The Secret Six
The following six men aided John Brown in his quest against slavery by providing him with financial support:
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson: A minister and amateur boxer, Higginson was from one of the oldest families in New England.
- Gerrit Smith: A nervous, eccentric and very wealthy man, Smith became Brown’s benefactor early on by giving him land for a home in the Adirondacks.
- Reverend Theodore Parker: An eloquent and controversial Unitarian minister.
- Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe: A highly respected pioneer of educational reforms for the blind, insane and feeble-minded.
- George Luther Stearns: A chief financier of the Emigrant Aid Company which facilitated the settlement of Kansas by anti-slavery homesteaders.
- Franklin Sanborn: A young idealistic Concord schoolmaster and friend of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.