BROWN, John (1800-1859). Autograph notes from a memorandum book, [Midwest, circa early 1859].

Two pages, recto and verso, 148 x 85mm (worn and faded, three lines in pencil overwritten in ink). WITH: MCKIM, James Miller (1810-1874). Autograph letter signed (“J.M. McKim”), New York, 30 July 1866, to A. Boyd of Boston, on American Freedman’s Union Commission stationery. Two pages, rectos only, 203 x 125mm (first page toned with shadow of John Brown document).

The first two pages of John Brown’s notebook, documenting his preparation for the raid on Harper’s Ferry and mentioning Frederick Douglass. The notebook was gifted by his widow to fellow abolitionist James McKim on the day of John Brown’s burial.

McKim’s accompanying letter of provenance, dated 1866—less than seven years after Brown’s execution and scarcely a year after the Civil War—provides invaluable context. McKim writes: “The only things I have in the way of autographs of John Brown are a letter to me, with which I would not part, and a pocket memorandum book of the Martyrs which Mrs. Brown gave to me at North Elba on the day of the burial. I have cut out and here enclose the first two leaves of this book. I don’t know that they will serve your purpose, but any one that knows John Browns hand-writing will recognize it at once in these memoranda.”

The first page of the notes is an expense ledger—including 35 cents for this blank book—and recording the cost of board, meals, horse feed, etc. as he traveled on his fundraising and planning campaign for armed abolition. Entries include $10.50 to “Little John,” $14.00 to his son, Jason, and $5.00 for flour.

The second page outlines travel plans; in full:
* “Meet at Iowa City & stop / with Jesse Bowen” (a physician whose home was a station on the Underground Railroad)
* “Philo P. Stewart / Jonas Jones / Tabor Iowa” (Brown is documented resting briefly at Jones’s home in September 1859, remarking, “I intend to make a bloody spot at another point, and carry the war into Africa.”)
* “Parker Earles Special Friend / Dwight / Ill” (“Special friend” was Brown’s term for trusted supporters)
* “Meet F Douglas at home on or about Nov 7th” (an intended visit to Frederick Douglass, who just weeks earlier had refused to join the Harpers Ferry raid, correctly judging it suicidal)
* “John Brown Jr. / Lindenville / Ashtabula Oh.” (John Brown’s eldest son).

This fragment offers a rare glimpse into Brown’s logistical planning leading to Harpers Ferry, linking him directly to Frederick Douglass and to the abolitionist networks of Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio. With his friend James McKim’s early letter, the provenance is impeccable.