The Harpers Ferry ‘Rising’ That Hastened Civil War
On the evening of Oct. 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown led 21 men down the road to Harpers Ferry in what is today West Virginia. The plan was to take the town’s federal armory and, ultimately, ignite a nationwide canada goose outlet official uprising against slavery.
The raid failed, but six years later, Brown’s dream was realized and slavery became illegal.
In his new book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, canada goose outlet store new york Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tony Horwitz tells the story of John Brown, a man destined to change history through an uprising that has often gone unmentioned in Civil War stories.
canada goose coats on sale At the Kennedy Farmhouse, just outside Harpers Ferry, Horwitz shows NPR’s Scott Simon where Brown and his co conspirators pretended to be farmers while they planned their raid. canada goose coats on sale
“The Kennedy farm is where Brown gathers his weapons and guerrilla fighters in the summer before the raid,” Horwitz says. “This is really the tense, sweaty lead up to the action, and he assembles this remarkable band of 21 men: farmers, factory workers, fugitive slaves, three of his sons and even his own teenage daughter and daughter in law who come here to act as housekeepers and lookouts.”
While many abolitionists were condescending toward blacks, believing them to be too docile to fight for their freedom, Brown made a point of recruiting fugitive slaves and freed blacks to be part of the raid.
“He felt that it was both necessary and a moral imperative that blacks fight alongside whites for their freedom,” Horwitz says. “So canada goose jacket outlet store of his band of 21 men, five of them are black.”
cheap canada goose uk But Brown was also a canadagoosestorevip striking physical character with an unbending conviction. He hoped his raid would spark a conflagration that would be the end of slavery he didn’t just want to free the slaves of Harpers Ferry; he wanted to shock the nation. armory, a symbol of American power, and he wanted to do something dramatic to really wake the country up,” Horwitz says. “I think attacking Harpers Ferry was as much for its shock value as for its logistical value.” cheap canada goose uk
cheap Canada Goose The canada goose kensington parka uk ‘Horrible Scene’ At John Brown’s Fort cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Online On the night of the raid, Brown and his men seized the guard on the bridge to Harpers Ferry and sneaked across the Potomac River, catching the town by surprise. Canada Goose Online
Harpers Ferry sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, so by holding the bridge over the Potomac and the bridge over the Shenandoah, the raiders had full control of the town and its 100,000 guns.
But that didn’t last long.
canada goose uk shop Thirty two hours after the raid began, it came to an end in a small brick engine house that later came to be known as John Brown’s Fort. Marines led by Robert E. Lee. canada goose uk shop
Inside the engine house, with one son dead and the other dying, Brown waited for the attack.
“It’s a horrible scene,” Horwitz says. “We’re in a stable essentially. It’s the size of what today would be a two car garage and you have 25 or so terrified men in here who can’t even see out because the windows are canada goose clothing uk so high.”
Brown refused to surrender, so instead the Marines bashed their way in, killing several of the raiders. Brown himself got beaten to the ground, but miraculously survived.
If he had died, Horwitz says, “This story might have been very different. It might have been a kind of odd, little episode. It’s really in defeat that Brown triumphs.”
Canada Goose Outlet John Brown went on trial the next week, charged with treason, first degree murder and inciting insurrection. When he was given the chance to address the court, he made no excuses canada goose outlet and did not plead for his life. Instead, he told those gathered: Canada Goose Outlet
If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood canada goose jacket outlet uk of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments I submit; so let it be done!
buy canada goose jacket Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859. History buy canada goose jacket
uk canada goose According to Horwitz, there’s an argument to be made that the Civil War began in 1859 at Harpers canada goose outlet phone number Ferry, rather than in 1861 at Fort Sumter or Manassas, because that’s where things really started going downhill. uk canada goose
“At the time of Brown’s raid, the nation is divided but people still think maybe we can compromise and prevaricate and somehow put off this reckoning over the division in our country canada goose parka uk and the division over slavery,” he says.
Brown’s raid crushed that hope.
“You had Northerners and Southerners [at Harpers Ferry] killing each other over slavery,” he says. “It really exposes and greatly widens the divide between North and South.”
canada goose factory sale The uprising Brown tried to set off never flared; but the war he always thought would be the price of slavery began just 16 months later. canada goose factory sale
Today, Horwitz says, Brown’s story continues to raise persistent questions: Did John Brown fire the first shots of the Civil War? canada goose outlet toronto factory Do ends ever justify the means? Was he right to use violence to try to put an end to slavery?
“Brown really touches many of the hot buttons in our history and culture: violence, race, religious fundamentalism, the right of the individual to defy their government,” Horwitz says.
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