NPS - National Park Service
10/05/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/05/2022 09:22
Commemorate the 163rd anniversary of John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry
News Release Date:
October 5, 2022
October 5, 2022
Contact:Leah Taber, 304-579-9208
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. -Experience John Brown's Raid through the stories of US Marines, townspeople, formerly enslaved men and women and John Brown on Oct. 15 and 16 at Harpers Ferry. Join park-staff and living-history volunteers of the US Marine Corps Historical Company for "At All Times Ready," an interpretive presentation of how the raid unfolded, transforming Harpers Ferry into a key site in American civil rights history. This program will begin in historic Lower Town on The Green and end at the US Armory Fire Engine House (John Brown's Fort) each day at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
On October 16, 1859, fiery abolitionist John Brown and twenty-one fellow raiders, attacked the US Armory at Harpers Ferry in what was at that time Virginia, the largest slave holding state in the Union. Brown hoped to use armory weapons to equip a liberating army that would spark uprisings against slavery and protect those escaping enslavement. Although the failed raid ended two days later with Brown's capture by US Marines, it electrified the country. John Brown's Raid polarized the country's slavery and anti-slavery factions and political parties, even influencing the 1860 presidential election and sparking political violence when Abraham Lincoln was elected President.
John Brown's Raid stands as one of the flash points that ignited the Civil War. His complex legacy continues to influence American conversations on slavery, race and the role of force in fighting injustice.