HARPERS FERRY, W.Va.— Almost a 165 years ago, Abolitionist Leader John Brown raided the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to make a stand against slavery and the “Voices of Harpers Ferry: Generations of Perspective on John Brown’s Raid” event hopes to bring this piece of history back to the park.
Today’s event will feature authors that wrote about John Brown’s raids and one descendant of a raider that was killed. It begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Allies for Freedom, 2nd floor of the John Brown Museum in Lower Town, Harpers Ferry where they will serve pastries and coffee.
John Brown, who was born in 1800, grew up with a family who were anti-slavery. And in the 1850’s, he traveled to Kansas, with five of his sons, to fight back against the pro-slavery forces. By 1857, he had banded together a group of men, known as the invasion force, to start preparing for an assault. On October 16, Brown and his men overran the federal arsenal, where a few of his men took a few hostages and by the next day they were surrounded after word spread of the raid. On October 18, a company of U.S. Marines overran Brown and his men. Several were killed, with Brown being wounded and captured. Brown was hung on December 2, 1859, for murder and treason.
Catherine Baldau, executive director of the Harpers Ferry Park Association, told MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval on “Talkline” that the event aims to bring awareness to what happened during those three days.
“People will get a new, fresh idea of what it was like and what happened during the raid,” Baldau said.
And to be able for people to get an idea of what it was like, the park strives to tell both sides.
“People seem to think that the park, maybe worships John Brown, but what the park service does and what we try to do and what these authors do is really try to present both sides of the story,” Baldau said.
The event will have a wide range of activities that will take place, one of them being journalist and author Brianna Miller, a descendent of Dangerfield Newby one of the first raiders killed. She will be at the event to read a selection from her book, Altogether Different: A Memoir About Identity, Inheritance and the Raid that Started the War.
Baldau said that when Miller was locked in her apartment during COVID, it gave her the opportunity to explore her ancestry further than what she before.
“It made her take a step back and really look at her history and her heritage,” Baldau said. “And this ancestor of hers who died 165 years ago, what was he fighting for, and what has changed since then. And here we are again 165 years later, what was John Brown fighting for, what did he die for and has things changed.”
After Miller reads a selection from her book, she will have a book signing for anyone interested in her story.
And Brown may not have ended the war on slavery, but some say he had a pretty big role in starting the war.
“Walt Whitman called John Brown the mediator of the war,” Baldau said. “And Fredrick Douglas said Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, but he did at least begin the war that ended slavery. So many scholars could argue that what happened here in Harpers Ferry was really the start of the war.”
And in light of what happened to John Brown, his message that day may have been received and listened to by some people with the opening of the Storer College, which was a historically Black college, that opened close to where the raid happened.
“It’s interesting that, 5, 6 years after John Brown was here, the college opened in 1867 and it did exactly what he wanted for all Americans for the enslaved, it was against the law for them to read and write when John Brown was alive,” Baldau said.
She also encouraged people to go and visit the college if they are in Harpers Ferry.
The event is free to the public.