Harpers Ferry Raid

John Brown (1800–1859) was an American abolitionist and insurrectionist who planned an all-out war on slavery beginning with a violent raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia , in 1859. Brown's unsuccessful raid played a key role in heightening the tensions between the North and South that led to the American Civil War (1861–65).

Violence in Kansas

Brown was a militant abolitionist (a person with an aggressive, or warlike, mission to end slavery ) from Ohio . By 1855, his antislavery convictions were so strong he believed that God had chosen him to free the slaves from bondage. He therefore traveled to Kansas Territory to join the growing struggle between proslavery and Free Soil forces over the legal status of slavery in Kansas. (The Free Soil Party was a U.S. political party with a main objective to prevent the extension of slavery to newly acquired U.S. territories.) Angered by the violent action of proslavery forces in the Free Soil town of Lawrence, Kansas, in May 1856, Brown and four of his sons launched a brutal raid in revenge. In a nighttime attack on a proslavery settlement, Brown and his followers killed five settlers. Learning of his attack, hundreds of settlers rushed to arm themselves. By the end of 1856, at least two hundred Kansans had died.

Brown prepares for war

Brown had long since lost faith in combating slavery by peaceful means, and the trouble in Kansas did not change his mind. He vowed to strike a violent blow at the heart of slavery. In 1857, Brown developed a plan in which he would seize a mountain fortress in Virginia with a small combat force and launch a slave rebellion . Once the rebellion had begun, Brown intended to establish an African American republic in the woods of Virginia. From this stronghold, he planned to wage war against the South, his forces continuously strengthened by slave rebellions and private northern assistance.

To that end, Brown began to campaign among the abolitionists in the North. Outwardly, he was seeking money to continue the Free State fight in Kansas. In secret, though, Brown won the support of six prominent antislavery figures who agreed to advise him and raise money for his mission to overthrow slavery. The “Secret Six” was a group of dedicated and well-educated abolitionists and reformers.

Throughout the remainder of 1857, Brown collected and trained a small group of abolitionists in preparation for his mission. In May 1858, Brown held a secret “Constitutional Convention” in Canada attended by a small band of thirty-four blacks and eleven whites. There he outlined his plans to invade Virginia, liberate and arm the slaves, defeat any military force brought against them, organize the blacks into a government, and force the southern states to concede emancipation (freeing the slaves). Under Brown's leadership, the convention approved a constitution for the new state and elected Brown commander in chief of the army.

Brown's proposed invasion was delayed in 1858, when one of his followers partially divulged the plans to several prominent politicians. Brown was forced to go into hiding for a year. It was a disastrous time for postponement. While he waited out the danger, some of the most ardent supporters of his plan lost interest and he lost many of the soldiers he had trained.

The raid

Harpers Ferry, a town in northern Virginia (now located in West Virginia ), was the site of a federal armory and arsenal (government buildings for storing arms and ammunition). The Harpers Ferry arsenal was the initial target in Brown's plan because he needed weapons to arm the slaves he planned to liberate. On July 3, 1859, Brown set up headquarters at a farm seven miles east of Harpers Ferry. Soon the rest of his twenty-one young recruits (sixteen whites and five blacks) arrived at the headquarters. On the night of October 16, 1859, after several months of refining his plans, Brown led eighteen of his followers on the Harpers Ferry raid. They quickly captured the arsenal, the armory, and a nearby rifle works, and then seized several hostages from the townspeople and surrounding countryside.

Fearing a slave rebellion, the people of Harpers Ferry armed themselves and gathered in the streets. Church bells tolled the alarm over the countryside. Brown stood his ground and anxiously waited for the slaves from the countryside to rally to his cause. Not a single slave arrived. By 11:00 AM the next day, a general battle was in progress between Brown's men, holed up in the small fire engine house of the armory, and the assembled townspeople, farmers, and militia. The raid's fate was sealed when a company of U.S. Marines under the command of army colonel Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) charged the engine house. Ten of his men were killed and Brown was wounded and captured.

Brown and his co-conspirators were tried in Virginia rather than by federal authorities, even though their attack had been against federal property. The jury found them guilty of inciting a slave rebellion, murder, and treason against the state of Virginia. After the trial, in a final attempt to save his life, Brown's lawyers collected statements from his friends and relatives alleging that Brown was suffering from insanity. Brown rejected this defense, claiming that he was as sane as anybody. He knew that he could better serve the abolitionist cause as a martyr (someone who suffers or dies for his or her beliefs). He conducted his defense and went to his death with great dignity and conviction, inspiring sympathy among many Northern abolitionists.

Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry intensified the sectional bitterness that led to the American Civil War. The outraged South suspected all Northerners of participating in Brown's crime. In truth, the vast majority of Northerners condemned the incident as the work of a fanatic. The Republican Party , the political party that was calling for a stop to the expansion of slavery, had no links with Brown. On the other hand, some Northern abolitionists, including the Secret Six, gathered by the hundreds throughout the North to honor and acclaim Brown's martyrdom. Two years later, Northerners marched to war to the tune of a popular war song called “John Brown's Body.”