When
planning his raid on Harpers Ferry, Brown realized that he
would need money and volunteers if the daring plan was to
have any chance of succeeding. 
His
quest for help took him north to the blossoming African-Canadian
community in Chatham, in present day Ontario. Chatham had
grown up in the shadow of slavery and was a pillar of the
Underground Railroad network that helped thousands of escaped
slaves reach freedom in Canada.
 More importantly, for Brown, was the affluent Black population
that allowed Chatham to care for thousands of refugee slaves
each year. Wealthy Black business people, doctors, lawyers,
and politicians also provided the infrastructure and wealth
needed to organize and plan a revolt on such a grand scale.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was also printing the Provincial Freeman
in Chatham at that time, thus giving Brown access to a sympathetic
audience.
While in Chatham, Brown stayed at the residence of James
Madison Bell, which stood on the grounds of the present
day W.I.S.H. Centre, and met with important  members
of the Black community including Stanton Hunton, James Monroe
Jones, and Dr. Martin Delaney.
Though
only one man volunteered to go to Harpers Ferry for the
actual raid Brown was able to secure valuable financial
and material aid while in Chatham. Though the raid itself
was a failure of sorts, historians have argued ever since
that it was the spark that ultimately ignited the Civil
War.
 In the
wake of the raid Stanton Hunton was quoted as saying that,
"the glory with which Chatham became invested, because
of its relation to John Brown, in one of the most tragic
episodes of American history, still endures."
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