Page:John Brown (W. E. B. Du Bois).djvu/259

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THE BLACK PHALANX
251

In this woman John Brown placed the utmost confidence. Wendell Phillips says: "The last time I ever saw John Brown was under my own roof, as he brought Harriet Tubman to me, saying: 'Mr. Phillips, I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent—General Tubman, as we call her.' He then went on to recount her labors and sacrifices in behalf of her race."[1]

Only sickness, brought on by her toil and exposure, prevented Harriet Tubman from being present at Harper's Ferry.

From St. Catherines John Brown went to Ingersoll, Hamilton and Chatham. He also visited Toronto, holding meetings with Negroes in Temperance Hall, and at the house of the "late Mr. Holland, a colored man, on Queen Street West. On one occasion Captain Brown remained as a guest with his friend, Dr. A. M. Ross, who is distinguished as a naturalist, as well as an intrepid Abolitionist, who risked his life on several occasions in excursions into the South to enable slaves to flee to Canada."[2]

Having finally perfected plans for a convention, Brown hurried back to Iowa for his men. During his three months' absence they had been working and drilling in the Quaker settlement of Springdale, Ia., as most persons supposed, for future troubles in "bleeding Kansas." On John Brown's

  1. Letter of Wendell Phillips, printed in Bradford, Harriet, the Moses of Her People, pp. 155–156.
  2. Hamilton, John Brown in Canada, p. 10.