Part II – John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia
In the summer of 1859, John Brown began focusing on final preparations for the Harpers Ferry assault, raising additional men and money, and securing necessary weapons. “Talk! talk! talk!” he complained at a meeting in Boston. “That will never free the slaves. What is needed is action.”
John Brown finally put his plan into action on July 3, 1859, when he and three other men scouted the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The town manufactured more weapons than any other place in the South, and almost 200,000 weapons were stored in the United States Armory located there. Brown’s plan was to take the arsenal, arm freed slaves in the area, and then retreat to the mountains where they could mount additional raids to free more slaves.
The next day, Brown headed across the Potomac to Maryland, where he began looking for a place to house and train his soldiers for the raid on Harpers Ferry. He eventually found a farm (“the Kennedy Farm”) five miles from Harpers Ferry, set well back from any road, which he rented for $35. Over the next two months, the rest of Brown’s “army” (twenty-one young men – 16 white and 5 black) arrived at the Kennedy Farm. At the farm, the men prepared rifles, studied military strategies, and relaxed in song or games of checkers and cards.
On October 15,Brown announced to his twenty-one recruits that the revolution would begin the next night. In the morning, following a religious service, Brown read his proposed provisional constitution and assigned tasks for the men. Eighteen men would directly participate in the raid on the arsenal, including cutting telegraph wires, securing bridges, and taking hostages. Three other men would serve as lookouts and carry stolen weapons to a schoolhouse near Harpers Ferry for distribution to the freed slaves. Brown told his men to use violence only as a last resort: “Consider that the lives of others are as dear to them as yours are to you.” At eight o’clock, Brown told his forces, “Men get your arms. We will proceed to the Ferry.”
The early stages of Brown’s plan went well. Wires were cut and bridges taken without bloodshed. Brown, announcing his intention “to free all the negroes in this state,” seized the night watchman at the federal armory. Brown’s men took the arsenal and captured several hostages. Brown began waiting for news of his raid to reach local slaves, who he expected would then rebel against their white masters. Six men were sent to the countryside to get the liberation process going and to give each freed slave a pike (long spear), either for defensive purposes or to guard white slave owners so as to prevent their escape.
Unfortunately for Brown, the freed slaves did not respond as he had hoped. The surprising events left them confused, thinking they were about to be sold south rather than expected to become troops in a liberating army. Others refused to take the pikes and hid. Most of them seemed unable to comprehend the notion that a white man would come to aid them in a fight against their white masters.
Brown ignored warnings from his other officers to escape while the escaping was still good. He still held out hope that “the bees would begin to swarm” and his revolution succeed. Meanwhile, local townspeople had begun taking up arms to fight the invaders. Worse yet, an eastbound train, temporarily halted by Brown’s men (after the unfortunate shooting of a black baggage handler), was allowed to proceed. The conductor stopped the train at the next station and wired the master of transportation in Baltimore that “150 Abolitionists” had taken Harpers Ferry intent on freeing slaves. A short time later, the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad telegraphed President Buchanan and Governor Wise of Virginia to inform them of the crisis at Harpers Ferry.
After noon or so on October 17, escape from Harpers Ferry became impossible. Citizen soldiers and two militia companies from nearby Charles Town moved toward the federal arsenal. They retook bridges and swept into town. The first man to die was Dangerfield Newby, a black recruit guarding a bridge, who hoped to free his enslaved wife thirty miles south of Harpers Ferry. After Newby fell to gunfire, angry citizens desecrated his body and shoved it in a gutter, where it was eaten by roving hogs. Other deaths soon followed as Brown remained holed up with more than thirty hostages in the armory.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, Brown and his men moved with eleven of their key hostages to the fire engine house, a brick building that became known as John Brown’s Fort, the site of his last stand. Hundreds of hostile townspeople – enraged over the killing of their mayor and another prominent citizen – and twelve militia companies soon surrounded the engine house. Brown’s men fired out from the engine house but kept taking bullets. One fatally wounded Brown’s son, Oliver, as he aimed his rifle out of a cracked door. At 11 p. m., a company of marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived at Harpers Ferry.
At dawn on October 18, a lieutenant chosen by Lee approached the engine house and delivered to Brown Lee’s formal demand for surrender. When Brown rejected the offer, marines stormed the engine house, battering it with sledge hammers. In the battle that ensued, Brown was stabbed, but not fatally. Many of his men, however, died by either gunfire or bayonets. The eleven hostages were liberated, and Brown and four of his surviving men were taken prisoner. Brown was taken to the armory, where a group of reporters and politicians, including Virginia’s Governor Henry Wise and two U. S. senators, questioned him. He told his interviewers that he came to Virginia at the prompting of “my Maker” and his only objective was to “free the slaves.” Asked how he felt about the failure of freed slaves to enthusiastically embrace his revolution, Brown said, “Yes, I have been disappointed.” After the interview, Governor Wise, while abhorring Brown’s views, pronounced him “the gamest man I ever saw.”
Study Questions
Part II – John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia
- Why did John Brown choose Harpers Ferry as the place to begin his “revolution against slavery”?
- How did John Brown plan to use his “army” of twenty-one during the Harpers Ferry attack?
- Why did most of the slaves in the area around Harpers Ferry not respond as John Brown had hoped?
- How did some of the citizens of Harpers Ferry respond to the attack?
- Where did John Brown and his men make their “last stand”?
- Who commanded the marines who joined the armed townspeople and the militia companies that surrounded John Brown’s “fort”?
- How was John Brown’s “fort” finally captured?
- What happened to the hostages?
- How many of Brown’s men survived the attack on the engine house?
- According to John Brown, what was the only purpose of the assault on Harpers Ferry?
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