[Letter to] My Dear Mrs. Chapman
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1859
Place of publication: 15 Carroll Place, Bleecker Street, New York
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

In this letter, Martha Griffith Browne signs her name Mattie Griffith.

Maria Weston Chapman's letter gave Martha Griffith Browne great encouragement. Martha Griffith Browne writes: "Poor John Brown! ---the thought of him never leaves me. For the first week after his capture I did not close my eyes---and though the weather is quite cool, I had to put out my fire and keep my window open; felt as if I should ...I can't think they will dare to hang him. But what an argument he furnishes the Anti-Slavery cause---and his death (if indeed it must come) will surely advance the movement half a century." She expresses great pity for the blacks who were with John Brown. She regrets that they should have been handcuffed together in their cell. Martha Griffith Browne says: "All the vile newspaper shot is aimed at them; their cowardice has been bruited about & they are used like dogs." She tells of trying to persuade a woman friend who owned slaves to set them free.