Visited: Sept 2019
Nearby town: Harpers Ferry, WV
"Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!"
-John Brown, to the congregation of a church in Hudson, Ohio, after the 1837 murder of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob
What makes a man a hero? What makes a man a traitor?
I guess it might depend on who you ask.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park relates the story of one John Brown, a surveyor and tanner turned abolitionist, who thrust himself into the national spotlight when he conducted a raid on a federal armory in order to start an uprising that he hoped would lead to the end of slavery.
John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. As a young boy, Brown's family moved to the Western Reserve (present-day northeastern Ohio), which was one of the most anti-slavery regions in the entire country. Brown's religious upbringing and the influence of his father, who offered his home as a refuge for fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad, led the young Brown to hate slavery. As an adult, Brown became an ardent abolitionist and activist. Brown grew weary of legal efforts to end slavery and felt that something more needed to be done, even violence itself, to bring about the end of slavery. He became frustrated with abolitionist pacifists, deriding them as "men [who] are all talk. What we need is action - action!" Brown believed that he was directed by God himself to destroy slavery.
In the mid-1850s, Brown made his way to the Kansas Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 put the question of whether Kansas would enter the union as a "free state" or a "slave state" to the voters themselves. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the territory clashed repeatedly...the conflict became known as "Bleeding Kansas." On the night of May 24, 1856, in response to the sacking of the town of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces three days earlier, Brown and his band of extremist abolitionists, armed with swords, rounded up five militant pro-slavery settlers and killed them in front of their own families. The tragic and brutal event (dubbed the "Pottawatomie Massacre") made John Brown infamous. Both sides of the debate were horrified by Brown's actions; Frederick Douglass, upon hearing the news, remarked that it was "a terrible remedy for a terrible malady."
After the bloodshed of Kansas, Brown began planning to initiate a slave revolt to bring about the end of slavery.
The quiet village of Harpers Ferry (then in the state of Virginia, and now in present-day West Virginia), was the scene of Brown's bold, and perhaps quixotic, mission.
Harpers Ferry, WV
In 1794, US Congress designated Harpers Ferry as the site of a federal armory due to its proximity to Washington DC and its strategic location at the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. In 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad constructed a railway that crossed the Potomac into the center of the town, right alongside the armory for quick access to the arsenal from the DC area.
Brown's plan was to lead a group of men to sneak into town and take over the arsenal. Once they had access to the thousands of firearms stored there, they would go about the countryside freeing slaves, arming them, and hoping they would join in a revolt against their masters that would engulf the entire country, and thus, end slavery. Brown attempted to enlist both Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass in his takeover of the arsenal, but illness prevented Tubman from joining, and Douglass was convinced that the plot was pure madness and certain suicide.
Brown rented a cabin about 4 miles north of town, under the pseudonym of Isaac Smith. He lived there for a number of months planning the attack, and told curious neighbors that he was mining. In the end, Brown only managed to cobble together a group of 22 men (16 white, 5 black) to invade the armory.
Brown's men raided the armory on the night of October 16, 1859. They approached the armory from the railroad bridge across the Potomac River. The first casualty of the raid was Heyward Shepherd, a free Black who worked as a luggage handler at the Harpers Ferry train station. When the raiders first spotted Shepherd at the station that night, they ordered him to halt and Shepherd did not to do so, and instead turned and ran. Shepherd was shot in the back.
The raiders cut the telegraph line and detained a train that came through in the early morning hours of October 17. The raiders detained the train for approximately 5 hours, but then let it proceed on its route without further incident. Brown later regretted this action and referred to it as his "one mistake" during the failed raid. As armory employees began to show up to work later that morning, the band took them hostage. Brown kept most of the hostages in the armory's fire engine house.
the fire engine house, now referred to as "John Brown's Fort"
As it approached noon, Brown realized that the spontaneous uprising among the slaves in the area did not materialize as he had anticipated. Furthermore, the raiders path of escape was now blocked by armed local milita units. Brown and his remaining men holed themselves up in the fire engine house.
Once President James Buchanan heard news of the takeover, he sent out the Marines, led by General Robert E. Lee, to Harpers Ferry with orders to quell the rebellion. The troops arrived via rail the evening of October 17.
The next morning, October 18, Lee and his troops attacked the engine house. When all hope was lost for Brown, Lt. J.E.B. Stuart approached with a flag of truce and informed Brown that if his men surrendered, their lives would be spared. Brown refused, and the marines then quickly crushed the raiders and subdued them. Two of the raiders were killed in the attack, and the rest were taken prisoner (including Brown himself). The hostages were freed and the assault was over. It lasted only three minutes.
The aftermath of the three-day raid: eleven of Brown's men, one US Marine, and 6 civilians were killed. About a dozen more were wounded.
Brown was arrested and hastily prosecuted by the legal system. A grand jury charged Brown with treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection. A jury found him guilty on all charges approximately one month after the incident itself. He was sentenced to death and was executed by hanging on December 2, 1859. Among the crowd at the execution was poet Walt Whitman and the actor John Wilkes Booth. The rest of John Brown's raiders were executed on December 16, 1859 and March 16, 1860.
Brown's eloquent defense of his actions during his trial garnered sympathy in the anti-slavery regions of the North. Although they may not have necessarily agreed with Brown's methods, they realized that Brown was attempting to abolish slavery when other methods had not achieved that goal. On the other hand, white Southerners regarded Brown as a dangerous and deranged radical. An evil traitor to the country and their way of life. Many pro-slavery advocates feared that more and more abolitionists would likely take up Brown's banner and foment additional slave uprisings. They argued that the only way to preserve their way of life was secession from the Union.
In many ways, Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a point of no return for the antebellum US. It was apparent that, at this point, the slavery question could only be settled through violence. A civil war was inevitable. Brown concluded as much in his final words before his execution: "I am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away; but with blood. I had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."
During the war, the Union considered Brown a martyr, an anti-slavery icon, and a hero. "John's Brown Body" (sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic") was a popular song among the troops:
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
But his soul goes marching on
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
On the grave of old John Brown
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
His soul goes marching on
He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true
He frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew
But his soul goes marching on
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
His soul goes marching on
Today, you can visit the site of this Tragic Prelude, this dress rehearsal as it were, of the Civil War at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
To visit, you first park on the hill overlooking town, and then take a free shuttle down into the historic center. Most of the town is within park boundaries.
park entrance sign at the public parking lot
Wander your way through the town. There are lots of historic buildings to explore. The Visitor Center has an absolutely great museum about John Brown's life and the raid.
Make sure to explore the scenic beauty of the area. The railroad bridge also serves as a portion of the Appalachian Trail. This is a beautiful part of the country. Take a stroll along both the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.
So, what to make of a figure like Brown? Were his actions really necessary to bring about the abolition of slavery? Should one resort to extra-judicial methods or violence in the face of what one perceives to be an unjust law and/or an unjust system? Going back to the question I posed at the beginning of this post: "What makes one a hero? What makes one a traitor?" ... the Visitor Center doesn't really answer that question, however, I think it did an excellent job trying to be objective as possible, detailing all the facts, and allowing visitors to come to their own conclusion.
Learn more about Harpers Ferry National Historical Park here:
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