Harper's Ferry
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
Harper’s Ferry was one of two Federal arsenals (the other was in Springfield, Mass.) at which new army fire arms were made, and old ones repaired. For this reason, John Brown selected Harper’s Ferry as his target.
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Lead-up
Brown had made a reputation for himself in Kansas, hacking to death a Tennessee immigrant and his sons at Pottawatomie. For this reason, New England abolitionists were keen to give him money, so he could continue the work. Six of his major donors, later known collectively as the Secret Six, were prominent and wealthy abolitionists: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Gridley Howe, Theodore Parker, Gerrit Smith, George Luther Stearns, Franklin Sanborn.
Preparatory actions
Brown executed some anti-slavery actions to prepare the way. First, in the fall of 1858, Brown infiltrated western Missouri, killed a man, grabbed some slaves (and some other private property), and escaped through Kansas into Iowa, sending the slaves on to Canada and selling the other stolen property. Then, he went to Chatham, Canada West (now Ontario) and drafted a new Constitution of the United States. This clearly shows that Brown’s intentions at Harper’s Ferry were not merely to overthrow the government of the United States, and not merely, as Brown would later assert, to help slaves escape north. In this, as in many other things, Brown was a liar.
Brown took the money the Secret Six donated, bought weapons and rented a farm in Maryland near Harper’s Ferry in the late summer of 1859. After conducting reconnaissance of the Federal arsenal, Brown assembled his group of 21 men, including three of his own sons and several free black men. Frederick Douglass visited with Brown in Pennsylvania and Brown tried to recruit Douglass to join in. Douglass refused to join, and told Brown he thought the endeavor was not likely to succeed, but Douglass did not notify the police.
The raid
Brown’s men moved on the night of October 16th. The stopped by the house of Col. Washington, a distant kinsman of the first President, kidnapped him, and stole some of his property before proceeding to Harper’s Ferry. The first victim of the raid was a free black man, a railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd. Shepherd had challenged the party, so they shot him. Brown’s men seized the arsenal, and were prepared to give weapons to any slaves that joined them. But none came. When daylight came, the local people realized what had happened. The militia was called out, and Brown’s party surrounded. Five of Brown’s men (Barclay Coppoc, Francis Merriam, John Brown, Jr., Isaac Stevens and Aaron Hazlett), who had been on the outskirts of town, saw that Brown’s “army” was hopelessly surrounded, and made their escape. Brown took his hostages and holed up in the fire station, which has been known ever since as Brown’s Fort. A detachment of US Marines was dispatched from the Washington Navy Yard, as were two US Army officers: Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart and Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee, who happened to be in Arlington at the time. Stuart and the Marines approached Brown’s fort to demand the surrender of Brown and his party. When Brown refused, Stuart signaled the Marines to assault the fort. They battered their way into the fort, released the hostages, and captured or killed all of Brown’s party.
Brown was captured, wounded, but conscious. Gov. Henry Wise questioned him and some of his accomplices. At the Kennedy Farm were found hundreds of pikes which Brown had planned to arm the slaves. Also found was a voluminous correspondence from the Secret Six, and, most ominously, a map of several southern States with tables added showing which counties had the highest percentage of slave population. This shows the dramatic breadth of Brown’s planned insurrection.
The Jefferson County Circuit Court was scheduled to meet shortly, so Brown was given a speedy trial on charges of murder, treason against the State of Virginia and inciting servile insurrection. On November 2nd, 1859, he was convicted, and, in a closing statement, professed that his trial had been completely fair. He was sentenced to be hanged on December 2nd.
Reaction
Initial Northern reaction was shock, mixed with fear amongst Brown’s financial backers that they would be implicated and arrested. Several of the Secret Six fled to Canada to escape prosecution. Joshua Giddings went insane and was admitted to a mental hospital. As soon as they realized that Northerners would not enforce any law to bring them to justice, these Abolitionists found the courage to return to Massachusetts. Congress appointed a committee, chaired by Senator Mason of Virginia, to investigate whether there had been a conspiracy. Howe, Giddings and Stearns testified, and lied about what they knew of Brown’s plans, all saying that they believed he was going to run off some slaves. Attempts in April to get Frank Sanborn to testify before the Mason Committee were thwarted by a Yankee mob in Concord, and a request for extradition was denied by Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Lemuel Shaw. Sanborn remained at large.
Attempts by the Commonwealth of Virginia to have other Harper’s Ferry conspirators were unsuccessful. Iowa’s Republican Governor Kirkwood refused to honor Virginia Governor Letcher’s request that Kirkwood arrest and extradite Barclay Coppoc, because the letter wasn’t notarized. Kirkwood sent word to Coppoc that Virginia was seeking his arrest. Likewise, Ohio Republican William Dennison refused to extradite Francis Merriam and John Brown, Jr., because, he said, Ohio had not law for extraditing criminals (this despite the fact that Gov. Letcher pointed out Ohio’s law to Gov. Dennison. Obviously, murderers that escaped into Republican States were to be protected. The Staunton, Virginia Vindicator summed up the situation with these words: “The conduct of the Governor of Iowa is remarkable for its duplicity, and shows to us of the South, what we have to expect from Northern officials, elevated to power by the sectional party of the day.” By way of comparison, Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Packer did arrest and extradite the two Harper’s Ferry raiders that were found in Pennsylvania, so protecting murderers would appear to be a Republican trend, not necessarily a northern one. What would this mean once a Republican was in the White House? Many Southerners did not wish to hang around and find out.
