From "Harpers Ferry" about two weeks before the raid that took his life, William H. Leeman wrote his mother that, although he didn't want to worry her, he was "waring with Slavery the greatest Curse that ever infested America," and he fully expected the entire South to be "free" by the time they finished. He had "been Engaged [for the past three years] in a Secret Asosiation [sic] of as gallaint fellows as ever puled a trigger with the sole purpose of the Extermination of Slavery," and they were now ready and "determined to strike for Freedom Incite the Slaves to Rebelion and Establish a free government."