[2][4] When she was sixteen, she occasionally came to abolitionist John Brown's house in New Richmond, Pennsylvania, to work on the spinning wheel.

[12] While her husband and sons were away fighting against slavery, she remained at home and worked to support the family, as well as running her household and delivering and raising children.

[13] John considered his wife a partner and a "fast and faithful affectionate friend" who made it possible for him to focus on his fight against slavery.

He recognized that she took on a life of "poverty, trials, discredit, and sore afflictions" due to his commitments, which resulted in periods of illness and loss.

"[2] In another transition, Mary and the children moved to Akron, Ohio, into a house owned by Simon Perkins, who started a wool business with John in Springfield, Massachusetts, by 1845.

[16] Gerrit Smith established a land-grant colony for African Americans at North Elba, New York, in the Adirondacks wilderness.

[17][a] Mary traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts, for a water cure at David Ruggles' establishment, which greatly improved her health and well-being.

The Browns assisted Blacks who were escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad, which became more dangerous with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

[22] In 1857, Franklin Sanborn commented that Mary and her daughters, Ruth and Annie, were "hardworking, self-denying, devoted women, fully sensible of the greatness of the struggle in which Capt.

Brown's life was one of financial hardship,[23] and yet the family set aside money to aid African Americans in North Elba.

[27] Annie and daughter-in-law Martha (Oliver's wife) made preparations and cooked at the Kennedy house for the men who would participate in the raid, who were later called John Brown's raiders.

[1] When she visited him in jail in Charles Town, Virginia, Mary's likeness was sketched and her life story printed in newspapers.

Wise, the governor of Virginia, to return his remains to her and their children for burial at the family farm, as John had requested.

[1] Some abolitionists — like Wendell Phillips — wanted him to be buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a monument and lavish funeral, that would be a catalyst for fund-raising for the anti-slavery movement.

Mary and the couple sold their farms and headed west with her daughters Sarah and Annie, hoping that it would be a fresh start and an escape from John Brown's notoriety.

[1] They spent the winter in Iowa and were discovered by Confederate sympathizers who were believed to have poisoned two ewes and planned to kill Salmon.

On September 22, 1864, The New York Tribune reported that there was an unconfirmed rumor that the Brown family was murdered by Missouri guerillas.

[1] Instead, the Browns traveled by wagon to the Union post at Soda Springs, Idaho, arriving three hours before their pursuers.

[1] Mary Ann Day Brown died on February 29, 1884, and was buried in the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, California.

[34] Historian Stephen B. Oates called her a "loyal, self-sacrificing wife", and stated, "She had been taught since childhood that a woman's task was to bear children, tend her house, and obey her husband.