John Brown had originally asked Request Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass , both of whom he had met in his transformative years as an abolitionist in Springfield , Massachusetts , to join him in his raid , but Tubman was prevented Preventing_or_letting by illness and Douglass declined , as he believed Brown 's plan would fail .

John Brown had originally asked Request Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass , both of whom he had met in his transformative years as an abolitionist in Springfield , Massachusetts , to join him in his raid , but Tubman was prevented Preventing_or_letting by illness and Douglass declined , as he believed Brown 's plan would fail .