Letter from Emile de Laveleye (1822-1892) to Hugo

Scope and Content

Autograph letter to Hugo suggesting that as his appeal came too late to save John Brown's life he should now organise a subscription throughout Europe for a monument to Brown to be erected on the island of Guernsey.

Written at Ghent.

Marked 'r' (répondu) in Hugo's hand.

Laveleye was a Belgian historian and lecturer in Economics at the University of Liège.

John Brown (1800-1859) was an American abolitionist who violently fought slavery in the southern states, but was finally captured and sentenced to death in Virginia. In order to save him, Hugo wrote a famous open letter published in the press on 2 December 1859, where he compared Brown with Spartacus, but the letter arrived too late, since Brown was hung the same day.