Harpers Ferry Raid

John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 has long been regarded as one of the pivotal events in the coming of the Civil War, but both the nature of the attack and its impact on American society were more complicated than most people or some textbooks acknowledge. On Sunday evening, October 16, 1859, John Brown and eighteen other men walked from a farmhouse in western Maryland a few miles into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia in order to seize weapons from the largely unguarded federal arsenal. Three others from the group stayed behind and guarded their headquarters. What the raiders planned to do with the federal rifles, and the hundreds of menacing pikes that Brown had ordered in advance of the attack, remains a subject of some dispute. John Brown had been an agent in the Underground Railroad helping slaves escape to freedom for decades before he came to Harpers Ferry. He hated slavery and had spent much of his adult life fighting against the institution with words and deeds, sometimes quite violent deeds. For example, Brown and some of his sons had participated in the small-scale wars over slavery that had ripped apart the Kansas territory and had mudered at least five pro-slavery settlers in a notorious incident in 1856. They had also helped nearly a dozen slaves, including a pregnant woman, escape from Missouri in December 1858, escorting them safely to Detroit by March 1859 in what might have been a dress rehearsal for another "slave-stealing" raid into Virginia later that year. But during this time, Brown and his Provisional Army, as they called themselves, also seemed to be hatching wild plans for a revolution, what a Virginia court would later declare as a treasonous attempt to launch a slave insurrection. Partly because of these sweeping and grandiose schemes, and partly because the tactical planning for the actual raid at Harpers Ferry later seemed so inadequate to those purposes, Brown gained a reputation as crazed. Yet he was also a charismatic leader whose courage impressed everyone from former slaves to New England intellectuals (some of whom funded the raid) and even to some southern journalists and politicians who later encountered him in prison. The raid itself did fail. Despite initial success on Sunday evening in capturing rifles at the arsenal and in rounding up prominent local hostages, Brown's forces soon got separated and surrounded without any hope of reinforcements. Several of Brown's men were killed in the attack which lasted nearly 36 hours. Others, including Brown himself, who was wounded in the final assault at the arsenal's engine house, were captured. But some escaped. And Brown's behavior during his subsequent trial at Charlestown, Virginia (later West Virginia) captivated public attention, thrilling anti-slavery audiences in the North and horrifying many pro-slavery southerners. The Commonwealth of Virginia executed Brown on December 2, 1859, but the man and his failed raid remained a subject of intense public debate throughout the 1860 presidential campaign. Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln even felt compelled to denounce Brown in order to separate himself from the violence. Yet within a couple of years later, Union soldiers would sing "John Brown's Body" as they marched into battle. The memory of John Brown's actions remains controversial and widely debated. (By Matthew Pinsker)

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Note Cards

John Brown, Harpers Ferry Attack (Freehling, 2007)

Scholarship

On the evening of October 16, 1859, the liberator led fourteen other whites and four blacks from his rented Kennedy Farm in Maryland to Harpers Ferry, those six miles distant. There the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers unite to heave against a jagged semimountain, before flowing on to the sea….There transpired one of the most stupendous scenes in American history. In the dark night, Brown's freedom fighters easily captured Harpers Ferry's federal armory, arsenal, and engine house…No other first strike has ever been better planned or carried out (which is only to say that John Brown here perfected his lifelong specialty). No other following tactics have ever been botched so badly (which is only to say that John Brown here succumbed to his lifelong flaw). Where these raiders meant to kill whites, in order to free blacks, they first killed a free black, Shepard Hayward, as he walked harmlessly away from them.

William W. Freehling, Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861, vol. 2 of The Road to Disunion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 211-212.

John Brown, Harpers Ferry Attack (Oakes, 2007)

Scholarship

At dusk on the evening of October 16, 1859, acting on direct orders from the Lord God Himself, John Brown led a band of eighteen men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in western Virginia. By midnight Brown's men had cut the telegraph wires and commandeered the railroad bridges leading into town. They had control of the arsenal, the armory, and the rifle factory. Then they sat back and waited for slaves from the surrounding countryside to join their rebellion. But the slaves never came. About twenty were brought into town by Brown's men, but they refused to join the fight, and most of them had the good sense to run for their lives. Little more than a year later slaves across the South began claiming their freedom by running in substantial numbers to armed white northerners invading the South, this time as Union soldiers. But the slaves at Harpers Ferry stayed put; they knew the differences between an army of liberation and a ship of fools. By morning Brown's men had been surrounded. Within thirty-six hours it was all over. A handful of Brown's men escaped. Several were killed, including two of Brown's sons. Brown and two others were captured, tried, and executed.

James Oakes, The Radical and The Republican: Fredrick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (New York: W W Norton & Company, 2007), 94-95.

John Brown, Harpers Ferry Attack (Reynolds, 2005)

Scholarship

The raid on Harpers Ferry helped dislodge slavery, but not in the way Brown had foreseen. It did not ignite slave uprisings throughout the South. Instead, it had an immense impact because of the way Brown behaved during and after it, and the way it was perceived by key figures on both sides of the slavery divide. The raid did not cause the storm. John Brown and the reaction to him did.

David S. Reynolds, John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights, rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 309.

John Brown, Harpers Ferry Attack (Stauffer, 2002)

Scholarship

Although the outcome of the raid would undoubtedly have been the same, more blacks might have come to his aid had Brown’s timing been better. Almost every analysis of the raid asserts that slaves and free flacks ignored Brown’s efforts on their behalf, but some evidence – much of it stemming from oral tradition – suggests that free blacks in Jefferson County and throughout the North and Canada knew of Brown’s plans and were prepared to join him. Brown originally scheduled the raid for July 4, 1858 (reflecting his fondness for symbolic value), but the date was postponed when one of his comrades, Hugh Forbes, turned traitor and threatened to expose the raid unless he received money…Evidently, his attack caught a number of his allies by surprise: Richard Hinton was in nearby Chambersburg “at a black-operated underground railroad post,” awaiting word to join Brown. Harriet Tubman, was trying to recruit followers. And a group of blacks from Ontario, Canada, were near Detroit, and supposedly on their way to join Brown.

John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 255-256.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Roark, 2002)

Textbook

On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown took his war against slavery into the South. With only twenty-one men, including five African Americans, he crossed the Potomac River and invaded Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Sixty miles from Washington D.C., the small town had little to recommend it except its federal arsenal, which bristled with rifles. Brown’s band quickly seized the armory and rifle works, but the invaders were immediately surrounded, first by local militia and then by Colonel Robert E. Lee, who commanded the U.S. troops in the area. When Brown refused to surrender, federal soldiers charged with bayonets. It was all over in less than thirty-six hours. In all, seventeen men, two of whom were slaves, lost their lives. Although a few of Brown’s raiders escaped, federal forces killed ten (including two of his sons) and captured seven, among them Brown himself, who suffered a painful but not life-threatening sword wound.

James L. Roark, et al., eds., The American Promise: A History of the United States, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002), 449-450.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Bailey, 1998)

Textbook

The fanatical abolitionist John Brown plotted a large slave insurrection at Harpers Ferry in western Virginia. Purchasing arms with about $3,000 provided by sympathetic Northern abolitionists, he launched his abortive enterprise with a score of men, including two of his own sons. Wounded and captured, after the loss of several innocent lives, he was given every opportunity to pose as a martyr while being tried. he was found guilty of three capital offenses: conspiracy with slaves, murder, and treason. Most of the abolitionists who had financed his enterprise ran for cover, although many of them had evidently not known of his desperate plan to attack a federal arsenal and bring down on himself the Washington government. The Southerners were angered by the widespread expressions of sympathy for Brown in the North. A week after the raid, the influential Richmond Enquirer wrote…”the Harper’s Ferry invasion has advanced the cause of Disunion more than any other event…since the formation of the government; it has rallied to that standard men who formerly looked upon it with horror; it has revived, with tenfold strength, the desire of a Southern Confederacy.”

Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy, eds., The American Spirit, 9th ed. (2 vols., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998), 1: 426-27.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Tindall, 1999)

Textbook

Self-righteous and demanding, [John Brown] was driven by a sense of crusading zeal. His penetrating gray eyes, flowing beard, and religious certainty evoked images of a vengeful Abraham and struck fear into supporters and opponents alike. On October 16, 1859, Brown made his supreme gesture. From a Maryland farm he crossed the Potomac with about twenty men, including five blacks, and under cover of darkness occupied the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He planned to arm the many slaves who would flock to his cause, set up a black stronghold in the mountains of western Virginia, and provide a nucleus of support for slave insurrections across the South. What he actually did was to take the arsenal by surprise, seize a few hostages, and hole up in the engine house until he was surrounded by militiamen and townspeople. The next morning Brown sent his son Watson and another supporter out under a white flag, but the enraged crowd shot them both.... That night Lieutenant-Colonel Robert E. Lee, U.S. Cavalry, arrived with his aide, Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, and a force of marines. The following morning, on October 18, Stuart and his troops broke down the barricaded doors and rushed into the engine house…. The siege was over. Altogether Brown's men killed four people (including one marine) and wounded nine. Of their own force, ten died (including two of Brown's sons), seven were captured, and five escaped.

George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, eds., America: A Narrative History, 5th ed. (2 vols., New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1999), 1: 711-12.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Nash, 1998)

Textbook

Unlike Lincoln, John Brown was prepared to act decisively against slavery. On October 16, 1859, he and a band of 22 men attacked a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He hoped that the action might provoke a general uprising of slaves throughout the upper South or at least provide the arms by which slaves could make their way to freedom. Although he seized the arsenal, federal troops soon overcame him. Nearly half his men were killed, including two sons. Brown himself was captured, tried, and hanged for treason. So ended a lifetime of failures. In death, however, Brown was not a failure. His daring if foolhardy raid, and his impressively dignified behavior during his trial and speedy execution, unleashed powerful passions, further widening the gap between North and South.

Gary B. Nash et al., eds., The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, 4th ed. (New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1998), 496.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Divine, 2007)

Textbook

A chain of events in late 1859 and early 1860 turned southern anxiety about northern attitudes and policies into a 'crisis of fear.' The first of these incidents was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859. Brown, who had the appearance and manner of an Old Testament prophet, thought of himself as God's chosen instrument 'to purge this land with blood' and eradicate the sin of slaveholding. On October 16, he led a small band of men, including five free blacks, across the Potomac River from his base in Maryland and seized the federal arsenal and armory in Harpers Ferry. Brown's aim was to launch a guerilla war from havens in the Appalachians that would eventually extend to the plantation regions of the lower South. But the neighboring slaves did not rise up to join him, and Brown's raiders were driven out of the armory and arsenal by the local militia and forced to take refuge in a fire-engine house. There they held out until a force of U.S. marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed their bastion. In the course of the fighting, ten of Brown's men were killed or mortally wounded, along with seven of the townspeople and soldiers who opposed them.

Robert A. Divine et al., eds., The American Story, 3rd ed. (2 vols., New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007), 1: 371.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Channing, 1922)

Textbook

[John Brown] asserted that ‘twenty in the Alleghanies could break slavery in pieces in two years’ – precisely how is not clear. It is clear, however, that it was his intention to free the slaves, not to excite a slave insurrection – although it is difficult to understand how the former could be accomplished without bringing on the latter; it is also clear that his project met with strong disapproval many persons to whom he applied for money. On the 16th of October, 1859, he suddenly appeared at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, with nineteen followers. He seized the United States arsenal at that place, but allowed a train to pass on its way to Washington. He was captured with all but two of his followers, indicted, tried, convicted, and executed on a charge of treason and conspiracy with slaves and others to rebel and murder.

Edward Channing, A Student’s History of the United States, 4th ed. (New York: MacMillan Co., 1922), 418-19.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Muzzey, 1920)

Textbook

[John Brown] felt that he was commissioned by God to free the slaves in the South. He conceived the wild plan of posting in the fastnesses of the Appalachian Mountains small bodies of armed men, who should make descents into the plains, seize negroes, and conduct them back to his ‘camps of freedom.’ He made a beginning at the little Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, at the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, where with only eighteen men he seized the United States arsenal and, raiding the houses of a few of the neighboring planters, forcibly freed about thirty of their slaves. They were huddled together with his men in the arsenal, rather bewildered, and more like captives than newly baptized freemen, when a detachment of United States marines (under the command of Robert E. Lee) arrived on the scene, battered down the doors of the arsenal, and easily made captives of Brown's band (October 18, 1859). Brown, severely wounded, was tried for treason by the laws of Virginia. He pleaded only his divine commission in his defense and was speedily condemned and hanged. When Brown was hailed as a martyr by many antislavery men in the North, who were jubilant to see a blow struck for freedom, even if it were a murderous blow, thousands in the South were persuaded that the "Black Republicans" were determined to let loose upon their wives and children the horrors of negro massacre.

David S. Muzzey, An American History, rev. ed. (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1920), 321-22.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Pollard, 1867)

Textbook

In October, 1859, occurred the famous John Brown raid into Virginia, in which an old man, who had obtained in Kansas the notoriety of a horse-thief and an assassin, invaded the State of Virginia at Harper's Ferry with a band of outlaws, declared his purpose to free the slaves, and commenced with a work of blood the first acts of sectional rebellion against the authority of the United States…. [John Brown] collected a small company of insurgents, black and white, on a farm he had rented near Harper's Ferry, hoping that, as he invaded Virginia, the blacks would flock to his standard, and be armed there with the pikes and rifles he had provided for his recruits…. At half past ten o'clock, Sunday night, 17th October, 1859, the Potomac was crossed, and, proceeding with military method, the party seized first the watchman guarding the railroad bridge at Harper's Ferry, and, posting pickets at certain points, occupied the arsenal and armory building…. Col. [Robert E.] Lee took measures to attempt the capture of the insurgents, if possible, without bloodshed. At seven in the morning he sent his aid, Lieut. [J.E.B.] Stuart, to summon them quietly to surrender, promising only protection from violence and a trial according to law. Brown refused all terms…. At last, perceiving all his humane efforts to be of no avail, Col. Lee gave orders for an attack…. [The] insurgents were quickly secured; and the liberated citizens, who had held up their hands to designate themselves to the marines, and thus escape their fire, were hailed with shouts of congratulation as they passed out of the building.

Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates (New York: E. B. Treat & Co., 1867), 70-73.

Harpers Ferry Raid (Spencer, 1874)

Textbook

The bitterness and keenness of southern feeling on the subject of slavery and its issues, were greatly increased by a strange, wild attempt on the part of a man named John Brown, a native of New York, to produce a rising of the slaves in Virginia. Brown, it appears from his history, had become excited beyond all control on the slavery question, and having been a sharer in the difficulties and violent contentions in Kansas, he seemed to think himself called upon to devote his life and energies to the freeing of the slaves. Several of his sons and a small body of others (twenty-two in all, seventeen white, five black) joined him; arms and ammunition were collected; and on the night of October 16th, he made a descent upon Harper's Ferry, a town of about five thousand inhabitants, and containing the United States arsenal with 100,000 stand of arms. The buildings being unguarded, were seized upon; prominent citizens were arrested; and the workmen connected with the armory, on going to their business in the morning, were also captured. About thirty prisoners were thus made. The alarm spread rapidly, and the exaggerated reports were speedily circulated of the extent of the force, the objects had in view, the rising of the slaves, etc…. Brown and his party finally entrenched themselves in the engine house, where they struggled to the last; but late in the night a body of United States marines, under Colonel Lee, invested the engine house, and early on the 18th, succeeded in battering down the door and capturing the insurgents.

J. A. Spencer, History of the United States of America (3 vols., New York: Johnson, Wilson & Co., 1874), 3: 548-59.

Events

Date	Event
04/30/1858	John Brown arrives in Chatham, Ontario for a series of secret meetings
05/08/1858	At the Chatham Convention in Ontario, John Brown sets up his Provisional Constitution
10/16/1859	John Brown attacks Harpers Ferry
10/17/1859	John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry continues with the townspeople fighting back
10/18/1859	John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry ends when Marines storm the Engine House
10/19/1859	John Brown and his surviving raiders are taken to Charlestown, Virginia under heavy guard
10/20/1859 to 10/24/1859	John Brown and his fellow prisoners are held at Charlestown, Virginia pending trial
10/25/1859	John Brown appears before a Virginia court for the first time
10/26/1859	John Brown and his fellow prisoners are held at Charlestown pending trial before a Virginia court
10/27/1859 to 10/31/1859	John Brown stands trial in Charlestown, Virginia
10/28/1859 to 10/29/1859	Mob destroys the office of Abolitionist newspaper in Newport, Kentucky
11/01/1859	At the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, Wendell Phillips praises John Brown in a speech
11/02/1859	The Commonwealth of Virginia sentences John Brown to death
11/05/1859	John Copeland, African-American Harpers Ferry raider, convicted in Charlestown, Virginia
11/07/1859	Gerrit Smith, one of the "Secret Six," confined in mental institution at Utica, New York
11/08/1859	Mary Brown arrives at James Miller McKim's home in Philadelphia
11/17/1859	Burning haystack panics Virginians anticipating an attempt to rescue John Brown
11/18/1859	Newspaper feud in Nashville over Harpers Ferry results in murder on the street
11/23/1859	Kentucky man sends Governor Wise the rope with which to hang John Brown
11/25/1859	Governor of Virginia warns Governor of Pennsylvania over possible John Brown rescue attempts
11/27/1859	John Brown writes a letter of farewell to his sisters from his cell in Charlestown, Virginia
11/28/1859	President Buchanan rejects Virginia's call for federal forces to police neighboring states
11/29/1859	Colonel Robert E. Lee leads federal troops back to Harpers Ferry to support Virginia's execution of John Brown
11/29/1859	Governor Wise takes over the Winchester and Potomac Railroad in preparation for the execution of John Brown
11/30/1859	John Brown writes his last letter to his family
12/14/1859	U.S. Senate votes unanimously for a committee to investigate the Harpers Ferry Raid
12/16/1859	John Rogers finds no New York art dealer will display his new sculpture on slavery
12/16/1859	Four Harpers Ferry raiders hanged in Charlestown, Virginia
12/18/1859	William Lloyd Garrison writes to a friend about the impact of John Brown's death.
12/20/1859	Southern students from Philadelphia's medical schools meet and vote to leave for the South
12/21/1859	Southern students make a mass exodus from Philadelphia's medical schools
12/22/1859	Governor Wise of Virginia meets with southern medical students returned from Philadelphia
01/02/1860	Governor Chase of Ohio responds to Virginia Governor Wise's accusations against his northern neighbors
01/10/1860	Cassius Clay speaks for more than three hours from the Capitol steps in Frankfort, Kentucky
02/01/1860	Thaddeus Hyatt arrives in Washington but defies the Senate Harpers Ferry Committee
02/01/1860	Hazlett and Stevens, the last of John Brown's captured co-conspirators, go on trial in Virginia
02/04/1860	Aaron Stevens found guilty in Virginia for his part in Harpers Ferry Raid
02/11/1860	Albert Hazlett convicted of murder in Charlestown, Virginia
02/13/1860	Stevens and Hazlett, the last of the convicted Harpers Ferry raiders, sentenced to hang
02/16/1860	Senate Committee investigating Harpers Ferry issues warrant for arrest of Frank Sanborn
02/21/1860	The U.S. Senate orders arrest of Thaddeus Hyatt for failure to appear before Harpers Ferry Committee
03/02/1860	Oliver Brown's young widow dies in childbirth at North Elba, New York
03/05/1860	Governor of Virginia requests Ohio for the extradition of two Harpers Ferry Raiders
03/08/1860	Governor of Ohio refuses the extradition of two Harpers Ferry Raiders to Virginia
03/12/1860	The U.S. Senate imprisons Thaddeus Hyatt for failure to appear before Harpers Ferry Committee
03/16/1860	Virginia executes Harpers Ferry raiders Albert Hazlett and Aaron Dwight Stevens
04/02/1860	Virginia State legislature finishes its 1859-1860 session
04/03/1860	Local officials foil U.S. Senate attempt to arrest Frank Sanborn for failure to appear to testify on Harpers Ferry
05/10/1860	Theodore Parker, famous abolitionist and member of the "Secret Six," dies in Florence, Italy
06/15/1860	After more than three months, the U.S. Senate releases Thaddeus Hyatt from the Washington Jail
12/03/1860	Abolitionist meeting to commemorate John Brown broken up in Boston
09/03/1861	Southern saboteurs cause the wreck of a civilian express train in Missouri, killing twenty
04/09/1867	George Luther Stearns, leading abolitionist and member of "the Secret Six' dies of pneumonia in New York City.

People

Pages

Places

Documents

Date	Title
11/10/1857	“Old Brown and his Friends,” Richmond (VA) Dispatch, November 10, 1859.
12/06/1858	Anne Lynch Botta to Henry Whitney Bellows, December 6, 1858
02/05/1859	Samuel Gridley Howe to John Murray Forbes, February 5, 1859
10/18/1859	Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, “Riot at Harper’s Ferry,” October 18, 1859
10/18/1859	New York Times, "News of the Day," October 18, 1859
10/19/1859	Entry by Edmund Ruffin, October 19, 1859
10/20/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “Negro Insurrection!," October 20, 1859
10/20/1859	Charles H. Ray to Abraham Lincoln, October 20, 1859
10/20/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “So Perish All The Enemies of Our Country!,” October 20, 1859
10/21/1859	New York Times, “Latest Dispatches,” October 21, 1859
10/22/1859	Atchison (KS) Freedom’s Champion, “Old John Brown,” October 22, 1859
10/22/1859	New Orleans (LA) Picayune, "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak," October 22, 1859
10/23/1859	New York Herald, “The Slave Population in the Vicinity of the Outbreak,” October 23, 1859
10/23/1859	Ralph Waldo Emerson to William Emerson, October 23, 1859
10/24/1859	Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "Northern Impertinences with Regard to the Late Affair at Harpers Ferry," October 24, 1859
10/25/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Dissolution of the Union," October 25, 1859
10/25/1859	Cleveland (OH) Herald, “From Carlisle,” October 25, 1859
10/25/1859	New Orleans (LA) Picayune, "The Harper's Ferry Affair," October 25, 1859
10/25/1859	Richmond (VA) Dispatch, “The Madness of Brown,” October 25, 1859
10/26/1859	Carlisle (PA) American, “Arrest of a Supposed ‘Harper’s Ferry Insurrectionist,’” October 26, 1859
10/26/1859	Lydia Maria Child to Henry Alexander Wise, October 26, 1859
10/26/1859	Lydia Maria Child to John Brown, October 26, 1859
10/26/1859	Ralph Waldo Emerson to Sarah Hathaway Forbes, October 26, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Additional Particulars of the Insurrection," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Bleeding Kansas," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Governor Wise on the Harper's Ferry Insurrection," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Sketch of Captain John Brown," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "The Provisional Government of the Insurrectionists," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "The Slave Insurrection at Harper's Ferry," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Good Out of Evil," October 27, 1859
10/27/1859	Philadelphia (PA) Christian Observer, "A Regular Abolition Conspiracy," October 27, 1859
10/28/1859	Entry by Susan Bradford Eppes, October 28, 1859
10/29/1859	Atchison (KS) Freedom’s Champion, “Capt. Cook – Wrong Man Arrested,” October 29, 1859
10/29/1859	Lawrence (KS) Herald of Freedom, “Old John Brown,” October 29, 1859
10/29/1859	William T. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, October 29, 1859
10/30/1859	New York Herald, “Political Excitement on the Rise,” October 30, 1859
10/31/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "A Game that Will Not Win," October 31, 1859
10/31/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Political Effect," October 31, 1859
10/31/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Untitled," October 31, 1859
11/01/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "The Harpers Ferry Insurgent at Carlisle," November 1, 1859
11/01/1859	New York Herald, "Runaway Slaves in Canada," November 1, 1859
11/02/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "They Have Overdone It!," November 2, 1859
11/03/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Black Republican Ingratitude," November 3, 1859
11/03/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Conviction of Brown!," November 3, 1859
11/03/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Tenderly Sensitive," November 3, 1859
11/03/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Trial of Brown, the Insurgent," November 3, 1859
11/03/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "A Good Sign," November 3, 1859
11/04/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Mr. Douglas’ New Book,” November 4, 1859
11/04/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Old Brown's Speech," November 4, 1859
11/04/1859	Jonathan Worth to J. Grier Ralston, November 4, 1859
11/05/1859	Jonathan Worth to Edward Jones Hale, November 5, 1859
11/05/1859	New York Times, "The Brown Invasion Transplanted From Kansas," November 5, 1859
11/07/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "How Shall Brown Be Punished?," November 7, 1859
11/07/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer,“Another Ray of Light,” November 7, 1859
11/08/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “The Democratic Party and Old Brown,” November 8, 1859
11/08/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Untitled," November 8, 1859
11/09/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Untitled," November 9, 1859
11/09/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Untitled," November 9, 1859
11/09/1859	New Orleans (LA) Picayune, "Frederick Douglass's Letter," November 9, 1859
11/09/1859	Raleigh (NC) Register, “Brown’s Virginia Counsel,” November 9, 1859
11/10/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Harper's Ferry Trouble," November 10, 1859
11/10/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Untitled," November 10, 1859
11/10/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercuy, "Insanity of Gerrit Smith," November 10, 1859
11/10/1859	Philadelphia (PA) Christian Observer, "Character of John Brown," November 10, 1859
11/11/1859	Boston (MA) Liberator, "Bad News for the Abolitionists," November 11, 1859
11/11/1859	Eliza Margaretta Chew Mason to Lydia Maria Child, November 11, 1859
11/12/1859	William E. Frazer to Abraham Lincoln, November 12, 1859
11/14/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer,"Old Brown," November 14, 1859
11/14/1859	Frances Watkins Harper to Mary Ann Day Brown, November 14, 1859
11/15/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Insurrectionists in West Tennessee,” November 15, 1859
11/16/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Is It True or False?,” November 16, 1859
11/17/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Gov. Wise to Mrs. Child," November 17, 1859
11/17/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Reward for Fugitive Insurgents," November 17, 1859
11/17/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "The Plea Will Not Avail Them," November 17, 1859
11/17/1859	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Trial of the Harper's Ferry Insurgents," November 17, 1859
11/17/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Brown's Gang," November 17, 1859
11/17/1859	Savannah (GA) News, “Incendiarism in the South,” November 17, 1859
11/18/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "A Recoil of the Gun," November 18, 1859
11/19/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "The Virginia Panic," November 19, 1859
11/20/1859	New York Herald, “Intense Alarm and Excitement in Virginia,” November 20, 1859
11/21/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Untitled," November 21, 1859
11/22/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “The Straw Stack War,” November 22, 1859
11/24/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Rail Riding,” November 24, 1859
11/24/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "The Devil Not As Black As He Is Painted," November 24, 1859
11/26/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Well Done, Old Brown," November 26, 1859
11/27/1859	New York Herald, “A Suggestion to Governor Wise About Old Brown,” November 27, 1859
11/28/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Two Incendiaries Caught in Salisbury," November 28, 1859
11/30/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Old Brown to be Gagged," November 30, 1859
11/30/1859	Entry by Edmund Ruffin, November 30, 1859
12/01/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "The Other Brown," December 1, 1859
12/02/1859	Entry by Susan Bradford Eppes, December 2, 1859
12/02/1859	Entry by Thomas Jonathan Jackson, December 2, 1859
12/02/1859	Greensboro (NC) Patriot, "Salisbury Items," December 2, 1859
12/02/1859	John Thomas Lewis Preston to Margaret Junkin Preston, December 2, 1859
12/03/1859	Atchison (KS) Freedom’s Champion, “Walker vs. Brown,” December 3, 1859
12/03/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Opinions of the People," December 3, 1859
12/04/1859	New York Herald, “The South and Southern Safety,” December 4, 1859
12/05/1859	Abby Howland Woolsey to Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland, December 5, 1859
12/05/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “The Beginning of Sorrows,” December 5, 1859
12/05/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, “Untitled,” December 5, 1859
12/06/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "How a Brave Man Dies," December 6, 1859
12/07/1859	Mrs. M. Brooks to William Still, December 7, 1859
12/07/1859	San Francisco (CA) Bulletin, “Organization of the United States House of Representatives,” December 7, 1859
12/08/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "Virginia Wants the Nation to Foot Her Bills," December 8, 1859
12/08/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Gov. Seward and Harpers Ferry," December 8, 1859
12/08/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Arrest of a Militia Officer," December 8, 1859
12/09/1859	New York Herald, “Anti-Slavery Theatres and Litterateurs,” December 9, 1859
12/10/1859	New York Herald, "The Slavery Agitation," December 10, 1859
12/12/1859	Frances Watkins Harper to William Still, December 12, 1859
12/14/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, "Untitled,” December 14, 1859
12/15/1859	Entry by Susan Bradford Eppes, December 15, 1859
12/16/1859	Columbus (OH) Gazette, "For the Columbus Gazette," December 16, 1859
12/18/1859	New York Herald, “The New York Herald in the South,” December 18, 1859
12/19/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Northern Sentiment,” December 19, 1859
12/20/1859	Hartford (CT) Courant, “Untitled,” December 20, 1859
12/21/1859	Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, “Frederick Douglass,” December 21, 1859
12/21/1859	New York Times, “Practical Secession,” December 21, 1859
12/22/1859	New York Times, "Southern Students in New York," December 22, 1859
12/23/1859	New York Times, "The Southern Medical Students," December 23, 1859
12/24/1859	Ripley (OH) Bee, “Abolition School Teachers,” December 24, 1859
12/25/1859	New York Herald, “Seward Nominated for the Presidency by the Abolitionists,” December 25, 1859
12/26/1859	Charleston (SC) Mercury, “The Medical Students,” December 26, 1859
12/29/1859	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Suspicious Characters," December 29, 1859
12/29/1859	New York Evangelist, "A Time to Pray," December 29, 1859
12/29/1859	San Francisco (CA) Evening Bulletin, “The New Crusade against the Union,” December 29, 1859
12/30/1859	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “A Fearful Slave Insurrection in Missouri,” December 30, 1859
12/31/1859	Boston (MA) Liberator, "John Brown is Dead!," December 31, 1859
01/02/1860	New York Times, “The Southern Students,” January 2, 1860
01/04/1860	New York Times, “The Trial of Stevens,” January 4, 1860
01/05/1860	New York Herald, "The Underground Railroad and Its Victims," January 5, 1860
01/05/1860	New York Herald, “The Runaway Slaves,” January 5, 1860
01/06/1860	Greensboro (NC) Patriot, "Secession of the Medical Students," January 6, 1860
01/11/1860	Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, “Another Grievance for Virginia,” January 11, 1860
01/12/1860	Charlestown (VA) Free Press, “The Re-Interment of Coppic [Coppoc],” January 12, 1860
01/17/1860	New York Times, "The Exodus of Southern Medical Students," January 17, 1860
01/23/1860	New York Times,“The Colored People and John Brown’s Widow,” January 23, 1860
01/24/1860	Boston (MA) Herald, “Telegraph to the Herald,” January 24, 1860
01/28/1860	Atchison (KS) Freedom’s Champion, “Paying the Piper,” January 28, 1860
01/30/1860	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Harper’s Ferry Items,” January 30, 1860
02/01/1860	Boston (MA) Herald, "Where Shall They Go?," February 1, 1860
02/02/1860	Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel,“Two More Teachers Expelled Without Cause Shown,” February 2, 1860
02/05/1860	New York Herald, “A Competent Witness in the John Brown Investigation,” February 5, 1860
02/09/1860	Charlestown (VA) Free Press, “Harper’s Ferry Outrage,” February 9, 1860
02/10/1860	Boston (MA) Liberator, “Trial of Stevens at Charlestown,” February 10, 1860
02/11/1860	Atchison (KS) Freedom’s Champion, “Thaddeus Hyatt,” February 11, 1860
02/11/1860	New York Times, “The Senatorial Inquisition,” February 11, 1860
02/14/1860	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Sedition Laws,” February 14, 1860
02/15/1860	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “The Harper’s Ferry Inquisition,” February 15, 1860
02/16/1860	New York Times, “Manufacturing Martyrs,” February 16, 1860
02/18/1860	Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Attempt to Lynch a Pennsylvanian in Virginia,” February 18, 1860
02/24/1860	Boston (MA) Advertiser, “The Power to Compel Witnesses,” February 24, 1860
02/24/1860	Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, “The Senate’s Inquisition,” February 24, 1860
02/25/1860	New York Herald, “The Senate and Messrs Hyatt and Howe,” February 25, 1860
02/29/1860	Boston (MA) Advertiser, “Mr. Hyatt’s Case,” February 29, 1860
03/08/1860	Charleston (SC) Courier, “John Brown’s Private Secretary,” March 8, 1860
03/10/1860	Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Gov. Dennison Refuses to Surrender Them,” March 10, 1860
03/14/1860	Carlisle (PA) Herald, "Hazlett and Stevens,” March 14, 1860
03/14/1860	Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, “George Sennot’s Speech,” March 14, 1860
03/15/1860	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “The Harper’s Ferry Insurgents,” March 15, 1860
03/16/1860	Robert Toombs to Alexander H. Stephens, March 16, 1860
03/17/1860	New York Times, “The Last of the Harper’s Ferry Slaughter,” March 17, 1860
03/22/1860	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “Another Harper’s Ferry Victim,” March 22, 1860
03/22/1860	Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “Execution of Hazlett and Stephens,” March 22, 1860
03/22/1860	R. Tansill to Robert Hunter, March 22, 1860
03/26/1860	William Wilkins to James Watson Webb, March 26, 1860
05/05/1860	(Omaha) Nebraskian, “Monument to John Brown,” May 5, 1860
05/10/1860	New York Times, “Disunion Plots,” May 10, 1860
06/05/1860	Chillicothe (OH) Scioto Gazette, “Can Locofocos Explain It?,” June 5, 1860
06/15/1860	(Jackson) Mississippian, “Violations of the Constitution,” June 15, 1860
06/20/1860	(Jackson) Mississippian, “The Fourth at John Brown’s Home,” June 20, 1860
07/05/1860	Ripley (OH) Bee, “The John Brown Investigation,” July 5, 1860
07/08/1860	New York Herald, “A Curious Fourth of July Celebration,” July 8, 1860
08/08/1860	Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, "Who Are For Disunion?," August 8, 1860
08/09/1860	Charlestown (VA) Free Press, "Precipitate A Revolution," August 9, 1860
08/18/1860	New York Times, "Gov. Seward and John Brown," August 18, 1860
09/16/1860	New York Herald, “The Reign of Terror in Texas,” September 16, 1860
10/05/1860	(Jackson) Mississippian, "The 'Coercion' Issue," October 5, 1860
10/11/1860	Charleston (SC) Mercury, "The Terrors of Submission," October 11, 1860
10/15/1860	New York Times, “Very Suspicious,” October 15, 1860
10/22/1860	Charleston (SC) Mercury, "Harper's Ferry Anniversary Celebration," October 22, 1860
11/15/1860	Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "The U. S. Arsenal," November 15, 1860
11/26/1860	Fayetteville (NC) Observer,"U. S. Arsenal," November 26, 1860
11/28/1860	New York Herald, “The Meeting of Congress,” November 28, 1860
12/01/1860	Chicago (IL) Tribune, "Montgomery," December 1, 1860
12/05/1860	Charleston (SC) Mercury, "The John Brown Pike," December 5, 1860
12/13/1860	Charlestown (VA) Free Press, “John Brown Anniversary,” December 13, 1860
01/25/1861	New York Times, “Rumored Invasion of the South,” January 25, 1861
02/08/1861	Newark (OH) Advocate, “Abolition Threat of John P. Hale,” February 8, 1861
04/16/1861	Richmond (VA) Dispatch, “Another John Brown Raid,” April 16, 1861
06/17/1861	Cleveland (OH) Herald, “A Submissionist Answered,” June 17, 1861
07/15/1861	Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Military Printers Having Their Joke,” July 15, 1861

Images

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Haven, R. "John Brown and Heman Humphrey: An Unpublished Letter." Journal of Negro History 52, no. 3 (1967): 220-224.	View Record
Ely, James W., Jr., and Daniel P. Jordan. "Harper's Ferry Revisited: Father Costello's ‘Short Sketch’ of Brown's Raid." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 85, no. 1-2 (1974): 59-67.	View Record
Trodd, Zoe, and John Stauffer, eds. Meteor of War: The John Brown Story. Maplecrest, NY: Brandywine Press, 2004.	View Record
Reynolds, David S. "John Brown, the Election of Lincoln, and the Civil War." North & South 9, no. 1 (2006): 78-88.	View Record
Ruchames, Louis, ed. A John Brown Reader. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1959.	View Record
Landon, Fred. "Canadian Negroes and the John Brown Raid." Journal of Negro History 6, no. 2 (1921):174-182.	View Record
Hyde, Lewis. "Henry Thoreau, John Brown, and the Problem of Prophetic Action." Raritan 22, no. 2 (2002): 125-144.	View Record
Fellman, Michael. "Theodore Parker and the Abolitionist Role in the 1850's." Journal of American History 61, no. 3 (1974): 666-684.	View Record
Everett, Gwen, and Jacob Lawrence. John Brown: One Man Against Slavery. New York: Rizzoli, 1993.	View Record
Schroeder, Glenna R. "We must Look this Great Event in the Face": Northern Sermons on John Brown's Raid." Fides et Historia 20, no. 1 (1988): 29-43.	View Record
Simpson, Craig M. A Good Southerner: The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia. The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.	View Record
McGlone, Robert E. "Forgotten Surrender: John Brown's Raid and the Cult of Martial Virtues." Civil War History 40, no. 3 (September 1994): 185-201.	View Record
Fleming, Thomas J. "The Trial of John Brown." American Heritage 18, no. 5 (1967): 28-33, 92-100.	View Record
Kent, Zachary. The Story of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry. Cornerstones of Freedom. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1988.	View Record
Simpson, Craig. "John Brown and Governor Wise: A New Perspective on Harpers Ferry." Biography 1, no. 4 (1978): 15-39.	View Record
McKivigan, John R. "James Redpath, John Brown, and Abolitionist Advocacy of Slave Insurrection." Civil War History 37, no. 4 (1991): 293-313.	View Record
Gold, Michael. Life of John Brown: Centennial of His Execution. New York: Roving Eye Press, 1960.	View Record
Janney, Caroline E. "Written in Stone: Gender, Race, and the Heyward Shepherd Memorial." Civil War History 52, no. 2 (June 2006): 117-141.	View Record
Smith, Kenneth L. "Edmund Ruffin and the Raid on Harper's Ferry." Virginia Cavalcade 22, no. 2 (1972): 28-37.	View Record
Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin. "Comment by a Radical Abolitionist." Century Magazine 26 (1883): 411-415.	View Record
Nudelman, Franny. ""The Blood of Millions": John Brown's Body, Public Violence, and Political Community." American Literary History 13, no. 4 (2001): 639-670.	View Record
Hazen, Lester B. "Without Much Blood." Military Review 62, no. 9 (1982): 57-66.	View Record
McKivigan, John R. Forgotten Firebrand: James Redpath and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.	View Record
Stutler, Boyd B. "John Brown's Body." Civil War History 4, no. 3 (1958): 251-260.	View Record
Boteler, Alexander. "Recollections of the John Brown Raid by a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight." Century Magazine 26 (1883): 399-411.	View Record
Oates, Stephen B. "God's Angry Man." American History Illustrated 20, no. 9 (1986): 10-21.	View Record
Holzer, Harold. "Raid on Harpers Ferry." American History Illustrated 19, no. 1 (1984): 10-19.	View Record
Warren, Robert Penn. John Brown: The Making of a Martyr. New York: Payson and Clarke, 1929.	View Record
Sutherland, Keith A. "The Senate Investigates Harpers Ferry." Prologue 8, no. 4 (1976): 193-207.	View Record
Moore, Rayburn S. "John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry: An Eyewitness Account by Charles White." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 67, no. 4 (1959): 387-395.	View Record
Richardson, Mary L. "The Historical Authenticity of John Brown's Raid in Stephen Vincent Benet's 'John Brown's Body.'" West Virginia History 24, no. 2 (1963): 168-175.	View Record
Howard, Victor B. "John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry and the Sectional Crisis in North Carolina." North Carolina Historical Review 55, no. 4 (October 1978): 396-420.	View Record

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