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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Doyle, Mahala (fl. 1859) to John Brown

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07590 Author/Creator: Doyle, Mahala (fl. 1859) Place Written: Chattanooga, Tennessee Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 20 November 1859 Pagination: 2 p. : env. 24.8 x 19.6 cm. Order a Copy PDF Download(s): Download PDF

By the widow and mother of three men killed by Brown in the Pottawatomie massacre: "My son John whose life I begged of [you] is grown up and is very desirous to be at Charlestown on the day of your execution, would certainly be there if his means would permit it, that he might adjust the rope around your neck."Published in the Liberator, 16 December 1859. Also quoted in Robert Penn Warren's John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (1929).

Brown, John, 1800-1859

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