Mary Brown and Two of Her Daughters
(Library of Congress)

Among the many visitors to Brown in jail was his wife, Mary. She arrived a day before the hanging and the couple was allowed four hours together. Husband and wife were said to have embraced tightly for minutes without speaking; Brown fumed when she was not allowed to stay the night. Mary would not have his body burned as he wished; she would take it home for burial. They discussed his will, which he would later dictate to Andrew Hunter, the man who had prosecuted him. She carried home his papers and the letters he had received in jail.