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{{short description|1859 effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in Southern states}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
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* 2 free black men
* 3 fugitive black men
* 2 local enslaved black men, probably more<ref name=history.com>{{cite web|title=John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-browns-raid-on-harpers-ferry|website=History.com|access-date=
| casualties1 = U.S. Marines:{{unordered list|item_style=line-height:1em|style=margin-bottom:1em
|1 killed
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}}</ref>
The United States Armory was a large complex of buildings that manufactured small arms for the U.S. Army (1801–1861), with an [[Arsenal]] (weapons storehouse) that was thought to contain at the time 100,000 muskets and rifles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown/peopleevents/pande09.html|title=The Harpers Ferry Raid|publisher=pbs.org|access-date=December 9, 2014
[[File:Douglass argued against John Brown's plan to attack the arsenal at Harpers Ferry - NARA - 559102.jpg|thumb|left|Artist Jacob Lawrence's conception of Brown trying to persuade abolitionist [[Frederick Douglass]] to join him in the raid on Harpers Ferry. Douglass refused, as he believed Brown would fail.]]
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[[File:HarpersF1862.jpg|thumb|left|1862 photograph of the Harpers Ferry arsenal; the "engine house", later called "[[John Brown's Fort]]", is on the left.]]
[[File:John Brown's Fort 2.jpg|thumb|left|John Brown's Fort, drawing published in 1883. Note the hill.]]
On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, at about 11 PM, Brown left three of his men behind as a rear-guard, in charge of the cache of weapons: his son [[Owen Brown (abolitionist)|Owen Brown]], [[Barclay Coppock]], and [[Francis Jackson Meriam]]. He led the rest across the bridge and into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown detached a party under John Cook, Jr., to capture Colonel [[Lewis Washington]], great-grandnephew of [[George Washington]], at his nearby [[Beall-Air]] estate, free his slaves, and seize two relics of George Washington: a sword Lewis Washington said had been presented to George Washington by [[Frederick the Great]], and two pistols given by [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]], which Brown considered [[talisman]]s.<ref name="nrhpinv1">{{Citation|title=National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Beall-Air|url=http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/jefferson/73001914.pdf|date=April 5, 1973|author=Ted McGee|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130203074855/http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/jefferson/73001914.pdf|archive-date=February 3, 2013
|access-date=March 16, 2009 |archive-date=June 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604121026/http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/jefferson/85000767.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
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===Monday, October 17===
[[File:Map of Harpers Ferry.jpg|thumb|The town of Harpers Ferry in 1859.]]
A free black man was the first fatality to result from the raid: [[Heyward Shepherd]], a baggage handler at the Harpers Ferry train station, who had ventured out onto the bridge to look for a watchman who had been driven off by Brown's raiders.<ref name="Brands">{{cite book |last1=Brands |first1=H. W. |title=The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for American Freedom |date=2020 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-54400-9 |page=203}}</ref><ref name="USPS">{{cite web |title=John Brown's Raid |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/john-browns-raid.htm |website=U.S. National Park Service |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=
The shot and a cry of distress were heard by physician John Starry, who lived across the street from the bridge and walked over to see what was happening. After he saw it was Shepherd and that he could not be saved, Brown let him leave. Instead of going home he started the alarm, having the bell on the Lutheran church rung, sending a messenger to summon help from Charles Town, and then going there himself, after having notified such local men as could be contacted quickly.<ref name=Senate>{{cite book
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|title=Commander of the insurrectionists
|newspaper=[[Richmond Dispatch]] ([[Richmond, Virginia]])
|date=
|page=1
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58124888/paragraph-on-john-brown/
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|title=More on the Harpers Ferry Riot
|newspaper=[[The Athens Post]] ([[Athens, Tennessee]])
|date=
|page=1
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59263681/john-brosns-riot-at-harpers-ferry/
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|title=Harpers Ferry October Weather 2015 - AccuWeather Forecast for WV 25425
|access-date=August 26, 2020
|title=Startling incidents & developments of Osowotomy Brown's insurrectory and treasonable movements at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, October 17th, 1859 : with a true and accurate account of the whole transaction
|author=A Citizen of Harpers Ferry
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|title=The following dispatch has just been received from Frederick
|newspaper=Dawson's Fort Wayne Weekly Times ([[Fort Wayne, Indiana]])
|date=
|page=2
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
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|title=Incidents of the second battle
|page=1
|date=
|newspaper=[[Baltimore Sun]]
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
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{{blockquote|Some were wounded and others dead or dying. They were greeted with execrations, and only the precautions that had been taken, saved them from the exasperated crowd, many of whom had relatives killed or wounded by the desperate gang of cut-throats. Nearly every man carried a gun, and the cry of "Shoot them! Shoot them!" rang on every side. Only the steadiness of the trained marines, under the command of that great soldier Robert E. Lee, then an unknown colonel of the United States Army, prevented the butchery of the entire gang of outlaws.<ref name=Norris/>{{rp|442}}}}
Colonel Lee and Jeb Stuart searched the surrounding country for fugitives who had participated in the attack. Few of Brown's associates escaped, and among the five who did, some were sheltered by abolitionists in the North, including [[William Still]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Owen Brown's Escape From Harper's Ferry|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/owenbrownescape.html|access-date=
====Interviews====
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|title=Reminiscences of Old John Brown, of Harper's Ferry. Striking Characteristics of the Man—The Object and the Possibilities of His Raid Into Virginia
|newspaper=[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]]
|date=
|page=1
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118699960/congressman-boteler-interviews-john/
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|title=Effect of the news in Washington
|newspaper=[[The Daily Exchange]] ([[Baltimore, Maryland]])
|date=
|page=1
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33434279/cf-lg-report-for-harpers-ferry-the/
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{{see also|John Brown's last speech}}
[[File:T-john-brown-last-prophecy.jpg|thumb|alt=John Brown's last prophecy|[[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] wrote a final statement on December 2
Brown was hastily processed by the legal system. He was charged by a [[grand juries in the United States|grand jury]] with [[treason]] against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection. A jury found him guilty of all charges; he was sentenced to death on November 2, and after a legally required delay of 30 days he was hanged on December 2. The execution was witnessed by actor [[John Wilkes Booth]], who later assassinated President [[Abraham Lincoln]]. At the hanging and en route to it, authorities prevented spectators from getting close enough to Brown to hear a final speech. He wrote his last words on a scrap of paper given to his jailer Capt. John Avis, whose treatment Brown spoke well of in his letters:
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The first Northern reaction among antislavery advocates to Brown's raid was one of baffled reproach. Abolitionist [[William Lloyd Garrison]], "committed to the methods of nonviolent moral suasion", called the raid "misguided, wild, and apparently insane".<ref>Mitchell, Betty L., [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/419144/summary "Massachusetts Reacts To John Brown's Raid"], ''Civil War History'', Vol. 19, No. 1, March 1973, pp. 65-79 (quotations at p. 66).</ref><ref>Soon after, Garrison changed his view, expressing a preference for slaves "breaking the head of the tyrant with their chains". Mitchell, Betty L., "Massachusetts Reacts To John Brown's Raid", p. 75.</ref> But through the trial and his execution, Brown was transformed into a [[martyr]]. [[Henry David Thoreau]], in ''[[A Plea for Captain John Brown]]'', said, "I think that for once the Sharps' rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them," and said of Brown, "He has a spark of divinity in him."<ref>''Norton Anthology of American Literature'', Volume B. p. 2057.</ref> To the South, Brown was a murderer who wanted to deprive them of their property (slaves). The North "has sanctioned and applauded theft, murder, and treason", said ''[[De Bow's Review]]''.<ref name=Reynolds/>{{rp|340}}<ref>James M. McPherson, ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (2003), p. 210</ref> According to the ''[[Richmond Enquirer]]'', the South's reaction was "horror and indignation".<ref name=Enquirer/> But this was not the entire story. Kent Blaser writes that "there was surprisingly little fear or panic over race insurrection in North Carolina.... Much was made of the refusal of slaves to join in the insurrection".<ref>Blaser, Kent, [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/419544/summary "North Carolina and John Brown's Raid"], ''Civil War History'', Vol. 24, No. 3, September 1978, pp. 197-212 (quotations on pp. 199, 200).</ref>
The Republican Party, faced with charges that their opposition to slavery inspired Brown's raid, distanced themselves from Brown by instead suggesting that it was instead precedented by Democrats' support for [[Filibuster (military)|filibusters]] such as [[William Walker (filibuster)|William Walker]] and [[Narciso López]], arguing that their attempts to overthrow foreign governments and their receipt of support from Democratic politicians had inspired Brown to attempt a similar action.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Burge |first=Daniel J. |date=Summer 2023 |title=John Brown, Filibuster: Republicans, Harpers Ferry, and the Use of Violence, 1855–1860 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/897985 |journal=[[Journal of the Early Republic]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=245–268 |doi=10.1353/jer.2023.a897985 |issn=1553-0620 |access-date=
==Consequences of Brown's raid==
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|last=McQuillen
|date=March 25, 2017
|access-date=April 7, 2021 |archive-date=March 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200317224414/https://charlesmcquillen.com/john-steuart-curry-tragic-prelude-english-language-arts-lesson-plan/▼
▲|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200317224414/https://charlesmcquillen.com/john-steuart-curry-tragic-prelude-english-language-arts-lesson-plan/
|url-status=live }}</ref> painted in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas. In "[[Tragic Prelude]]", by Kansan [[John Steuart Curry]], the larger-than-life figure of John Brown dominates a scene of war, death, and destruction. Wildfires and a tornado are backdrops to his zeal and fervor. The only major street anywhere named for John Brown is in [[Port-au-Prince, Haiti]] (where there is also an Avenue [[Charles Sumner]]). In Harpers Ferry today, the engine house, known today as [[John Brown's Fort]], sits in a park, open to walk through, where there is an interpretive display summarizing the events.
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