A small but profound relic with wonderful period provenance from one of the most pivotal moments in American history: an original .52 caliber Sharps cartridge from John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. 

This “John Brown bullet”  is housed in an old "Pride of Virginia" tobacco tin and is accompanied by an original note written in August, 1889 by a Civil War veteran, Benjamin H. Ticknor, documenting its chain of custody. The note, written on the back of Ticknor’s business card,  reads as follows: “This bullet was carried on the John Brown raid by Francis Jackson Merriam and was by him given to Dr. David Thayer by whom he was secreted after his escape. Given by Dr. T to me today, August 31st, 1889, BHT.”

Francis J. Meriam (often spelled Merriam, 1837-1865) was an ardent abolitionist in the mold of his grandfather Francis Jackson, who had once been the president of the American Anti-Slavery Society. After many efforts to meet John Brown in Kansas, Brown allowed him to join his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. Per Brown’s orders, the 20-year-old Meriam was to stay behind and guard the raiding party’s headquarters, the Kennedy Farm. This unassuming farm was where Brown’s men hid their precious supplies, such as this bullet. Meriam dutifully kept watch over Brown’s arms and ammunition after the raiders departed, and managed to elude capture once news that the gambit had failed arrived. His wild escape took him all the way to Canada. He eventually returned to the United States and shouldered a musket for the Union Army.

Per the handwritten provenance, the relic from the ill-fated raid was passed on by Meriam to Dr. Thayer, and then to Ticknor, a veteran of the 45th Massachusetts Infantry and 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. According to the consignor, it was sold with other relics collected by Ticknor at an estate sale of one of his descendants near Cincinnati, OH in 2006. Meriam would have had plenty of opportunity to acquire this bullet given his role in the fateful drama. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, which he believed would be the catalyst for the death of slavery in the American south, is widely credited as a direct cause of the Civil War and continues to resonate powerfully some 170 years later. Artifacts relating to the raid are nearly non-existent on the open market and are highly prized by advanced collectors and institutions. This is a rare opportunity to obtain a genuine relic from that singular moment. 

[Slavery, Abolition, Civil War, John Brown, Union, Relics, Ephemera, Militaria] [Civil War, Union, Confederate, Broadsides, Prints, Ephemera] [African Americana, Black Americana, Slavery, Abolition, Abolitionist, Slave,Civil War, Union, Confederate, Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, Texas, Manuscripts]