Secret Six
The so-called Secret Six, or the Secret Committee of Six, were a group of men who secretly funded the 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry by abolitionist John Brown.[1] Sometimes described as "wealthy," this was true of only two. The other four were in positions of influence, and could, therefore, encourage others to contribute to "the cause."
For other uses, see Secret Six (disambiguation).The name "Secret Six" was invented by writers long after Brown's death. The term never appears in the testimony at Brown's trial, in James Redpath's The public life of Capt. John Brown (1859), or in the Memoirs of John Brown of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1878). The men involved helped Brown as individuals and did not work together or correspond with each other. They were never in the same room at the same time, and in some cases barely knew each other.
Background[edit]
The Secret Six were Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Gridley Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith, and George Luther Stearns. All six had been involved in the abolitionist cause prior to their meeting John Brown, and had gradually become convinced that violence was necessary in order to end American slavery.
Of the six, only Smith and Stearns could be called wealthy. The others consisted of two Unitarian ministers (Parker and Higginson), a doctor (Howe) at a time when physicians were not well-to-do, and a teacher (Sanborn). Smith was one of the guarantors of a bail bond for Jefferson Davis after the Civil War.
To the extent the group had a leader, it was Brown biographer Sanborn. "Some of the money and nearly all the correspondence relating to the contributions passed through my hands in 1858–9. ...[W]e all raised money to aid Brown in carrying this plan forward."[2]
Aftermath[edit]
In January 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, a celebration, also called a "John Brown party",[4] was held at the home of George Stearns, attended by Sam and Julia Ward Howe, Frank Sanborn, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, and John Murray Forbes. Higginson, who was busy commanding a regiment of black Union soldiers, sent his regrets. Gerrit Smith did not respond to Stearns' invitation. A marble bust of John Brown, created by sculptor Edwin Brackett, was unveiled at this time.[5]: 270
In 1867, Gerrit Smith helped post bail to release the imprisoned former Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. Smith's wife wrote to Sanborn in 1874, confirming that her husband had destroyed every one of his letters having anything to do with John Brown. Sanborn likewise combed through his own papers and letters, weeding out anything implicating himself or his partners in Brown's raid. Only some letters to Theodore Parker, which came back to Sanborn a year and more after his death, were not destroyed at this time.[3]: 1885–1889
For the remainder of their lives, Higginson, Sanborn, and Stearns made periodic pilgrimages to Brown's grave in North Elba, New York. Frank Sanborn saw to it that the daughters of John Brown received an education in Concord, and even after the turn of the twentieth century took a measure of responsibility for Brown's children and grandchildren.[5]: 268
Higginson expressed the wish that disunion could have been achieved "without the sacrifice of Brown" and believed a counter-proposal to the Harper's Ferry scheme should have been made—one that protected Brown from himself, believing the Six should have perceived "the madness that dwelled within him—the insanity that sat stealthily beside his great, selfless nobility."[5]: 273
In 1905, Higginson co-founded the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, along with attorney Clarence Darrow, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair.[6]
After Sanborn's death in 1917, the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted a bill applauding him for his various life works, with special mention given to Sanborn's role as "confidential adviser to John Brown of Harper's Ferry, for whose sake he was ostracized, maltreated, and subjected to the indignity of false arrest, having been saved from deportation from Massachusetts only by mob violence."[5]: 269