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When a Man Loves Woman.
“Dangerfield Newby, quite literally, died for love. The free black Virginian had raised enough money to buy his wife out of slavery, but her master either pushed up the price or turned him down. Meanwhile, Newby, a blacksmith with a smoldering temper, had received a letter from his wife, Harriet, begging him to rescue her before she was sold. The letter was no passive slip of paper. It spoke to Dangerfield, sang to him, pleaded with him and poked him in all the places where he hurt. Spurred by that letter and other “Dear Dangerfield” letters from Harriet, Newby joined John Brown in the doomed raid on the federal Army at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now Harpers Ferry, West Virginia), where two mighty rivers, the Potomac and the Shenandoah, rush into each other’s arms and flow together to the sea. Like John Brown, he believed the raid would trigger a black uprising. He also hoped it would be the first step in his rescue of Harriet and his children.
“Newby joined John Brown out of desperation.” according to Ronald Palmer, who may be a descendent of Harriet Newby’s parents. One of five black Raiders, Dangerfield Newby became the first of the Harpers Ferry attackers to die. He was gunned down on October 17, 1859, about noon and while trying to escape from local militia coming across the Potomac River Bridge. It was not an easy dying, a gentle swooning into darkness. A spike from a gun tore open his throat, people stab his corpse, souvenir hunters ran off with ears, and hogs partially ate his body. But some say Newby ghost still prowls the area, roaming the grounds in baggy pants and an old slouch hat, the gash across his throat as bloody as ever. Nothing can comfort him, goes the story, because he failed to rescue Harriet and the childern.”
Forbidden Fruit
By Betty DeRamus
Great book about real love at this time
