Provisional Constitution (John Brown)
Hundreds or thousands of copies of John Brown's Provisional Constitution were found among his papers after his raid on Harper's Ferry. It called for a new state in the Appalachian Mountains, a sort of West Virginia, populated by escaped slaves from plantations, which were at lower altitudes. Not one of the copies was ever distributed; even nearby enslaved persons did not receive copies. The reason for this has never been explained. He was not asked about it by any of the many visitors he saw in the weeks between being sentenced to death and his execution.
