122-656: The Allstadt House and Ordinary was built about 1790 on land owned by the Lee family near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia , including Phillip Ludwell Lee , Richard Bland Lee and Henry Lee III . The house at the crossroads was sold to the Jacob Allstadt family of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1811. Allstadt operated an ordinary (a tavern) in the house, and a tollgate on the Harpers Ferry-Charles Town Turnpike , while he resided farther down
244-668: A border ruffian , was killed. Preston Brooks 's May 22 caning of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner in the United States Senate , news of which arrived by newswire (telegraph), also fueled Brown's anger. A pro-slavery writer, Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow , of the Squatter Sovereign , wrote that "[pro-slavery forces] are determined to repel this Northern invasion, and make Kansas a slave state ; though our rivers should be covered with
366-637: A U.S. state in the history of the United States. The Harpers Ferry raid and Brown's trial , both covered extensively in national newspapers, escalated tensions that in the next year led to the South's long-threatened secession from the United States and the American Civil War . Southerners feared that others would soon follow in Brown's footsteps, encouraging and arming slave rebellions. He
488-475: A Visitor Center and a John Brown Museum. Harpers Ferry National Monument became Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on May 29, 1963. "Recreationists" who wanted a park and did not care about the history were a problem. Local residents did not want to lose recreational opportunities, but swimming and fishing on the Shenandoah shore, formerly common, were prohibited. In order to keep recreationists out of
610-437: A bill to establish Harpers Ferry National Military Park in "the area where the most important events of [John Brown's raid] took place. Although this bill did not pass, the flood of 1936 made the project more feasible by destroying buildings not historically important and thus freeing land. After several other attempts, a bill creating Harpers Ferry National Monument was passed and signed by President Roosevelt in 1944, subject to
732-501: A blacksmith and abolitionist sympathizer, Charles Blair; however, the pikes, a weapon that does not require training, were never used as Brown failed to rally the slaves to revolt. The first shot of the raid mortally wounded Heyward Shepherd , a free black man who was a baggage porter for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . The noise from that shot alerted Dr. John Starry shortly after 1 am. He walked from his nearby home to investigate
854-480: A book. He worked briefly at his father's tannery before opening a successful tannery outside of town with his adopted brother Levi Blakeslee. The two kept bachelor's quarters, and Brown was a good cook. He had his bread baked by a widow, Mrs. Amos Lusk. As the tanning business had grown to include journeymen and apprentices, Brown persuaded her to take charge of his housekeeping. She and her daughter Dianthe moved into his log cabin. Brown married Dianthe in 1820. There
976-597: A city that shared his own anti-slavery passions, and each seemed to educate the other. Certainly, with both successes and failures, Brown's Springfield years were a transformative period of his life that catalyzed many of his later actions. Two years before Brown's arrival in Springfield, in 1844, the city's African-American abolitionists had founded the Sanford Street Free Church, now known as St. John's Congregational Church , which became one of
1098-566: A detachment of his forces under John Cook to go to Beall-Air and take hostage the owner, Colonel Lewis Washington, and free his slaves. On their return to Harpers Ferry with Washington, the party stopped at Allstadt's and took Allstadt and his son John Thomas, and freed seven slaves. All survived the siege, and the slaves were later re-enslaved. Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise and others who were pro-slavery claimed that these "contented" slaves were forced to leave their owners, and returned to them as soon as they could. To avoid whipping or execution,
1220-497: A farm where he could provide guidance and assistance to the blacks who were attempting to establish farms in the area. He bought from Smith land in the town of North Elba, New York (near Lake Placid ), for $ 1 an acre ($ 2/ha). It has a magnificent view and has been called "the highest arable spot of land in the State." After living with his family about two years in a small rented house, and returning for several years to Ohio, he had
1342-411: A fine at Meadville for declining to serve in the militia. During this period, Brown operated an interstate cattle and leather business along with a kinsman, Seth Thompson, from eastern Ohio. In 1829, some white families asked Brown to help them drive off Native Americans who hunted annually in the area. Calling it a mean act, Brown declined, even saying "I would sooner take my gun and help drive you out of
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#17327870062681464-467: A gloomy picture. The best buildings have been shelled to the ground, and nothing now remains but their foundations to mark the spot where they once stood. The old Arsenal has been burnt to the ground; that part of the building where old John Brown made such a fatal stand, still stands as a monument to his memory. Before the destruction of the town, it contained near 3000 inhabitants, but at the present time there are not more than 300 or 400 families there. In
1586-720: A hero to many Northern abolitionists. On September 7, Brown entered Lawrence to meet with Free State leaders and help fortify against a feared assault. At least 2,700 pro-slavery Missourians were once again invading Kansas. On September 14, they skirmished near Lawrence. Brown prepared for battle, but serious violence was averted when the new governor of Kansas, John W. Geary , ordered the warring parties to disarm and disband, and offered clemency to former fighters on both sides. Brown had become infamous and federal warrants were issued for his arrest due to his actions in Kansas. He became careful of how he travelled and whom he stayed with across
1708-835: A letter of recommendation from a prominent and wealthy merchant, George Walker. Walker was the brother-in-law of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn , the secretary for the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee , who introduced Brown to several influential abolitionists in the Boston area in January 1857. Amos Adams Lawrence , a prominent Boston merchant, secretly gave Brown a large amount of cash. William Lloyd Garrison , Thomas Wentworth Higginson , Theodore Parker and George Luther Stearns , and Samuel Gridley Howe also supported Brown, although Garrison,
1830-594: A liberal education and become a Gospel minister. He consulted and conferred with Jeremiah Hallock, then clergyman at Canton, Connecticut , whose wife was a relative of Brown's, and as advised proceeded to Plainfield, Massachusetts , where, under the instruction of Moses Hallock, he prepared for college. He would have continued at Amherst College , but he suffered from inflammation of the eyes which ultimately became chronic and precluded further studies. He returned to Ohio. Back in Hudson, Brown taught himself surveying from
1952-492: A means of developing his scheme of emancipation". The white leadership there, including "the publisher of The Republican , one of the nation's most influential newspapers, were deeply involved and emotionally invested in the anti-slavery movement ". Brown made connections in Springfield that later yielded financial support he received from New England's great merchants, allowed him to hear and meet nationally famous abolitionists like Douglass and Sojourner Truth , and included
2074-463: A mighty king. Fifty men, twenty men, in the Alleghenies would break slavery to pieces in two years. Brown kept his plans a secret, including the care he took not to share the plans with his men, according to Jeremiah Anderson, one of the participants in the raid. His son Owen , the only one who survived of Brown's three participating sons, said in 1873 that he did not think his father wrote down
2196-483: A pacificist, disagreed about the need to use violence to end slavery. Most of the money for the raid came from the " Secret Six ", Franklin B. Sanborn , Samuel G. Howe M.D., businessman George L. Stearns , real estate tycoon Gerrit Smith , transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church Theodore Parker , and Unitarian minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson . Recent research has also highlighted
2318-630: A partnership with Zenas Kent to construct a tannery along the Cuyahoga River , though Brown left the partnership before the tannery was completed. Brown continued to work on the Underground Railroad. Brown became a bank director and was estimated to be worth US$ 20,000 (equivalent to about $ 590,710 in 2023). Like many businessmen in Ohio, he invested too heavily in credit and state bonds and suffered great financial losses in
2440-567: A preacher for a Congregational Society in Richmond. Their first meetings were held at the farm and tannery compound. He also helped to establish a post office, and in 1828 President John Quincy Adams named him the first postmaster of Randolph Township, Pennsylvania ; he was reappointed by President Andrew Jackson , serving until he left Pennsylvania in 1835. He carried the mail for some years from Meadville, Pennsylvania , through Randolph to Riceville , some 20 miles (32 km). He paid
2562-633: A raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory in a doomed effort to start a slave rebellion in Virginia and across the South. During the American Civil War , the town became the northernmost point of Confederate -controlled territory, and changed hands several times due to its strategic importance. An antebellum manufacturing and transportation hub, Harpers Ferry has long since reoriented its economy around tourism after being largely destroyed during
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#17327870062682684-472: A successful tannery, to be better situated to operate a safe and productive Underground Railroad station. He moved to Richmond Township in Crawford County, Pennsylvania , in 1825 and lived there until 1835, longer than he did anywhere else. He bought 200 acres (81 hectares) of land, cleared an eighth of it, and quickly built a cabin, a two-story tannery with 18 vats, and a barn; in the latter
2806-489: A wagon loaded with weapons and ammunition. Brown stayed with Florella (Brown) Adair and the Reverend Samuel Adair, his half-sister and her husband, who lived near Osawatomie . During that time, he rallied support to fight proslavery forces, and became the leader of the antislavery forces in Kansas. Brown and the free-state settlers intended to bring Kansas into the union as a slavery-free state. After
2928-643: Is buried in the Harper Cemetery. On October 25, 1783, Thomas Jefferson visited Harpers Ferry as he was traveling to Philadelphia . Viewing "the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge " from a rock that is now named for him as Jefferson's Rock, he called the site "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature" and stated, "This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." The town
3050-400: Is no known picture of her, but he described Dianthe as "a remarkably plain, but neat, industrious and economical girl, of excellent character, earnest piety, and practical common sense". Their first child, John Jr. , was born 13 months later. During 12 years of married life Dianthe gave birth to seven children, among them Owen , and died from complications of childbirth in 1832. Brown knew
3172-535: The Battle of Osawatomie . In October 1859, Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (which later became part of West Virginia ), intending to start a slave liberation movement that would spread south; he had prepared a Provisional Constitution for the revised, slavery-free United States that he hoped to bring about. He seized the armory, but seven people were killed and ten or more were injured. Brown intended to arm slaves with weapons from
3294-459: The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal reached Harpers Ferry from Washington, D.C. ; a planned western expansion to Ohio was never completed. A year later, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began service from Harpers Ferry via Wager Bridge, named for a family that later built the town's Wager Hotel. The bridge connected the town across the Potomac with Sandy Hook, Maryland , which for a few years in
3416-710: The John Brown Farm State Historic Site has been owned by New York State and is now a National Historic Landmark . Kansas Territory was in the midst of a state-level civil war from 1854 to 1860, referred to as the Bleeding Kansas period, between pro- and anti-slavery forces. From 1854 to 1856, there had been eight killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics. There had been no organized action by abolitionists against pro-slavery forces by 1856. The issue
3538-463: The League of Gileadites onward, not one person was ever taken back into slavery from Springfield. His daughter Amelia died in 1846, followed by Emma in 1849. In 1848, bankrupt and having lost the family's house, Brown heard of Gerrit Smith 's Adirondack land grants to poor black men, in so remote a location that Brown later called it Timbuctoo , and decided to move his family there to establish
3660-599: The Niagara Movement , the predecessor of the NAACP , after its organizational meeting in Fort Erie, Ontario . In the late 1890s, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad wanted the land where the fort was located to make its line less vulnerable to flooding. Some white townspeople were eager to get rid of the fort. It was dismantled and moved to Chicago for display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition . Abandoned there, it
3782-549: The Panic of 1837 . In one episode of property loss, Brown was jailed when he attempted to retain ownership of a farm by occupying it against the claims of the new owner. In November 1837, Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered in Alton, Illinois for printing an abolitionist newspaper. Brown, deeply upset about the incident, became more militant in his behavior, comparable with Reverend Henry Highland Garnet . Brown publicly vowed after
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3904-622: The Revolutionary War in New York on September 3, 1776. His mother, of Dutch and Welsh descent, was the daughter of Gideon Mills, an officer in the Revolutionary Army. Although Brown described his parents as "poor but respectable" at some point, Owen Brown became a leading and wealthy citizen of Hudson, Ohio. He operated a tannery and employed Jesse Grant , father of President Ulysses S. Grant . Jesse lived with
4026-663: The Secret Six who assisted John Brown , chose Harpers Ferry for his honeymoon. The park was large enough that parades could be held. There were a steam-powered ferris wheel and carousel , a midway , a pavilion for dancing or roller skating , swings, a merry-go-round , and a bandstand. Visitors could also play croquet , tennis, rent boats, fish, or wade in the river. Later there were baseball games. Blacks and whites attended on different days. In 1883, there were an estimated 100,000 visitors. There were six special trains to Harpers Ferry from various points. The amusement park
4148-649: The Shenandoah River to the lower part of Harpers Ferry, was created by happenstance in the early 1800s after debris floated down from upstream mills during the construction of the Shenandoah Canal. Cotton, flour mills, and other water-powered companies were developed on Virginius Island, taking advantage of the Shenandoah River's water power and good routes to markets. The island came to house all of Harpers Ferry's manufacturing, except for
4270-567: The United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1799. It is referred to locally as both "the armory" and "the arsenal," but it is the same facility. This was the second of only two such facilities in the United States, the first being in Springfield, Massachusetts . Together they produced most of the small arms for the U.S. Army. The town was transformed into a water-powered industrial center. Between 1801 and 1861, when
4392-460: The abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men (counting himself) in a raid on the armory. Five of the men were black: three free black men, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave. Brown attacked and captured several buildings, hoping to secure the weapons depot and arm the slaves, starting a revolt across the South. Brown also brought 1,000 steel pikes, which were forged in Connecticut by
4514-620: The confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where Maryland , Virginia , and West Virginia meet, it is the easternmost town in West Virginia as well as its lowest point above sea level. Originally named Harper's Ferry after an 18th-century ferry owner, the town lost its apostrophe in 1891 in an update by the United States Board on Geographic Names . It gained fame in 1859 when abolitionist John Brown led
4636-477: The "strong-minded, brave, and dedicated" Eli Baptist, William Montague, and Thomas Thomas —who risked being caught by slave catchers and sold into slavery. Upon leaving Springfield in 1850, he instructed the League to act "quickly, quietly, and efficiently" to protect slaves that escaped to Springfield – words that would foreshadow Brown's later actions preceding Harpers Ferry. From Brown's founding of
4758-480: The 1830s was the railroad's western terminus. In 1837, the railroad crossed the Potomac into Harpers Ferry with the opening of the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing . The first railroad junction in the country began service in 1836 when the Winchester and Potomac Railroad opened its line from Harpers Ferry southwest to Charles Town and then to Winchester, Virginia . Virginius Island , which connected
4880-487: The American Civil War. The town and the armory, with the exception of John Brown's Fort , were destroyed during the war. "The larger portion of the houses all lie in ruins and the whole place is not actually worth $ 10," wrote a Massachusetts soldier to his mother in 1863. A visitor in 1878 found the town "antiquated, dingy, and rather squalid"; another, in 1879, described it as "shabby and ruined." Since
5002-691: The Arsenal, Harpers Ferry's largest employer before the war, was never rebuilt, the town's population never recovered to antebellum levels. Storer College , devoted to training teachers for freedmen, opened in 1868, much to the displeasure of many residents of Harpers Ferry who petitioned the Legislature to revoke its charter. The War Department gave the Freedmen's Bureau its remaining assets in Harpers Ferry, principally four sturdy residences for
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5124-451: The Bible thoroughly and could catch even small errors in Bible recitation. He never used tobacco nor drank tea, coffee, or alcohol. After the Bible, his favorite books were the series of Plutarch 's Parallel Lives and he enjoyed reading about Napoleon and Oliver Cromwell . He felt that "truly successful men" were those with their own libraries. Brown left Hudson, Ohio , where he had
5246-446: The Brown family for some years. The founder of Hudson, David Hudson , with whom John's father had frequent contact, was an abolitionist and an advocate of "forcible resistance by the slaves." The fourth child of Owen and Ruth, Brown's other siblings included Anna Ruth (born in 1798), Salmon (born 1802), and Oliver Owen (born in 1804). Frederick, identified by Owen as his sixth son, was born in 1807. Frederick visited Brown when he
5368-602: The Civil War. Harpers Ferry is home to John Brown's Fort , West Virginia's most visited tourist site; the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail , whose midpoint is nearby; the former campus of Storer College , a historically black college established during Reconstruction ; and one of four national training centers of the National Park Service . Much of the lower town, which was in ruins by
5490-513: The Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection. Convicted of all charges, with Starry's testimony integral to the conviction, he was hanged on December 2. (See Virginia v. John Brown .) John Brown's words, both from his interview by Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise and his famous last speech , "captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since." The American Civil War
5612-943: The Congregational church at Kent, then called Franklin, Ohio, for taking a colored man into their own pew; and the deacons of the church tried to persuade him to concede his error. My wife and various members of the family afterward joined the Wesley Methodists, but John Brown never connected himself with any church again. For three or four years he seemed to flounder hopelessly, moving from one activity to another without plan. He tried many different business efforts attempting to get out of debt. He bred horses briefly, but gave it up when he learned that buyers were using them as race horses. He did some surveying, farming, and tanning . Brown declared bankruptcy in federal court on September 28, 1842. In 1843, three of his children — Charles, Peter, Austin — died of dysentery . From
5734-529: The Free State settlements there and then march on Topeka and Lawrence . On the morning of August 30, 1856, they shot and killed Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the outskirts of Osawatomie. Brown, outnumbered more than seven to one, arranged his 38 men behind natural defenses along the road. Firing from cover, they managed to kill at least 20 of Reid's men and wounded 40 more. Reid regrouped, ordering his men to dismount and charge into
5856-599: The Murphy family, the location at the time of John Brown's historic "fort," the armory's firehouse. As a result, the fort was soon moved to the Storer campus, where it became the college's central icon. After the college closed in 1955, the National Park Service moved it back to as close as possible to its original location. A 1936 flood left the lower town "shabby and almost uninhabited", with no bridge across
5978-530: The Negro community at Timbuctoo, New York , and organizing in his own mind an anti-slavery raid that would strike a significant blow against the entire slave system, running slaves off Southern plantations. According to his first biographer James Redpath , "for thirty years, he secretly cherished the idea of being the leader of a servile insurrection: the American Moses, predestined by Omnipotence to lead
6100-410: The Potomac to capture Loudoun Heights south of town. After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the federal garrison surrendered. With Jackson's capture of 12,419 federal troops, the surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the Battle of Bataan in 1942. Because of the delay in capturing the town and the movement of federal forces to
6222-507: The Potomac, which the railroad bought and built a footbridge to reach it. One had to pay 5¢ ($ 5 in 2021 value) to cross and enter, after which rides and other activities were free. Access to the park was also a benefit for B&O employees, as it had done in Relay, Maryland . Among the many events held there were a reunion of 4,000 Odd Fellows in 1880 and a "Grand Tri-State Democratic Mass Meeting" 1892. Thomas Wentworth Higginson , one of
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#17327870062686344-660: The Shenandoah to Virginia and no highway bridge to Maryland. All remaining structures on Virginius Island were destroyed. The backbone of the effort to preserve and commemorate Harpers Ferry was Henry T. MacDonald, President of Storer, an amateur historian appointed by West Virginia Governor Okey Patteson as head of the Harpers Ferry National Monument Commission. He was assisted by the Representative from West Virginia's Second District, Jennings Randolph , who in 1935 introduced
6466-513: The Underground Railroad, during which, it is estimated to have helped 2,500 enslaved people on their journey to Canada, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Brown recruited other Underground Railroad stationmasters to strengthen the network. Brown made money surveying new roads. He was involved in erecting a school, which first met in his home—he was its first teacher —, and attracting
6588-536: The Union as a slave state or a free state . He was dissatisfied with abolitionist pacifism, saying of pacifists, "These men are all talk. What we need is action – action!" In May 1856, Brown and his sons killed five supporters of slavery in the Pottawatomie massacre , a response to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces. Brown then commanded anti-slavery forces at the Battle of Black Jack and
6710-542: The Valley. The town was "easy to seize, and hard to hold", because of its topography: surrounded on three sides by high ground ( Bolivar Heights to the west, Loudoun Heights to the south, and Maryland Heights to the east) and the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, anyone who controlled the heights controlled the city. The war's effect on the town was devastating. It was described in March 1862: Harper's Ferry presents quite
6832-543: The World (1829), which he helped publicize. Before Brown left Springfield in 1850, the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act , a law mandating that authorities in free states aid in the return of escaped slaves and imposing penalties on those who aid in their escape. In response, Brown founded a militant group to prevent the recapture of fugitives, the League of Gileadites , operated by free Blacks—like
6954-529: The account of Joseph George Rosengarten , Harpers Ferry and nearby Bolivar , in 1859 "a blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort," had been reduced to "waste and desolation" by 1862. The town's garrison of federal troops attracted 1,500 contrabands by the summer of 1862. They were returned to slavery, however, when Confederate General Stonewall Jackson took Harpers Ferry in September 1862. Lee needed to control Harpers Ferry because it
7076-430: The answer was that he was a slave. According to Brown's son-in-law Henry Thompson, it was that moment when John Brown decided to dedicate his life to improving African Americans' condition. As a child in Hudson, John got to know local Native Americans and learned some of their language. He accompanied them on hunting excursions and invited them to eat in his home. At 16, Brown left his family for New England to acquire
7198-495: The armory was destroyed to prevent capture during the American Civil War , it produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols. Inventor Captain John H. Hall pioneered the use of interchangeable parts in firearms manufactured at his rifle works at the armory between 1820 and 1840. His M1819 Hall rifle was the first breech-loading weapon adopted by the U.S. Army. Harpers Ferry's first man-made transportation facility
7320-495: The armory, but only a few slaves joined his revolt. Those of Brown's men who had not fled were killed or captured by local militia and U.S. Marines , the latter led by Robert E. Lee . Brown was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia , the murder of five men, and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty of all charges and was hanged on December 2, 1859, the first person executed for treason against
7442-517: The armory, which used the Potomac River for power, and its rifle plant, some distance upstream using the Shenandoah's power. At its antebellum peak, some 180 people lived on Virginius Island, including workers who lived in a boarding house and in row houses . Floods in the 20th century destroyed all structures on the island. Today, visitors can view Virginius Island's historic ruins and walk National Park Service trails. On October 16, 1859,
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#17327870062687564-444: The blood of their victims, and the carcasses of the abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose". Brown was outraged by both the violence of the pro-slavery forces and what he saw as a weak and cowardly response by the antislavery partisans and the Free State settlers, whom he described as "cowards, or worse". The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during
7686-408: The campus of Storer College , a primarily Black college that operated until 1955. (After it closed, the campus became part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.) The three-day gathering, which was held to work for civil rights for African Americans , was later described by DuBois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held". Attendees walked from Storer College to the farm of
7808-466: The central burial place for the extended family. Graves span the period 1821 to 1880, including the grave of five Russell family infants who may have died of diphtheria . Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County , West Virginia , in the lower Shenandoah Valley . The town's population was 269 at the 2020 United States census . Situated at
7930-442: The conflict on June 2. In the Battle of Black Jack of June 2, 1856, John Brown, nine of his followers, and 20 local men successfully defended a Free State settlement at Palmyra, Kansas , against an attack by Henry Clay Pate . Pate and 22 of his men were taken prisoner. In August, a company of over 300 Missourians under the command of General John W. Reid crossed into Kansas and headed toward Osawatomie , intending to destroy
8052-416: The country. Brown's plans for a major attack on American slavery began long before the raid. According to his wife Mary, interviewed while her husband was awaiting his execution, Brown had been planning the attack for 20 years. Frederick Douglass noted that he made the plans before he fought in Kansas. For instance, he spent the years between 1842 and 1849 settling his business affairs, moving his family to
8174-506: The country." In 1831, Brown's son Frederick (I) died, at the age of 4. Brown fell ill, and his businesses began to suffer, leaving him in severe debt. In mid-1832, shortly after the death of a newborn son, his wife Dianthe also died, either in childbirth or as an immediate consequence of it. He was left with the children John Jr. , Jason, Owen , Ruth and Frederick (II). On July 14, 1833, Brown married 17-year-old Mary Ann Day (1817–1884), originally from Washington County, New York ; she
8296-401: The current house – now a monument preserved by New York State – built for his family, viewing it as a place of refuge for them while he was away. According to youngest son Salmon, "frugality was observed from a moral standpoint, but one and all we were a well-fed, well-clad lot." After he was executed on December 2, 1859, his widow took his body there for burial ;
8418-400: The elementary level in Hudson at that time, Brown studied at the school of the abolitionist Elizur Wright, father of the famous Elizur Wright , in nearby Tallmadge . In a story he told to his family, when he was 12 years old and away from home moving cattle, Brown worked for a man with a colored boy, who was beaten before him with an iron shovel. He asked the man why he was treated thus, and
8540-541: The end of the Civil War and ravaged by subsequent floods, has been rebuilt and preserved by the National Park Service. In 1733, squatter Peter Stephens settled on land near the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and established a ferry across the Potomac from Virginia (now West Virginia ) to Maryland . Robert Harper, from whom the town takes its name, was born in 1718 in Oxford Township , Pennsylvania , now part of Philadelphia . Since he
8662-561: The enslaved, he was following Christian ethics , including the Golden Rule , and the Declaration of Independence , which states that "all men are created equal." He stated that in his view, these two principles "meant the same thing." Brown first gained national attention when he led anti-slavery volunteers and his sons during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of the late 1850s, a state-level civil war over whether Kansas would enter
8784-584: The entire plan. He did discuss his plans at length, for over a day, with Frederick Douglass, trying unsuccessfully to persuade Douglass, a black leader, to accompany him to Harpers Ferry (which Douglass thought a suicidal mission that could not succeed). To attain financial backing and political support for the raid on Harpers Ferry, Brown spent most of 1857 meeting with abolitionists in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. Initially Brown returned to Springfield, where he received contributions, and also
8906-659: The entrance to the armory. The Secretary of War asked the Navy Department for a unit of United States Marines from the Washington Navy Yard , the nearest troops. Lieutenant Israel Greene was ordered to take a force of 86 Marines to the town. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee was found on leave at his home not far away in Arlington, Virginia , and was assigned as commander, along with Lt. J. E. B. Stuart as his aide-de-camp . Lee led
9028-618: The ferry, since the land actually belonged to Lord Fairfax . Harper then purchased 126 acres (0.51 km ) of land from Lord Fairfax in 1751. In 1761, the Virginia General Assembly granted him the right to establish and maintain a ferry across the Potomac. In 1763, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harpers Ferry." Harper died in October 1782, and
9150-415: The foundation of the League of Gileadites . Brown's personal attitudes evolved in Springfield, as he observed the success of the city's Underground Railroad and made his first venture into militant, anti-slavery community organizing. In speeches, he pointed to the martyrs Elijah Lovejoy and Charles Turner Torrey as white people "ready to help blacks challenge slave-catchers". In Springfield, Brown found
9272-597: The great monument where the end of slavery began. There were so many tourists that they were a nuisance to the farmer on whose lands the fort sat, and so it was moved to Storer in 1909. There it would remain until several years after the college closed in 1955, functioning as the College Museum. Male students practiced their public-speaking skills by giving tours of it. To increase ridership, the B&;O in 1879 built Island Park Resort and Amusement Park on Byrne Island in
9394-406: The ground floor, each with Georgian period mantels. The upstairs portion comprises two rooms and a hall., with one fireplace. Windows are 6-over-6 double-hung sashes. A one-story kitchen was originally a separate building, now attached by a connecting room, probably at the time the second floor was added. A porch was added on the east side c. 1930, since removed. A separate two-story stone building
9516-689: The historic area, and especially Virginius Island, John Brown's Fort was moved to Arsenal Square from a now-inconvenient location on the former Storer College campus, parking in the lower town was prohibited, and a shuttle bus service begun. Tensions between the NPS and town residents were ongoing. However, the NPS helped the town achieve Main Street Status from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2001. John Brown (abolitionist) John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859)
9638-474: The incident: "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!" Brown objected to Black congregants being relegated to the balcony at his church in Franklin Mills. According to daughter Ruth Brown's husband Henry Thompson, whose brother was killed at Harpers Ferry: [H]e and his three sons, John, Jason, and Owen, were expelled from
9760-578: The lower town was "a sagging and rotted ghost town." The idea of making Harpers Ferry into a National Monument was to prevent the further deterioration and to rebuild the tourist industry. The first task of the Park Service was to stabilize the buildings on Shenandoah Street, the main commercial street of lower Harpers Ferry. Roofs were covered, missing windows replaced, walls on the verge of collapse reinforced, and debris removed. Post-1859 buildings were not restored, and most were removed. The NPS built
9882-508: The managers of the Armory, structurally sound but in need of repairs from damage during the war, and the Bureau gave them to Storer College. A one-room school for Blacks was already operating in one of them. As early as 1878, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran excursion trains to Harpers Ferry from Baltimore and Washington. As described in a newspaper in 1873: "One need only to alight from
10004-677: The mid-1840s, Brown had built a reputation as an expert in fine sheep and wool. For about one year, he ran Captain Oviatt's farm, and he then entered into a partnership with Colonel Simon Perkins of Akron, Ohio , whose flocks and farms were managed by Brown and his sons. Brown eventually moved into a home with his family across the street from the Perkins Stone Mansion . In 1846, Brown moved to Springfield, Massachusetts , as an agent for Ohio wool growers in their relations with New England manufacturers of woolen goods, but "also as
10126-489: The most active and forceful. John's mother Ruth died a few hours after the death of her newborn girl in December 1808. In his memoir, Brown wrote that he mourned his mother for years. While he respected his father's new wife, Sallie Root, he never felt an emotional bond with her. Owen married a third time to Lucy Hinsdale, a formerly married woman. Owen had a total of 6 daughters and 10 sons. With no school beyond
10248-520: The most anti-slavery region of the country. Owen hated slavery and participated in Hudson's anti-slavery activity and debate, offering a safe house to Underground Railroad fugitives . Owen became a supporter of Oberlin College after Western Reserve College would not allow a Black man to enroll in the school. Owen was an Oberlin trustee from 1835 to 1844. Other Brown family members were abolitionists, but John and his eccentric brother Oliver were
10370-564: The most prominent abolitionist platforms in the United States. From 1846 until he left Springfield in 1850, Brown was a member of the Free Church, where he witnessed abolitionist lectures by the likes of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth . In 1847, after speaking at the Free Church, Douglass spent a night speaking with Brown, after which Douglass wrote, "From this night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass. [in] 1847, while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all
10492-430: The need for bypass canals . Washington's familiarity with the area led him to propose the site in 1794 for a new armory. His brother, Charles Washington, who founded nearby Charles Town , and his great-great-nephew, Colonel Lewis Washington , both moved to the area. In 1796, the federal government purchased a 125-acre (0.5 km ) parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper. Construction began on what would become
10614-446: The night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. Under Brown's supervision, his sons and other abolitionist settlers took from their residences and killed five "professional slave hunters and militant pro-slavery" settlers. The massacre was the match in the powderkeg that precipitated the bloodiest period in "Bleeding Kansas" history, a three-month period of retaliatory raids and battles in which 29 people died. Henry Clay Pate , who
10736-400: The only Black college at a location historically important to African-Americans, became a center of the civil rights movement and built the town's importance as a destination for Black tourists and excursionists. Douglass spoke there in 1881, as part of an unsuccessful campaign to fund a "John Brown professorship" to be held by an African-American. In 1906, Storer hosted the first U.S. meeting of
10858-440: The project was supported both by Harpers Ferry mayor Gilbert Perry and Governor Patteson. Twenty-two eviction notices were served in the lower town, and two taverns closed. Property acquisition, not all of which was unproblematic, was completed in 1952 and presented to the United States in January 1953. The National Monument's first on-site employee, John T. Willett, began work in 1954. In 1957, The Baltimore Sun reported that
10980-543: The proviso that nothing would be done with it until the war ended. An urgent priority was the new highway, which is today U.S. Route 340 . A new bridge connecting Sandy Hook, Maryland with Loudoun County, Virginia opened in October 1947, on which work had begun in 1941 but was interrupted by the war. Another new bridge over the Shenandoah connecting Virginia to Bolivar Heights, West Virginia , opened two years later. Federal highway traffic now bypassed Harpers Ferry entirely. Land acquisition started in lower Harpers Ferry;
11102-835: The road in a stone house. The house was enlarged by the Allstadts c. 1830. The house remained in the family until the death of John Thomas Allstadt in 1923, the last survivor of John Brown's Raid. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It was purchased by the American Battlefield Trust , which in 2019 donated it to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park . The house's chief historic significance came in 1859, when John Brown launched his raid on Harpers Ferry . Brown ordered
11224-467: The same less hopeful for its peaceful abolition." During Brown's time in Springfield, he became deeply involved in transforming the city into a major center of abolitionism, and one of the safest and most significant stops on the Underground Railroad. Brown contributed to the 1848 republication, by his friend Henry Highland Garnet , of David Walker 's An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of
11346-467: The servile nations in our Southern States to freedom." An acquaintance said: "As Moses was raised up and chosen of God to deliver the Children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, ...he was...fully convinced in his own mind that he was to be the instrument in the hands of God to effect the emancipation of the slaves." Brown said that, A few men in the right, and knowing that they are right, can overturn
11468-430: The shooting and was confronted by Brown's men. Starry stated that he was a doctor but could do nothing more for Shepherd, and the men allowed him to leave. Starry then went to the livery and rode to neighboring towns and villages, alerting residents to the raid. John Brown's men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia , and forced to take refuge in the fire engine house (later called John Brown's Fort ), at
11590-489: The slaves all said the same thing: they had been forcibly taken by Brown. The property comprises a small complex of buildings. The main Allstadt House ( c. 1790) is a two-story L-shaped structure with a central brick chimney, built of nogging ; stuccoed brick between timber uprights. The present structure was expanded from a 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 -story house c. 1830. The original interior comprises only two rooms on
11712-754: The state should secede had been called together. Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley , both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. It was said that "Jefferson County is where the North and South met." It was a natural conduit for Confederate invasions of the North, as in General Robert E. Lee 's Maryland campaign of 1862 and Gettysburg campaign of 1863, and for Union troops heading south in their attempts to thwart Rebel forces in
11834-481: The substantial contribution of Mary Ellen Pleasant , an African American entrepreneur and abolitionist, who donated $ 30,000 (equivalent to $ 981,000 in 2023) toward the cause. In Boston, he met Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson . Even with the Secret Six and other contributors, Brown had not collected all money needed to fund the raid. He wrote an appeal, Old Browns Farewell , to abolitionists in
11956-445: The town and drive out the federal garrison. Inspired by John Brown's raid, both runaway and freed slaves came to Harpers Ferry during and after the American Civil War . This created social tensions between white and black residents of the community and generated a growing need for services for the increasing African-American population. Accordingly, a freedman's school was opened on Camp Hill by Freewill Baptist missionaries following
12078-465: The town into a real tourist center and return it to growth. "Harpers Ferry proved to be one of the most visited places of leisure for nineteenth-century African Americans." There was a Black-owned hotel, the Hill Top House , built and run by a Storer graduate, Thomas Lovett, but it catered only to white clientele. In the summer Storer rented rooms to Black vacationers until 1896. The fort was
12200-412: The train and look a little envious toward the old Engine House or the ruined walls of the old Arsenal in order to have a score of persons offering to become a kind of guide or to point out to your whatever you may desire to know about the great struggle which ended in the 'opening of the prison doors, the breaking of every yoke, the undoing of heavy burdens, and letting the oppressed go free." Storer,
12322-430: The trip took five days, and he was buried on December 8. Watson's body was located and buried there in 1882. In 1899 the remains of 12 of Brown's other collaborators, including his son Oliver, were located and brought to North Elba. They could not be identified well enough for separate burials, so they are buried together in a single casket donated by the town of North Elba; there is a collective plaque there now. Since 1895,
12444-465: The unit in civilian clothes, as none of his uniforms were available. The contingent arrived by train on October 18, and after negotiations failed, they stormed the fire house and captured most of the raiders, killing a few and suffering a single casualty. Lee submitted a report on October 19. Brown was quickly tried in Charles Town , the county seat of Jefferson County , for treason against
12566-447: The west, Lee was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland . Two days later he commanded troops in the Battle of Antietam , which had the highest number of deaths among troops of any single day in United States military history. By July 1864, the Union again had control of Harpers Ferry. On July 4, 1864, Union general Franz Sigel withdrew his troops to Maryland Heights, from which he resisted Jubal Early 's attempt to enter
12688-470: The winter snows thawed in 1856, the pro-slavery activists began a campaign to seize Kansas on their own terms. Brown was particularly affected by the sacking of Lawrence , the center of anti-slavery activity in Kansas, on May 21, 1856. A sheriff -led posse from Lecompton, the center of pro-slavery activity in Kansas, destroyed two abolitionist newspapers and the Free State Hotel . Only one man,
12810-514: The woods. Brown's small group scattered and fled across the Marais des Cygnes River . One of Brown's men was killed during the retreat and four were captured. While Brown and his surviving men hid in the woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie. Though defeated, Brown's bravery and military shrewdness in the face of overwhelming odds brought him national attention and made him
12932-500: Was a builder, Harper was asked by a group of Quakers in 1747 to build a meeting house in the Shenandoah Valley near the present site of Winchester, Virginia . Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper—who was also a millwright —realized the potential of the latent waterpower from the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at their confluence. He paid Stephens 30 guineas for his squatting rights to
13054-506: Was a hero and icon in the North. Union soldiers marched to the new song " John Brown's Body " that portrayed him as a heroic martyr . Brown has been variously described as a heroic martyr and visionary, and as a madman and terrorist . John Brown was born May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut , the son of Owen Brown (1771–1856) and Ruth Mills (1772–1808). Owen Brown's father was Capt. John Brown, of English descent, who died in
13176-544: Was a prominent leader in the American abolitionist movement in the decades preceding the Civil War . First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas , Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry in 1859. An evangelical Christian of strong religious convictions, Brown
13298-460: Was a secret, well-ventilated room to hide escaping slaves. He transported refugees across the state border into New York and to an important Underground Railroad connection in Jamestown , about 55 miles (89 km) from Richmond Township. The escapees were hidden in the wagon he used to move the mail, hides for his tannery, and survey equipment. For ten years, his farm was an important stop on
13420-399: Was built c. 1830, with a two-tiered porch on the south side leading to two rooms on each level. The attic is a finished, plastered room, accessible by a ladder. A nearby stone bank barn also dates to the 1830 period. The barn was used as a stable for the tavern's customers. The barn's overhang is supported by unusual chamfered stone piers. The Allstadt Cemetery is also nearby, serving as
13542-463: Was destroyed by flooding in 1896, as was a replacement bridge in 1924. The remaining structures on the island were destroyed in a 1942 flood. On August 15, 1906, Black author and scholar W. E. B. Du Bois led the first meeting on American soil of the new Niagara Movement . Named after the site of its initial meeting in Fort Erie, Ontario , Canada on the Niagara River , the movement met on
13664-530: Was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, where five battles took place; it changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. (Another article says it changed hands twelve times. ) One of the first military actions by secessionists in Virginia was taken on April 18, 1861, when they wrested control of the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from the Union Army, even before the convention which would consider whether or not
13786-474: Was in jail, awaiting execution. He had an adopted brother, Levi Blakeslee (born some time before 1805). Salmon became a lawyer, politician, and newspaper editor. While Brown was very young, his father moved the family briefly to his hometown, West Simsbury, Connecticut . In 1805, the family moved, again, to Hudson, Ohio , in the Western Reserve , which at the time was mostly wilderness; it became
13908-554: Was kept open despite periodic flooding and repairs until 1909. The B&O kept the site open after that for picnicking. The bandstand, the only surviving structure, has been moved twice. At the park's closing, it was moved to Arsenal Square (the current location of John Brown's Fort ), then later to the park at Washington and Gilmore Streets. It is referred to as The Bandstand or the Town Gazebo , and many civic, cultural, and recreational activities take place there. The bridge
14030-544: Was on his supply line and could cut off his possible routes of retreat if captured. Therefore. Lee divided his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, sending three columns under Jackson to surround and capture the town. The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 as the Confederates tried to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast, while John Walker moved back over
14152-563: Was one of his favorite retreats, and tradition holds that much of his Notes on the State of Virginia was written there. Jefferson County , in which Harpers Ferry is located, was named for him on its creation in 1801. George Washington , as president of the Potomac Company (which was formed to complete river improvements on the Potomac River and its tributaries), traveled to Harpers Ferry during summer 1785 to determine
14274-592: Was part of the sacking of Lawrence was, either during or shortly before, commissioned as a Deputy United States Marshal. On hearing news of John Brown's actions at the Pottawatomie Massacre , Pate set out with a band of thirty men to hunt Brown down. During the hunt for Brown, two of his sons (Jason and John Junior ) were captured (either by Pate or another marshal), charged with murder, and thrown in irons. Brown and free-state militia gathered to confront Pate. Two of Pate's men were captured, which led to
14396-475: Was profoundly influenced by the Puritan faith of his upbringing. He believed that he was "an instrument of God," raised to strike the "death blow" to slavery in the United States , a "sacred obligation." Brown was the leading exponent of violence in the American abolitionist movement , believing it was necessary to end slavery after decades of peaceful efforts had failed. Brown said that in working to free
14518-464: Was rescued and moved back to Harpers Ferry by the Baltimore and Ohio without charge, motivated by their expectation that having the fort back in Harpers Ferry would be a tourist attraction and a way to build ridership on the railroad. But most whites were opposed to any commemoration of John Brown, and it was placed on a nearby farm. Visits by tourists, many of them Black, now began to slowly turn
14640-593: Was the Potomac Canal . The canal ceased transportation in 1828, but a portion of it in front of the town channeled river water to run machinery for the armory. The Potomac Canal ran on the Virginia side of the river. On the Maryland side, the later Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad competed for right-of-way on a very narrow patch of land downstream from Harpers Ferry. In 1833,
14762-453: Was the younger sister of Brown's housekeeper at the time. They eventually had 13 children, seven of whom were sons who worked with their father in the fight to abolish slavery. In 1836, Brown moved his family from Pennsylvania to Franklin Mills, Ohio , where he taught Sunday school . He borrowed heavily to buy land in the area, including property along canals being built, and entered into
14884-409: Was to be decided by the voters of Kansas, but who these voters were was not clear; there was widespread voting fraud in favor of the pro-slavery forces, as a Congressional investigation confirmed. Five of Brown's sons — John Jr., Jason, Owen, Frederick, and Salmon — moved to Kansas Territory in the spring of 1855. Brown, his son Oliver, and his son-in-law Henry Thompson followed later that year with
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