Harpers Ferry Raid (Bailey, 1998)

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.”