Page:John Brown (W. E. B. Du Bois).djvu/231

Rh to continue on making raids, as opportunity offered, until slavery ceased to exist. I did my best to convince him that the probabilities were that all would be killed. He said that, as for himself, he was willing to give his life for the slaves. He told me repeatedly, while talking, that he believed he was an instrument in the hands of God through which slavery would be abolished. I said to him: 'You and your handful of men cannot cope with the whole South.' His reply was: 'I tell you, Doctor, it will be the beginning of the end of slavery.' He also told me that but two of his men, Kagi and Stevens, knew what his intentions were."

The landlord several times sat late into the night arguing with Brown about his plans. Some of the neighbors were persuaded to join the band, among them the two Coppocs, and George B. Gill, a Canadian. Stewart Taylor also enlisted there. Hinton, however, still supposed the battle-ground would be Kansas. He says:

"There was no attempt to make a secret of their drilling, and as Gill shows and Cook stated in his 'confession,' the neighborhood folks all understood that this band of earnest young men were preparing for something far out of the ordinary. Of course Kansas was presumed to be the objective point. But generally the impression prevailed that when the party moved again, it would be somewhere in the direction of the slave states. The atmosphere of those days was charged with disturbance. It is