The Last Moments of John Brown
by Thomas Hovenden, 1884
(Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, used with permission)

Brown wrote from jail, "I have asked to be spared from having any mock; or hypocritical prayers made over me, when I am publicly murdered: & that my only religious attendants be poor little, dirty, ragged, bare headed, & barefooted Slave Boys; & Girls; led by some old grey headed Slave Mother." That statement became the basis for a myth about a slave mother and child being present at the hanging, the latter receiving a kiss from Brown. In 1884, Thomas Hovenden used the story to create this painting—which became the iconic image of Brown's martyrdom when it was widely reproduced as a print. For Brown's admirers, the picture provided a much-needed antidote to the unlikable persona of Brown the terrorist, which he had fully earned both in Kansas and Virginia.