Primary Sources

Word Bank: Perspective on the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre
Dragoons: An armed soldier
Confreres: Member of the same group, job, etc.
Ferreting: Searching for
Aggravated: More serious
Feigns: Pretends to be affected by
Fanaticism: Having intense devotion to a cause or idea
Libertine: A person with no morals
Profligate: A wasteful person
Blighted: Ugly, neglected, run-down
Rocked the bloody Bastille:
Iniquities: Immoral or unfair behavior
Vain lesson: A lesson with no result
Defiance: Disobey
Word Bank: Letter from Frances Watkins

“Meeting the slave mother and her child on the steps of Charleston jail on his way to execution” "Regarding
with a look of compassion a Slave-mother and Child who obstructed (blocked) the passage on his way to the
Scaffold (place where you are hanged). --Capt. Brown stooped and kissed the Child--then met his fate."

Perspective on the Pottawatomie Massacre was printed by the Charleston
Mercury (Charleston, South Carolina) on June 13, 1856:
From Kansas
(Correspondence of the Missouri Republican.)
Baptiste Paola, May 30, 1856.
Your correspondent is in the neighborhood of the massacre. There are over
one hundred Kansas militia here and fifteen United States dragoons. They
are assembled for the purpose of catching the murderers, who are an
organized band of Abolitionists, armed and equipped to thieve, murder, and
resist all law. Such is the Free State Party here. The free-soilers, who
are ashamed of their confreres, have slipped them and joined the proslavery
party in ferreting out the criminals. The facts as related in my
last regarding the slaughter, are correct; the circumstances are more
aggravated than was thought. No grudge existed between the parties
personally; in fact, no cause whatever can be, or is attempted to be
assigned, for the savage barbarity, but that the deceased were pro-slavery
in their sentiments…
It is said that the murderers are fortified on the Marais des Cygnes, in a
cave, about twenty-five miles from here, and are receiving reinforcements
from Lawrence and elsewhere. The leader of this party showed the bloody
dagger, and boasted that it did the bloody deed; his name is Brown; two of
his sons are arrested. One of them, who feigns to be crazy, has just left
in charge of the dragoons. He is made to accompany them on foot at a
pretty rapid gait of course, as the troops are mounted. His day’s march
will help the craziness, and perhaps cool down the fanaticism which has
laid five innocent men in their graves, and brought mourning on several
families, on a sick wife and a widowed mother. The blood of Allen
Wilkinson cries out for justice, all humanity demands it, and let it be
visited on the offenders as soon as possible. The destroyed hotel and
presses at Lawrence were nuisances, because a means of resisting law, and
were abated as such, according to law, and this the fanatics claim as an
excuse for cold-blooded slaughter and theft. How long will the honest
people of the North be deceived?
—H. C. P.

Dear Friend: although the hands of Slavery throw a
barrier between you and me, and it may not be my
privilege to see you in your prison-house, Virginia has
no bolts or bars through which I dread to send you my
sympathy. In the name of the young girl sold from the
warm clasp of a mother’s arms to the clutches of a
libertine or a profligate, – in the name of the slave
mother, her heart rocked to and fro by the agony of her
mournful separations, – I thank you, that you have been
brave enough to reach out your hands to the crushed
and blighted of race. You have rocked the bloody
Bastille; and I hope that from our sad fate great good
may arise to the cause of freedom. Already from your
prison has come a shout of triumph against the giant sin
of our country…
I would prefer to see Slavery go down peaceably by
men breaking off their sins by righteousness and their
iniquities by showing justice and mercy to the poor; but
we cannot tell what the future may bring forth. We may
earnestly hope that your fate will not be a vain lesson,
that it will intensify our hatred of Slavery and love of
freedom, and that your martyr grave will be a sacred
altar upon which men will record their vows of undying
hatred to that system which tramps on man and bids
defiance to God. I have written to your dear wife, and
sent her a few dollars, and I pledge myself to you that I
will continue to assist her. May the ever-blessed god
shield you and your fellow-prisoners in the darkest hour.

Send my sympathy to your fellow-prisoners; tell them
to be of good courage; to seek a refuge in the Eternal
God, and lean upon His everlasting arms for a sure
support. If any of them, like you, have a wife or children
that I can help, let them send me word.
Frances Watkins November 25 th , 1859
Affidavit of John Doyle.
The undersigned, John Doyle, states, upon oath, that he is the son of James P. and
Mahala Doyle; that we came to the Territory in November, 1855, and settled on
Mosquita creek, about one mile from its mouth, in Franklin county. That, on Saturday
night, about 11 o'clock, on the 24th day of May last, a party of men came to our house;
we had all retired; they roused us up, and told us that if we would surrender they would
not hurt us. They said they were from the army; they were armed with pistols and
knives; they took off my father and two of my brothers, William and Drury. We were all
alarmed. They made inquiries about Mr. Wilkson, and about our horses. The next
morning was Sunday, the 25th of May, 1856. I went in search of my father and two
brothers. I found my father and one brother, William, lying dead in the road, about two
hundred yards from the house; I saw my other brother lying dead on the ground, about
one hundred and fifty yards from the house, in the grass, near a ravine; his fingers were
cut off; and his arms were cut off; his head was cut open; there was a hole in his breast.
William's head was cut open, and a hole was in his jaw, as though it was made by a
knife, and a hole was also in his side. My father was shot in the forehead and stabbed in
the breast. I have talked often with northern men and eastern men in the Territory, and
these men talked exactly like eastern men and northern men talk, that is, their language
and pronunciation were similar to those eastern and northern men with whom I had
talked. An old man commanded the party; he was a dark complected, and his face was
slim. We had lighted a candle, and about eight of them entered the house; there were
some more outside. The complexion of most of those eight whom I saw in the house
were of sandy complexion. My father and brothers were pro-slavery men, and belonged
to the law and order party.
JOHN DOYLE.
his mark X

Chattanooga Tennessee 20th November 1859
John Brown
Sir
Altho vengeance is not mine, I confess, that I do feel gratified to hear that you ware
stopt in your fiendish career at Harper's Ferry, with the loss of your two sons, you
can now appreciate my distress, in Kansas, when you then and there entered my
house at midnight and arrested my husband and two boys and took them out of the
yard and in cold blood shot them dead in my hearing, you cant say you done it to
free our slaves, we had none and never expected to own one, but has only made me
a poor disconsolate widow with helpless children while I feel for your folly. I do
hope & trust that you will meet your just reward. O how it pained my Heart to hear
the dying groans of my Husband and children if this scrawl give you any consolation
you are welcome to it.
Mahala Doyle
[Noted on Back] my son John Doyle whose life I begged of (you) is now grown up and
is very desirous to be at Charleston 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
if gov: wise would permit it
M Doyle.