Letters Brown exchanged with his father, his wife and his dependent and grown children over several decades reveal a warmer, more engaged father than heretofore pictured. Although he moved his family frequently, he was not a "wanderer" or a "loner." Brown and his father, "Squire" Owen, remained fast friends despite the latter's exacting standards of piety and worldly success for his eldest son. Owen's home in Hudson, Ohio, remained a vital part of his son's emotional universe to the end.

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John Brown asked forgiveness of his wife for his long absences while driving cattle to market or selling prize sheep, and he often complained of homesickness. He loved to hold his children and sing to them; he regularly brought the little ones presents, and he often teased his adolescent sons about their preoccupation with girls.

In 1846 Brown met the tragic death of daughter Amelia—"little Kitty"—and the loss of other children soon after, despite his own grief, with words of encouragement and reaffirmations of faith in a compassionate God to his bereaved second wife, Mary Ann, who bore him 13 offspring. Indeed, he was resilient in the face of God's "afflictive Providences" and was apparently sel­dom "blue" for long periods. The only time in his adult life of which we have any record when he was genuinely depressed for months or even weeks was while mourning the death of his beloved first wife, Dianthe, in 1832.

A Calvinist who believed that earthly life was a time of testing and trial, Brown accepted reversals with courage and renewed hope. Even after the failure of speculative enterprises he entered into with his father or his neighbors, Brown was resilient. After a variety of disappointments, Brown faced starting over in collaboration with his adult sons with fortitude and optimism.

Although he later despaired of his sons' religious apostasy, Brown defended his faith in the Bible and his belief in "the God of my fathers" to them and also to his teenage daughter, Annie. The dissenters all remained close to their father despite their rejection of his biblical Christianity.

Even though he preached serious-mindedness, Brown's temperament was neither solitary nor morose. His habits were not rigid, and he adapted easily to conditions in the field. Brown clearly possessed a sense of humor; in fact, he once tried to win the open support of the Rev. Theodore Parker by writing to him in a comic Irish brogue!

Brown's medical history explains much that has been mistaken for mental illness in his record. Like others in his family, Brown suffered from repeated bouts with "fever and ague"—malaria—and was often bedridden  during his last years. Yet even when he had to travel prone in the bed of a wagon, his energy drained by the illness, he never despaired of his project.

The "terrible gathering in my head" of which he complained for several weeks, and which some writers have mistaken as evidence of mental illness, proves to have been a prolonged infection in his sinuses and ear.

Even after staying awake two nights in succession during the raid, Brown was able to respond for more than an hour to questions from authorities. With Senator Mason and Governor Wise leading this questioning, he knew his raid had not altogether failed to win an audience. He also managed to fashion brief speeches for the assembled correspondents.

His apparent elation at his questioning was due in part to their presence; he knew he would reach readers of the "penny dailies" who were sympathetic to the cause. His war on slavery had long been in part a propaganda campaign in what were called the "prints."

But what about the record of mental illness in Brown's family? A number of John Brown's maternal relations were at times committed to mental asylums, but we do not know what illnesses they may have suffered from. The youngest son of Brown's first marriage, Frederick, began in his late teens to suffer frequent episodes of a mood disorder sufficiently severe that his father took him to a "celebrated" physician for treatment; Frederick was never institutionalized, but the family kept him indoors when his "spells" became severe.

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