7. Soule was approached to join a party to free John Brown
Before Brown was brought to trial in Virginia (he was allowed time to recover from a wound sustained in the raid) his supporters began making plans to rescue him from Virginia custody. Northern publisher Richard Hinton, a staunch abolitionist, traveled to Lawrence, explained his plan to Soule, and persuaded the latter to travel with him to Pennsylvania. Soule and Hinton planned to recruit a party from the region to attack the jail where Brown was held and carry him off by force. Hinton had a grand vision of a rescue, but he did not have the money needed to pull it off, and he found little sympathy for the idea from fellow abolitionists.
A much smaller party assembled, and without enough men to force the jail through assault, other means were explored to free Brown, who was held in Charlestown, in what is today West Virginia. The conspirators planned to free Brown and escape through the region around Martinsburg. They were commanded by James Montgomery, who was aware of Soule’s actions in rescuing Doy from the St. Joseph jail. Montgomery sent Soule to Charlestown, to learn what he could and if possible, to visit Brown and the other survivors held captive and make them aware of the plan.