October 1859: John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

On the night of October 16, 1859, a band of 22 men crossed into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, determined to strike a blow that would end American slavery. They failed within two days, yet their raid helped push the nation toward civil war.

Brown and His Raiders

John Brown was a white abolitionist from a deeply religious family who had already fought proslavery forces in Kansas. He led 21 followers. Five were Black men: Dangerfield Newby, who hoped to free his enslaved wife and children in Virginia; Lewis Sheridan Leary and his nephew John Anthony Copeland Jr., both from Oberlin, Ohio; Shields Green, who had escaped slavery in South Carolina; and Osborne Perry Anderson, a free-born printer from Pennsylvania. Brown had sought the support of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Douglass declined to join, warning that the plan was a trap.

The Plan to Strike Slavery

The target was the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. Brown planned to seize the weapons, arm enslaved people from the surrounding countryside and lead a growing uprising south through the Appalachian Mountains.

Thirty-Six Hours in October

The raid began late on Sunday, October 16, 1859, and ended on the morning of October 18.

Inside the Raid

The raiders cut telegraph lines, captured the armory and took hostages, including Lewis Washington, a great-grandnephew of George Washington. But few enslaved people were able to join, and local militia surrounded the town. Dangerfield Newby was among the first raiders killed. Brown and his remaining men barricaded themselves in the armory's fire-engine house. On October 18, U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed the building. Ten raiders died, including two of Brown's sons. Osborne Perry Anderson escaped and later wrote the only insider's account, A Voice from Harper's Ferry (1861).

Virginia tried Brown for treason, murder and inciting slaves to rebel. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. John Copeland and Shields Green were hanged on December 16. Before his death, Copeland wrote that he was proud to die for the freedom of his people.

The Spark Before the War

The raid deepened the split between North and South. Many white Southerners saw it as proof that the North wanted to destroy slavery by force. Many Northerners, especially Black communities and abolitionists, honored Brown and his men as martyrs. Within eighteen months, the Civil War had begun. The Black raiders' sacrifice is too often left out of the story; they risked everything for freedom. As we say at HistorianSpeaks, the past is present.

The raid keeps being retold. In The Good Lord Bird (2020), the television series based on James McBride's novel of the same name, the story is told through Onion, a fictional enslaved boy who is taken into Brown's band.