Keweenaw People - John Brown

Portrait of John Brown from a collodion by J. Dudman, engraved by I. Johnston. London. circa 1854

Image Public Domain

“I engaged myself to Captain Teague, believing that I should be safer with Englishmen in the mines than anywhere else... We went from Detroit to Copper Harbor to [probably via] Mackinaw and Sault St. Mary, and thence to the mouth of the Ontonagon River, Michigan. From this place we went to Cyrus Mindenhall's [sic] location, and afterwards to the Porcupine Mountains.”

In 1846, John Brown a self-emancipated freedom seeker headed north to the Upper Peninsula rather than cross the Detroit River into Canada. Brown later explained that while in shared captivity with a man named Glasgow, who claimed to be English-born and falsely enslaved, he began to believe, “if I could ever get to England, where he came from, and conducted myself properly, folks would respect me as much as they did a white man.” The prospect gave him hope through many challenging experiences. Born into slavery and raised in the deep south, Brown’s formative years were filled with trauma and loss. Brown eventually escaped to Marshall, Michigan aided by friends from the Underground Railroad network. In Marshall, Brown worked with other freedom seekers to build a church, among them future Ontonagon County mine speculator Noel Johnson. After the church’s last stones were laid, Brown went to Detroit where he “fell in with” a group of migrant Cornish miners led by mining captain Joseph Teague. Teague and his compatriots were in Detroit as they prepared for a voyage to the Copper Country under contract with a Boston-based copper mine investor named Jones.

Remembering his English friend Glasgow’s advice, Brown decided to join them, “believing that I should be safer with Englishmen in the mines than anywhere else.” Copper Harbor’s newspaper takes up our story, its columns noting Teague’s arrival in Copper Harbor on board the propeller Independence on July 3, 1846. From Copper Harbor the party continued to Ontonagon, from whence, “we went to Cyrus Mindenhall’s [sic] location, and afterwards to the Porcupine Mountains.” In the Porcupine Mountains, Brown worked as a carpenter with Teague’s group near Lake of the Clouds.

 

Lake of the Clouds, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

NPS Photo

After eighteen months or so of working in the Copper Country, Teague’s party prepared to return to the Captain’s home in Redruth, Cornwall, Great Britain. Brown, recalling his prior companion’s advice, determined to follow him. Brown took a detour to Ontario’s Dawn Settlement, and upon his arrival in Cornwall learned that Joseph Teague died in Boston on the way home. Other Redruth miners of Teague’s party vouched for Brown, providing a letter of recommendation, which wasshared at lectures and, later, published in Brown’s book. Through Brown and his acquaintance Noel Johnson we see Underground Railroad freedom seekers choosing the Copper Country before the end of the Civil War. Do other such stories remain to be told?

Nearly a decade later and an ocean away, Brown dictated his memoir, Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Now in England to Louis A. Chamerovzow of London’s “British and Foreign Anti-Slave Society.” The book mentions a number of historical Keweenaw people and places. The veracity of his narrative is reflected in a number of other period sources. You can find a transcribed version of his book at Documenting the American South's website.