In 1901, MEP stated to journalist Sam P Davis that she had been “a friend to John Brown.” And that is how she wished to be remembered. She told a story of traveling to Chatham, Ontario, Canada to meet him and turn over a large sum of money for his cause.
In 1951-52, Helen Holderidge author of Mammy Pleasant ((c) 1953) corresponded with John Brown scholar Boyd Stutler about the meeting Mary said happened with John Brown in May 1858. For a time both doubted the claim but Holderidge’s digging into steam ship schedules caused her thoughts to change. Stutler thought there was enough in MEP’s story to consider it as well but in the end determined it was a more “apocryphal” story than factual. Neither Holderidge nor Stutler were able to access passenger records to further vet the story. Mary said she did not travel under her own name which presents challenges. However, she recalled traveling on the SS Moses Taylor leaving in early April 1858. The schedule and passenger lists are now available to review on various genealogical sites. The Moses Taylor was the second not first ship Mary and John J boarded. Mary said they left San Francisco on April 4; research identifies the SS John L Stevens leaving that day. It arrived in Panama on April 14. By 1858, a postage and passenger railroad crossed the Panama isthmus in 5 hours rather than by mule train which prior to 1855 took 3 weeks. The SS Moses Taylor left Aspinwall (Colon, Panama) on April 19 and it arrived in New York City on April 27. On the SS Moses Taylor was a Mary Brown aged 39 and a Mary Smith, aged 25. One of these could have been MEP; she continued to use Mrs. Mary or Ellen Smith long after her second marriage, and a few commenters, meeting her a decade later, observed that she looked half her age.
The figure below outlines when MEP and JJP traveled and the timeframe wherein they could have met easily met with Brown.
Mary and John J, after conducting financial business in New York City, likely traveled via railroad which took 24 to 36 hours. John Brown remained in Chatham from May 1 to May 29, 1858 per John Brown, 1800-1859 by Oswald Garrison Villard ((c) 1910 and 2016). What is curious is that in books about Brown, citing excerpts of letters, and other documentation, Brown stayed in Canada for a month because he was short of funds. His men had to venture south in mid-May to find work in order to pay their bills. He even cited a figure, that he had $450 of the $1,000 he sought for the action at Harper’s Ferry.
It is also confirmed with records from San Francisco and Canada that Mary and John J in September 1858 purchased four parcels of land in Chatham. Pleasant biograper Susheel Bibb’s also verified the purchase in her book Heritage of Power. The Pleasants held onto these properties until the 1870s. At the time of this transaction, approximately 30-40,000 colored people resided in the Upper Canada (the mainly English-speaking region of Canada north of the Great Lakes and west of the Ottawa River, in what is now southern Ontario). Per Villiard’s writing, Brown was looking to lead enslaved people from Harper’s Ferry after the raid to Canada, perhaps the Pleasant’s purchase of the land was the financial contribution Mary spoke of?
