters : Kansas

Four ALS. In a letter of June 12, 1855 Wealthy writes from Brownsville to her sister-in-law Ruth Thompson. She tells of the trip from Ohio to Kansas and of the cholera outbreak onboard the steamer "New Lucy". She comments on the other passengers, who were mainly slaveholders and their wives. Wealthy goes on to describe their claims, extols the virtues of the Kansas climate and countryside, and urges Ruth and Henry Thompson to join them. In a letter from Osawatomie dated February 10, 1856, Frederick Brown writes of the events of January 15th that culminated in the murder of Mr. E. P. Brown [R. P. Brown?] by a group of proslavery men.

In the first of two letters to family and friends, Jason Brown writes from Osawatomie on June 28, 1856. He tells of answering the call to defend the city of Lawrence and of receiving word of the taking of Lawrence and of the murder of five proslavery men on Pottawatomie Creek. He describes at length his and John Jr.'s imprisonment and their forced march to Lecompton and then Tecumseh. He briefly describes the skirmish at Hickory Point in which Salmon Brown and Henry Thompson were wounded. In Jason's letter of August 13, 1856 he tells of his attempts to protect the claims from looting and burning and reports that Missourians are said to be gathering to attack Osawatomie.