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Abolitionist John Brown played a key role in the lead-up to the Civil War. His October 16, 1859, raid on the U.S. Armory and Arsenal in Harpers Ferry intensified tensions between the North and South, making compromise increasingly impossible.
Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson was a 26-year-old from Indiana who had fought with John Brown in Kansas before coming to Harpers Ferry. He was killed by a Marine’s bayonet during the final attack on the engine house. A letter from his brother in Ohio ...
Anderson met John Brown at the Chatham Convention in 1858 and joined his plan to fight slavery, becoming a secretary and part of his provisional congress. During the raid, he helped take Col. Lewis Washington hostage and received George Washington...
Oliver Brown, John Brown’s 20-year-old son, was the youngest of three brothers who joined their father in the Harpers Ferry raid. He was badly wounded inside the engine house on October 17 and died next to his father the next morning. His mother s...
Owen Brown, 34 years old and another of John Brown’s sons, had previously fought with in Kansas. During the raid, he, Barclay Coppock, and Francis Merriam stayed behind at the Kennedy Farm to guard the weapons. Owen escaped and helped four other r...
The 24-year-old son of John Brown had stayed back on the family farm in North Elba, New York, during the Bleeding Kansas days. However, he was there with his father guarding the engine house during the Harpers Ferry raid. On October 17, in an atte...
John Edwin Cook was an educated abolitionist who abandoned a law career to fight with free-state militias, meeting and becoming a trusted scout for John Brown in Kansas. Cook lived in Harpers Ferry for a year before the raid, serving as a scout an...
Copeland was already known before the Harpers Ferry raid for rescuing a runaway enslaved man from his captives in 1850. In 1859, he joined Brown’s men, recruited by his uncle, fellow raider Lewis Leary. His task was to help take over Hall’s Rifle ...
Barclay and his brother Edwin Coppoc initially met John Brown in Springdale, Iowa, and joined Brown's army in Chambersburg in summer 1859. Barclay, Owen Brown, and Francis Jackson Meriam stayed behind at the Kennedy Farm during the raid to guard w...
Edwin Coppoc was the brother of raider Barclay Coppoc. During the raid, he shot and killed Harpers Ferry's mayor, Fontaine Beckham. Coppoc was seized in the engine house, put on trial, and sentenced to death. The night before he was supposed to be...
Shields Green lived with Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, for nearly two years and met John Brown through him. Sensing doom, Douglass discouraged Green from joining Brown, but Green said he would "go with the old man." Green was captured...
Hazlett fought alongside Aaron D. Stevens in the U.S. Arsenal during John Brown’s raid and escaped capture, but was arrested days later near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on October 22. He was tried and convicted in Charles Town. Both Hazlett and Steven...
Brown’s second-in-command printed copies of Brown’s constitution at a print shop he'd set up in Canada. Before the raid, he tried to talk Brown into moving the fight to the hills of Maryland, but Brown refused. On the long day of October 17, he wa...
In 1858, Lewis Leary, a free Black man, helped rescue a runaway enslaved man in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue but wasn’t arrested. He joined Brown on October 12, 1859, leaving behind his wife and baby daughter. He was part of the initial team that...
Leeman, age 20, was the youngest of Brown's soldiers. He'd already spent three years with Brown fighting in Kansas. During the Harpers Ferry raid, he was shot dead while trying to escape across the Potomac River on October 17.
Meriam is the only one of the raiders known to have written an application letter to Brown to participate in the raid. He stayed behind at the Kennedy Farm with Owen Brown and Barclay Coppoc before escaping. During the Civil War, he was a captain ...
Originally born into slavery, Newby joined Brown, hoping the raid would help free his enslaved wife and children. On the first full day of the raid, Newby shot and killed two local residents but was then shot and killed by townspeople near the U.S...
Stevens was one of Brown's most ardent followers and the only one with military experience (during the Mexican War). While helping Brown free an enslaved woman in Kansas, he'd shot a slave owner in what he claimed to be self-defense. During Brown'...
Taylor, a Canadian, bonded with Brown over their hatred of slavery. He joined the raid even though he realized it was doomed. He was killed trying to defend the engine house on October 17.
Charles Tidd joined John Brown in 1856 after moving to Kansas. He helped free 11 enslaved people during a raid in Missouri and later became involved in Brown’s planned raid on Virginia. He participated in the early stages, helping to capture hosta...
Dauphin Adolphus Thompson was the younger brother of raider William Thompson and husband of John Brown's daughter Ruth. In the early morning hours of October 18, Thompson was trapped in the Armory engine house when the Marines attacked. He was kil...
Thompson was the brother of fellow raider Dauphin Adolphus Thompson. During the raid, he was captured outside the engine house on October 17 while carrying a white flag of truce and held prisoner in a hotel. After the killing of Harpers Ferry Mayo...
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
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