On May 8, 1859, John Brown was back in Concord. The tall, humorless abolitionist had grown a flowing white beard, making him look like an Old Testament prophet. Like he did during his first visit in 1857, Brown spoke on his anti-slavery activities in Kansas to a large crowd at the Town Hall; he had come east in the hope of raising money for those activities. As in 1857, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau were again in the audience, and they supported Brown; intellectually, philosophically, and monetarily.
