The Secret Six - Hardcover
Most Americans know that John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia -- a raid he believed would ignite a bloody slave revolution -- was one of the events that sparked the Civil War. But very few know the story of how Brown was covertly aided by a circle of prosperous and privileged Northeasterners who supplied him with money and weapons, and, before the raid, even hid him in their homes while authorities sought Brown on a murder charge. These men called themselves the Secret Six.
The Secret Six included Thomas Wentworth Higginson, minister, author, and editor of the Atlantic Monthly; Samuel Howe, world-famous physician; Theodore Parker, the Unitarian minister whose rhetoric helped shape Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; Franklin Sanborn, an educator and close friend of Emerson and Thoreau; and the immensely wealthy Gerrit Smith and George Luther Stearns.
The existence of the Six has been known to scholars, but there has never been a book devoted to them. Now, drawing on archives from Boston to Kansas, Edward J. Renehan, Jr., has created a vivid portrait of this unlikely cabal, showing how six pillars of the establishment came to believe that armed conflict was necessary in order to purge the United States of a government-sanctioned evil, slavery. The messianic zealot Brown -- also brilliantly portrayed-streaked across their path like a meteor. Renehan traces how the Six became involved with Brown, and how their lives were forever changed by the events at Harpers Ferry and the war they helped to start.
The Secret Six included Thomas Wentworth Higginson, minister, author, and editor of the Atlantic Monthly; Samuel Howe, world-famous physician; Theodore Parker, the Unitarian minister whose rhetoric helped shape Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; Franklin Sanborn, an educator and close friend of Emerson and Thoreau; and the immensely wealthy Gerrit Smith and George Luther Stearns.
The existence of the Six has been known to scholars, but there has never been a book devoted to them. Now, drawing on archives from Boston to Kansas, Edward J. Renehan, Jr., has created a vivid portrait of this unlikely cabal, showing how six pillars of the establishment came to believe that armed conflict was necessary in order to purge the United States of a government-sanctioned evil, slavery. The messianic zealot Brown -- also brilliantly portrayed-streaked across their path like a meteor. Renehan traces how the Six became involved with Brown, and how their lives were forever changed by the events at Harpers Ferry and the war they helped to start.
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From the Back Cover:
"In vivid prose, The Secret Six unravels the mysteries of the six prominent abolitionists who supported John Brown but abandoned him to his fate after the ill-starred raid at Harpers Ferry. Edward Renehan has made an important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War and its causes."
About the Author:
James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
"With their own words and private correspondence, this remarkable book reveals more secrets of the Secret Six than John Brown ever knew."
C. Vann Woodward, author of The Burden of Southern History and The Strange Career of Jim Crow
"Renehan admirably works himself into the inner circle of these would-be conspirators for good."
Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg and Certain Trumpets
"Ed Renehan's very impressive historical research makes his Secret Six come alive and will enrich any reader's understanding of the era leading up to the Civil War."
James Fallows, author of Looking at the Sun
Edward J. Renehan, Jr., is the author of John Burroughs: An American Naturalist and is a contributor to The American Scholar and other publications. He lives in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
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- PublisherRandom House Value Publishing
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0517170612
- ISBN 13 9780517170618
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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