Behind The Battles | John Brown's Raid On Harper's Ferry

We dive into John Brown’s audacious raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, a pivotal moment that ignited tensions leading to the Civil War. From his secretive preparations at the Kennedy Farmhouse under the alias Isaac Smith to his bold attempt to seize the U.S. Armory, we explore Brown’s plan to arm enslaved people and strike fear into the heart of the South.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus states, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts bang and dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to battles of the American Civil War.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I like Megan battle American Civil War. Behind them battles,
and we're going to behind the war, actually before the war.
Some people say the dress rehearsal for the war. The
own raid on Harper's Ferry from John Brown and his
peoples was October sixteenth to the eighteenth. He wanted to
initiate slavery volt by taking over the United States arsenal

(01:02):
at Harper's Ferry, which is now West Virginia, and he
didn't did not succeed, but it did set in motion
some things that would only happen a couple months later. Yeah,
sixty one, So a year and a couple months later.
So yeah, John Brown has raid on Harper's Ferry. Back
in eighteen fifties, Kansas Territory was a mess, caught in

(01:23):
what folks called the Bleeding Kansas. We might do an
episode on that. Maybe A nasty state level civil war
from fifty four to sixty where pro slavery and anti
slavery groups went at it hard. Between eighteen fifty four
fifty six, eight people got killed over the slavery question.
Up until fifty six, abolitionist hadn't really organized any big
moves against the pro slavery crowd. The whole fight was

(01:44):
supposed to be settled by Kansas voters, but who counted
as a voter was a blurry mess. Pro slavery forces
were rigging elections left and right, and a congressional investigation
later back that.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Up spring eighteen fifty five five, John Brown's son John Junior,
Jason Owen, Frederick and Salmon, they all headed to Kansas Territory.
Later that year, Brown, his son Oliver, his son in
law Henry Thompson. They all rolled in as well. They
hauled a wagon packed with weapons and AMMO, ready to fight.

(02:15):
Baby John Brown crashed with his half sister for Florilla
Adair and her husband, Reverend Samuel Adair. This is near Osawa, Tommy.
While he was there, he got busy rallying folks to
take on the pro slavery crowd, stepping up as the
leader of the anti slavery fight in the territory of Kansas.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Brown and the Free state settlers were hell bent on
making Kansas a free state. When the snow melted eighteen
fifty six, the pro slavery crowd launching all out push
to lock Kansas down for slavery. Okay, sacking of Lawrence
on May twenty fifth. On May twenty first hit Brown hard.
It was the hub of anti slavery action, a share
from La Compton, straight out of La Compton slavery stronghold.

(03:01):
They let a posse that smashed two abolitionist newspapers and
burned the Free State Hotel to the ground. Only one guy,
a pro slavery border ruffian, he got killed in the mess.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
The very next day, May twenty second, word came crackling
over the telegraph that pro slavery Congressman Preston Brooks, that's
savagely caned anti slavery Senator Charles Sumner right in the
United States Senate. Oh. That plus a blood thirsty rant
from Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow in the Squatish sovereign lit a fire.
I know John Brown Stringfellow. He swore pro slavery forces

(03:34):
would repel this northern invasion and make Kansas a slave
State once and for all, even if it meant rivers
of blood and so many dead abolitionists, they'd breed disease
and sickness. Oh wild Gay Brown. He was livid, he said,
uh uh, not just angry at the pro slavery violence,
but at the anti slavery settlers and free state folks

(03:56):
who he called cowards or worse words. And of cowards,
he said, these guys are cowards, are worse for not
fighting back. Hada.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Then that's when the Pottowatamee massacre happens. Shit night of
May twenty fourth into the morning of May twenty fifth,
eighteen fifty six, Brown, his sons and some abolitionist settlers,
they dragged five professional slave hunters and hardcore pro slavery
guys out of their homes and killed them. The bloodshed
was the spark that set out the dead List stretch
of Bleeding Kansas, which was a three month spree of

(04:26):
revenge raids and battles that left twenty nine people dead.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh bitch, Henry clay Pate, we have been part of
the Lawrence attack. And it was either already or soon after
named the Deputy United States Marshall got windowed John Brown's
actions At potolow Me he rounded up thirty men went
hunting for Brown while chasing him down to a Brown's son,
Jason and John Junior got picked up either by Pate

(04:51):
or another marshall, charged with murder, thrown in chains. John
Brown he rallied a Free state militia to face off
with Pate, captured two of Pate's guys, and that sets
the stage.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
For a bloody showdown on the second of June eighteen
fifty six. Well. On that day, Brown, nine of his
guys and twenty locals. They stood their ground at the
Battle of Blackjack near Helmyra, Kansas. They were defending a
Free State settlement from an attack by Henry Clay Pate.
Brown's crew came out on top nabbing Peyton twenty two
of his men. Come August, things heated up again. Over

(05:25):
three hundred Missourians led by General John Reid. They stormed
into Kansas, aim into crush free state settlements in Osawatomi,
then push on Topeka and Lawrence. On the morning of
August thirtieth, the gun down Brown's son Frederick and his
neighbor David Garrison, just outside of.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Town Oh No Oh. Brown staring down odds and more
than seven to one, set up his thirty eight man
behind natural cover along the road. Firing from their positions,
that took out at least twenty of Reed's men, wounded
forty more man Reid. He ended up pulling his guys back.
He told them to get off their horses and charged

(06:01):
into the woods. Brown's small band they scattered, bolting across
the Maries de Senior's River. One of Brown's men got
murdered in the retreat and for captured, while John Brown
and the rest hid out in the nearby woods. The
Missourians they looted and burned Osawatomi. Even though they lost.
Brown's guts and sharp tactics against them, much bigger force

(06:24):
made headlines across the whole country. This turned them into
a national hero for the Northern abolitionists.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Oyep September seventh, he slipped into Lawrens to huddle with
Free State leaders and prepped for a possible attack. At
least twenty seven hundred pro slavery Missourians were invading Kansas
once again. September fourteenth, there was a skirmish near Lawrence
and Brown, who was gearing up for a fight. Well,
things didn't escalate as Kansas's new governor, John Gary He
stepped in, ordered both sides to drop their weapons, break

(06:53):
up their groups, and offered amn the cey of fighters
on both sides. Okay, but by now brownsi's wanted man
with Frederal Warrens out for his arrest because this Kansas exploit. Yep,
he got real careful about how he moved around now
and who he stayed with as he traveled the country.
He said, they're gonna hang me if they get man.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Damn right, it's take a look at the Harper's Ferry,
or aid John Brown, what we're all here for? Right right?
John Brown, going by the alias Isaac Smith, sets up
shop at the Kennedy Farmhouse, which was a place with
a little cabin nearby, about four miles north of Harper's
Ferry in Maryland. He's got a small crew of them,
about twenty one guys, six whites, five blacks, all barely

(07:31):
trained for what's coming. They're not just hanging out, though
they got serious gear with them. Northern abolitionists hooked them
up with one hundred and ninety eight fifty two caliber
sharp carbines nicknamed Beacher's bibles. Top of that, Brown ordered
nine hundred and fifty pikes from a Connecticut blacksmith, meant
for black recruits who didn't know how to handle guns.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh, when nosy neighbors asked about the pikes, Brown he
played it cool, saying there were mining tools. Nobody batted
an eye since folks had been sniffing around for local
medals for years. He'd even bring home dirt, pretending to
test it for minerals. Put it on such a convincing
show that neighbors saw he was some genius who'd boost
areas prospects. He's about the hit of main.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Those pikes never even saw action. A few black guys
in the engine house held on to them, but that
was it. After everything went down, with most.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Of the crew dead or locked up, those pikes.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Became hot souvenirs. Bet Harret Tubman had one, Abby Hopper
Gibbons dead too. Even the Marines grabbed some on their
way back to base. When the real ones ran out,
some clever guy started forging fakes, and people bought them
up like they were arming a whole army. Edmund Roofing
hardcore Virginian. He sent pikes to every slave states governor

(08:41):
with a note calling them a sample of the favors
from the north. He would have even wave one around
and watching DC trying to stir up panic about slave rebellions.
Oh jeez.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
And now the US Armory at Harpers Ferry. That was
a big deal. Obviously, it's a sprawling complex pumping out
small arms for the army, supposedly holding at least one
hundred and muskets and rifles. Dame, but Brown wasn't after
that stack pile, stack mal He had his own weapons
and a different plan. He tried to pull in more
black recruits, knowing he needed a strong black leader to
make it work. He met with Frederick Douglass and an

(09:14):
old Corey in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for safety, hoping Douglas would
be his liaison to enslave to people. Douglas said, are
you crazy? Uh? What you talk about? Brown?

Speaker 3 (09:23):
What you're talking?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
He thought the raid was a deaf wish.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
He warned John Brown that attacking the federal government would
turn the whole country against him. He said, you'll.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Never get our live, he said.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
At the meet and shields Green, the next slave staying
at Douglas's plate, he made a gut call. Instead of
adding home, He told Douglas, I believe I'll go with
the old man. Why that Green? He joined Brown's raid.
Brown he knew the odds were brutal. One of his guys,
Osborne Anderson, later said that John Brown told him that

(09:56):
they had a nine out of ten chance of dying
thirty three and a third. But John Brown added.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
There are moments when men can do more dead than alive.
It's kind of true. I mean, I'm talking about them now,
are we. Life at the Kennedy Farmhouse was no picnic,
though it was their base, barracks, weapons, stash, supply hub,
mess hall, debate club, all crammed into one so packed
that things got born ass o Brown he was paranoid

(10:22):
about neighbors getting suspicious, So the guys were stuck inside
all day, studying, drilling, arguing about politics or religion, or
just playing cards and checkers. Brown's daughter in law, Martha,
she cooked and clean.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
That was his problem. He was playing checkers, not chess, right, he.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Had like four D chess. Yeah, and his daughter in
law Martha, she cooked and clean while his daughter and
Hee kept watch, later saying those months were the most
meaningful of her life, Oh Brown. He wanted women there
to avoid looking like a shady all male crew. There's
a sausage fest at night. The guys would sneak out
the driller, get some air. Thunderstorms were at Godsend, masking

(10:59):
any noise from the neighbors.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Right, okay. John Brown's plan wasn't a smash and grab.
He wasn't looking to raid Harper's ferry and bolt to
the hills. His goal, well, it was the armed enslaved people.
He wanted to spock fear among slaveholders, also to kick
off a bigger fight. He figured he needed two to
five hundred slaves to join him the first night. He

(11:23):
left off the militia or army that might come for him,
thinking they'd be no match. The plan was to hold
Harper's ferry, briefly, rally slave from nearby plantations, then head
south along the Appalachians Mountains, hitting Tennessee and even Alabama.
He sent out armed groups to freemork slaves, grab some food,

(11:43):
get some horses, even hostages to get and he wanted
to crush the morale of slave holders. Oh. John Brown
thought he'd pick up a many allies black and white
as enemies as along the way. He's like many enemies
we make, we'll have just as many on our side.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
People back us here. So John Brownie hires this guy,
Hugh Forbes, who was an English mercenary who fought with
Giship Garibaldi in Italy. He said, come be my drill master.
He paid Forbes one hundred bucks a month, one hundred
bucks a month, which is about thirty three hundred today's money.
Shelling out six hundred dollars in total. Dude made a killing.

(12:21):
Forbes even had this manual for the Patriotic Volunteer that
they found in Brown's papers after everything went down. But
everything went down and got messy. Brown and Forbes a
butted head over strategy and cash.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Old greedy Forbes kept butching for more money, say he
needed to bring his family over from Europe. Brown didn't budge.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Twenty five grand or something or wasn't enough, dude.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Right when Brown went it, Budge Forbes got desperate and
started sending threatening letters to Brown's financial backers, trying to
squeeze out some funds. That didn't even work. So Forbes
he takes a bold move. Oh no, He heads to Washington,
d C. Meets with big shots like Senator Willing Seward
and Henry Wilson. He trashes Brown to Seward, calling him

(13:04):
a vicious man who needs to be rained in, but
he's careful not to spill the full plan for the raid.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Staley lets enough slip to Wilson and others that raises
eyebrows Wilson, he gets wind of something bruined and writes
to Samuel Gridley Howe, who's one of the Brown supporters,
telling him to make sure weapons meant for Kansas don't
get used for other purposes. Oh as the rumors were suggesting.
Brown's backers catch on and warn him to keep those
weapons out of whatever he's planning. All this drama forces

(13:32):
Brown to head back to Kansas to smooth things over
and shut down forbessconsap Right. Some folks say that trip
caused some precious time and momentum.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Right did.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
And there's Mary Ellen Pleasant who is a key player who
helped bank roll the raid. She dropped thirty grand about
one point one million in today's money, and she called
it the most important thing she ever did in her life.
Damn million dollars, dude, Take up money and go right.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
A word about Brown's plans we're spreading. Even though he
kept the full picture under wraps, at least eight people
had some idea what he was up to. Plenty of
others had a gut feeling what he was plotting. One guy,
David j Ugh, a Quaker from Springdale, Iowa, where Brown
had spent some time he was in the know. Ugh

(14:18):
was convinced Brown and his crew were walking into a
death trap. Wanting save John Brown from himself, Hugh sends
an anonymous letter to the Secretary of Ward, John Floyd,
warning him about the plot. Oh jess And This letter reads, Cincinnati,
August twentieth, eighteen fifty nine, Sir, I have lately received
information of a movement of so great importance that I

(14:40):
feel it may be my duty to impart.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
It to you without delay.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
I have discovered the existence of a secret association having
for its object the illiberation of the slaves of the
South by a general insurrection. The leader of the movement
is Old John Brown, late of Kansas. He has been
in Canada during the winter drilling the Negroes there, and
they are only waiting his word to start for the
South to assist the slaves. They have one of their

(15:05):
leading men, a white man in an armor in Maryland,
where it is situated. I am not enabled to learn.
As soon as everything is ready, those of their number
who are in the Northern States in Canada are to
come in small companies to the rendezvous, which is in
the mountains of Virginia. They will pass down through Pennsylvania
and Maryland, and then in Virginia at Harpers Ferry. John

(15:28):
Brown left the north about three or four weeks ago
and will arm the Negroes and struck it below in
a few weeks, so that whatever is done must be
done at once. They have a large quantity of arms
at the rendezvous, and I have probably distributed of them already.
I have not fully in their confidence. I am not
fully in their confidence. This is all information I can

(15:50):
give you. I dare not sign my name to this,
but trust that you will not disregard this warning. On
that account, m M.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
I will go. Hugh jew Goo was desperate to stop
John Brown's raid before it started. Yes He figured if
he could get Secretary Ward John B. Floyd to send
troops to Harper's Ferry, the extra security would spoop Brown
into scrapping the whole plan. His cousin Al Smith. He
got in on it to send an identical letter to
Floyd from Wheatland, Iowa, from Wheatland, Iowa about addressing it

(16:21):
as if it came from Philadelphia. Problem is, that letter
never even made it.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
They decided to double down, sending two letters from different
places to make sure if Floyd paid attention. Their hope
was that Floyd would beef up to God at Harper's
Ferry Arsenal. They thought John Cook, one of Brown's guys,
would spot the extra soldiers realized the authorities were onto
them and tip off o John Brown. John Brown, they hoped,
would take his men and clear out the safety. Writing

(16:46):
those letters was tricky, though. They had to sound urgent,
but stayed nominous, not wanting to get dragged into testifying later,
so they dropped John Brown's name and banking On's notorious
reputation from Kansas to make the warning seem legit.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
All right, well, President Buchanan already had a two hundred
fifty dollars bounty out for Brown, but Floyd didn't seem
to connect the dots between Goo's letter and the infamous
John Brown of Pottawatamie. Will you did that already thought
Gough was just some random guy. Tossin Brown's name around
it sound credible, Floyd. He also noticed the mix up.
The letter mentioned Maryland, but Harper's Ferry was in Virginia,
oh which now West Virginia, just across the Potomac. That

(17:23):
was enough for Floyd to read the whole thing off
as the ramblings of a nutcase.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh No. Later on he said he couldn't believe any
American would dream up a plan.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
So wicked and outrighteous.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Meanwhile, John Brown's right hand man, John Henry Cagy, got
win of trouble fifteenth October, the day before the raid,
he wrote to a friend saying they had heard about
a search warrant for the Kennedy Farmhouse that forced them
to kick things off eight days earlier than planned.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
October sixteenth, eighteen fifty nine, around eleven pm, John Brown's
ready to move. He leaves three guys, his son Owen
Barclay Coppy and Francis Jackson Mirriam. They leave him back
at the Kennedy Farmhouse to guard the stash weapons. The
rest of his crew. He crosses the bridge into Harpers
Ferry sends a group led by John Cook Junior to
the nearby bial Air State to nab Colonel Lewis Washington,

(18:16):
who was George Washington's great nephew, great and grand nephew.
They wanted to free his slaves, grab two prize relics,
which was a sword Lewis claimed Frederick the Great gave
to George Washington, and two pistols from the Marquis de Lafayette,
which Brown saw is almost magical. Oh Cook's team, they
actually pulled off swinging by the allstat House on the

(18:37):
way back to take more hostages and free more slaves.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Oh shit. At this point in time, things are going
very smoothly for John Brown's crew. They need to take
the armory and get out before anyone can send word
to Washington, DC. To keep things quiet, they cut the
telegraph line twice, first on Maryland side of the bridge,
then near the station to block any message to Virginia.
John Brown stationed some guys to hold the Potomac and

(18:59):
shutting the bridges while others head into town. It's the
middle of the night. The armory's guarded by just one guy.
He's a watchman. He don't even have a weapon. When
John Brown's man they show up, start making threats. He
hands over at the keys without a fight. Take it.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
At this point, Brown's bacon hard on slaves rising up
to join him. He told his men over and over
they'd show up and droves ready to fight. Rob Is
he I know way to get the word out to him?

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Right?

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Slaves don't come. Brown waits too long, hoping they'll appear.
After the raid the South, led by Governor Wise. He
jumps on this, saying it proves their slaves are content
and don't want freedom. But Osborne Anderson, the only raider
to write a memoir and the only black survivor, he
calls that out is nonsense. The Sunday evening of the outbreak,
when we visited the plantations and acquainted the slaves with

(19:47):
our purpose to affect their liberation, the greatest enthusiasm was
manifested by them. Joy and hilarity beamed from every countenance.
One old mother, white haired from age and born down
with the labors of many years, and when told of
the work in hand, she replied, God, bless you, God
bless you. She then kissed the party at her house
and requests it all to Neil, which we did, and

(20:09):
she offered prayer to God for his blessing on the
enterprise and our success. At the slave's quarters, there was
apparently a general jubilee, and they stepped forward manfully, without
impressing or coaxing. Coaxing? Were they? Why didn't they come.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Right this the middle of the night, things take a
tragic turn. Heyward Shepherd, free black man working as a
baggage handler at the train station, becomes the first person murdered.
He stepped out onto the bridge looking for a watchman
who had been chased off by John Brown's man out
of nowhere. He runs into the raiders and when they
tell him to stay put, he doesn't. He starts adding

(20:44):
back to the station. That's when they shoot him in
the back. The irony stings the first casualty of a
raid meant to help black people, as a black man
who didn't follow the.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Raiders' orders, well for the pro Confederacy lost cause crowd.
This made Shepherd a hero, and they even put up
a monument in nineteen thirty one, spinning his death to
fit there and er. No truth is Shepard was just
trying to figure out what was going on.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Doctor John Starry, who lived across from the ridge. He
hears the gunshot and a cry. He walks over to
check it out and find Shepard already beyond saving shit Brown.
He lets Starry go, but instead of heading home, Starry
sounds the alarm. He gets the bell at the Lutheran
church ringing, sends a messenger to Charlestown for help, and
then heads there himself, after rounding up every local we
can find on short notice, which he should have killed him. Damn.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's about one fifteen am. I cover seventeen eighteen fifty
nine east bound Baltimore and Ohio Express train from Wheeling,
one train each way daily, is about to row through
Harper's ferry toward Baltimore. The night watchman sprints out, yelling
about troublehead, so the engineer slams the brakes it starts
backing up. Two crew members hop off just scope things out,

(21:53):
but guess what they get shot at. John Brown himself
climbs aboard the train and chats with passengers for over
an hour, not even hiding who he is.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Are off now as we know, he's a household name
notorious from his Kansas State's Anyone who reads the newspaper
knows his face. Eventually, Brown tells the crew they can
move on. The conductor later claims they were held up
for five hours. What others say he played it safe,
waiting until sunrise to make sure the tracks and bridge
were clear and no one was taking pot shots. It's
freezing out right now, normally about forty one degrees, but

(22:25):
that night even worse. The train's engine is off, leaving
passers shivering.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
No John Brown's men are wrapping blankets. John Cook later
says he was chilled through the passengers spooped. They get
off and hudd on in their by hotel, stuck stuck
there in a panic for about four to five hours.
John Brown later calls this his own one mistake, either

(22:50):
not holding the train longer or letting it go without
a fight. Historian Louis DeCaro Junior he dubs it as
a erroneous blunder.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
M Le Dawn Brown himself walks the train across the bridge.
By seven am, it pulls into Monocacy, which is twenty
three miles east of Harper's Ferry, the first station with
the Worgan telegraph. The conductor he fires off a telegram
to W. P. Smith, the Railroads Master of Transportation, in Baltimore.
Smith he brushes it off as exaggerated at first. About

(23:21):
by ten thirty am he gets confirmation from Martinsburg, who
is the next station west of Harper's Ferry. No westbound
trains are coming through, and three eastbound trains are jammed
up on the Virginia side of the bridge. The cut
telegraph line forces the message to take a long detour
through Wheeling in Pittsburgh, slowing everything down.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Smith.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
He finally loops in the railroad President John Garrett, and
he starts sending urgent telegrams the Major General George Stewart
of the Maryland Volunteers, OH Virginia, Governor Henry Wise, US
Secretary of War John Floyd, and the old President himself,
James Buchanan. OOOO.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
As the sun's coming up. On the seventeenth of October
eighteen fifty nine, workers they start trickling into the hopper's
face Harry Armory for the very first shift of the day,
only to get nabbed up by John Brown's grew and
held hostage. There's some debate on how many they grabbed,
reports varying, but it's way more than they could squeeze
into any tiny engine house John Brown's smart about it,

(24:16):
though he split them up. He keeps the ten most
valuable hostages with him in the engine house, while the
rest are stashed in another armory building.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
And those are according to Robert E. Lee's report, hostages
included Colonel L. W. Washington of Jefferson County, Mister J. H.
Allstaff of Jefferson County, Mister Israel Russell, Justice of the
Peace of Harper's Ferry, Mister John Donna Hue, clerk of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Mister Terrence Byrne of Maryland,
Mister George D. Schope of Frederick, Maryland, Mister Benjamin Mills

(24:47):
master armorer, he's a weapon maker at the Arsenal. Mister
am Ball, master machinists at the Arsenal. And mister John E. P. Dangerfield,
he's a pay master's clerk, acting paym answer Harpers Ferry Arsenal,
not to be confused with Dangerfield. Newby don't know why
we would be. Brown told him that by noon he
would have fifteen hundred armed men with him. Okay, and

(25:10):
the last guy they say is mister J. Bird, who
was an armor at the Arsenal. That's some pretty important
people there, I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
You wink in? Pretty much everyone except one guy was
held in engine house. According one newspaper, there were not
less than sixty hostages. Another claim that upwards of seventy
They were kept in a big building further down the
armory yard. The number of Browns grew sometimes got exaggerated
because folks watching from a distance couldn't tell the hostages
apart from the raiders. Yeah makes sense.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Words spreads fasts and at armed groups taking hostages in
Harpers Ferry. The local guys realized their outgun stuck with
just fouling pieces shotguns that are useless unless you're up closed.
By late Monday morning, militia companies from nearby town start
rolling in. One of those is led by Captain John
Avis from Charlestown, who will later end up as Brown's
jailer Roberty. The report doesn't mention Avis, but list of

(26:02):
volunteer militia groups that showed up between eleven am and
when Lee himself arrived at evening. Oh yeah, the Jefferson
Guards and volunteers from Charlestown under Captain Rowan Ham tramp
Ham Ham Trank Ham Tramp Tramp Ham tramp Guards Jefferson
County Captain BM. Butler, Shepherdstown Troop, Captain Jacob Rhina Hart,

(26:24):
Captain Ephraim Albertus's company by a train from Martinsburg. Most
of them were employees of the railroad. They freed all
the hostages except those in the engine house. They did
Captain B. B. Washington's company from Winchester. Three companies from Fredericktown,
Maryland under Colonel Shriver, Shreiver Companies from Baltimore under General
Charles Edgerton, second to light Brigade as well.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
All right, it's like guys well John Brown. He was
dead certain that thousands of enslaved people would flock into
this cause, so he stuck around Harper's Ferry way too long.
The town's on this narrow strip of land, practically in island.
Some even called it the island of Virginia. Behind noon,
any chance of getting out was gone. His crew lost

(27:06):
both bridges out of town, and with the terrain, those
were the only ways to escape. The other bridge over
the Shenandoah River heading east was already history. Not even
its pillars were left standing.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Militia companies led by Colonel's Baylor and Gibson. They showed
up and pushed Brown's men to ditch their spots. With
no way out, the raiders hold up in the toughest
building in the armory, a solid stone fire engine house
later called John Brown's Fort. They had two old, clunky
fire engines and a hose cart inside. They barricaded the place,
blocking the few windows, shoving the engines and cart against

(27:40):
the heavy doors and tying ropes to reinforce something, and
then punched small holes in the walls and traded the
scattered gunfire with the militia outside. Between two and three pm,
things got heated, with a lot of shooting back and
forth and just going at him.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Were we go. That day four townsfolk killed, including the
mayor who ran the trains and used to be the
county sheriff. You had eight militiamen. They got wounded, but
the militia was a mess, lousy weapons, no discipline, and frankly,
a lot of them were just hammered freaking drunk. By

(28:13):
the time Colonel Robert E. Lee and the United States
Marines rolled in on the Tuesday of October eighteenth, most
of the militia and plenty of the townspeople were a drunken,
disorganized mess. Charleston Mercury called it a broad and pathetic farce.
Governor Wise, he was reportedly furious to help badly the
local militia handle things.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
What do you expect? At one point, Brown said his
son Watson and Aaron Dwight Stevens out with the white flag,
but it went south fast. Watson he took a boat
from a townsmen and clung to life for over twenty
five and twenty four agonizing hours before he died. Stevens
he got shot to and was captured. The raid was
falling apart. One of Brown's guys, WILLIAMS. Leman. William Leman,

(28:55):
he freaked out and tried to swim across the Potomac
took escape lad He was gunned down in the water
during the shooting. Another brown son's oliver He got hit
and died right next to his father after a short,
painful struggle. It's all this for nothing, Brown's third soign Owen.
He wasn't in the thick of it. He was guarding
the weapons back at the farm. He barely made it out,
trekking through Pennsylvania to his brother John Junior's place in

(29:17):
ash Taboola County, Ohio, where he ended up safe. Good
for him, look.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
At that shit. Late in the afternoon of seventeenth of October,
President Buchanan he scrambles the only federal troops nearby, which
was a detachment of the United States Marines from the
Washington Navy Yard. We're talking eighty one privates, eleven sageants,
thirteen corporals, and a bugler. Oh you gotta have the
bugler rolling out with seven howitzers.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Woo.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
They hop on the regular three point thirty train pulling
the Harpers ferrier. Around ten pm, Israel Green's calling the
shots for the Marines. Now, so Buchanan. He also taps
Brevett Colonel Robert E. Lee, who happens to be on
leave at his home just across the Potomac and Island
in Virginia.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
He's told the hotail at the Harpers and take charge.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
So Lee, who doesn't have a uniform handy, he shows
up around ten pm on a special train. He's sporting
a civilian clothes and he said, look at me, guice.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
And now at six thirty am October eighteenth, Robert E.
Lee kicks off the attack on the engine house where
John Brown's hold up. He first asked the local militia
commanders to leave the charge, but they both say no,
so Lee he sends Lieutenant Jeb Stewart, who's pitching in
as aid, to approach the engine house under a white flag.
Stuart's job is to give Brown and his man a
chance to surrender. Lee tells Lieutenant Israel Green that if

(30:33):
he doesn't give up the Marines, we're gonna storm to
plays and kill him. All right, I don't want to
do that, so oh Jeb.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
He walks up to the engine house and tells John
Brown and his crew that they can walk away alive
if they surrender. John Brown flat out refuses Jeb. He
heads back to Lee. He gives a pre set signal,
waving his hat to Green and the Marines waiting nearby.
Green's team first tries smashing away into the with sledge hammers,

(31:01):
but the doors are way too tough. Then Green spots
of ladder and he in about a dozen marines grab it.
Damned that many people to grab. They used it with
a like a battering ram to bust down the heavy doors.
The hell ladder damn. Green's the first one through and
with Lewis Washington's help. He picked John Brown out of
the chaoks.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
We'll happen next. Green later described like this, quicker than thought,
Quicker than thought. I brought my saber down with all
my strength upon Brown's head. He was moving as a blowfell,
and I suppose I did not strike Hi where I
intended before he received a deep saber cut in the
back of the neck. He fell senseless on his side,
then rolled over on his back. He had in his

(31:42):
hand a short Sharp's cavalry carbine. I think he had
just fired as I reached Colonel Washington. For the marine
who followed me into the aperture made by the ladder
received a bullet in the abdomen, from which he died
in a few minutes. The shot might have been fired
by someone else in their insurgent party, but I think
it was from Brown. Instinctively, as Brown fell, I gave
him a saber thrust in the left breast. The sword

(32:04):
I carried was a light uniform weapon and either not
having a point or striking something hard in Brown's encounterments
and didn't even penetrate The blade bent double jeez, What
the hell did he have in there?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Sit Two of the raiders murdered, the rest taken. Prisoner
John Brown was wounded before and after his surrender, The
hostages were freed, and the saw it was over lasted
three minutes. According to one marine, the raiders presented a
sad appearance. Some are wounded, others dead or dying. They

(32:35):
were a greeted with execrations, and only the precautions that
had been taken saved them from the exasperated crowd, many
of whom had relatives killed or wounded by the desperate
gang of cutthroats. Nearly every man carried a gun, and
the cry of shoot them, shoot them ring on every side.
Only the steadiness of the trained marines, under the command

(32:57):
of the great soldier Robert E. Lee, then an unknown
colonel of the United States Army, prevented the butchery of
their entire gang of outlaws.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Good for you, all right, Colonel E. Jeb Stewart. They
searched the surrounding country for fugitives who had participated in
the attack. A few of Brown's associates escaped, and among
the five who did some were sheltered by abolisious in
the north, including William Still. They pulled all the bodies
out of the engine house and laid them on the
ground in front. A few of Green's men carried John

(33:28):
Brown and Edwin Koppick, who was the only other white survivor.
They carried them to the paymaster's office next door. Oh,
there they were the others. The others got us sit
on the ground in the dirt while they take the
two whiteies that died to the to the other office.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
There they were sprawled on the floor for over a day.
Nobody sure where Shields Green and John Anthony Copeland, the
two black survivors from the engine house, who, unlike the Udis,
were injured. They didn't even know where they were kept
until they removed to the Charlestown jail on Wednesday. Green
tried to pass himself off as one of Colonel Washington's

(34:05):
enslaved people being freed, but didn't worry. Oh.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
From that moment on Brown he was bombarded with questions
from soldiers, politicians, lawyers, reporters, townsfolk, even preachers. He didn't
shy away. He soaked up the spotlight, but he did.
The first agrillam was a Virginia congressman, Alexander Bottler, who
rode over from his place in nearby Shepherdstown. He was
there when they carried Brown out of the engine house,

(34:28):
and even total Catholic priest to back off.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh, it was Shepherd's town and now it's Shepherdstown.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Right right after, five people plus a bunch of reporters
they showed up in Harper's Ferry just to talk to Brown.
They questioned him for hours while they lay there exhausted,
having gone without food or sleep for over forty eight hours.
Stamp someone later wrote that Brown brought no supplies, like
he thought God would drop food from the sky or something.
M I don't know what that buddy. Plus he didn't

(34:57):
even plan on being there that long.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Right after Bottler, the big names rolled in. Here comes
Virginia Governor Henriette Wise, his lawyer Andrew Hunter, also Jefferson
County's top attorney. Then you had Robert Old, the United
States Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent by President
Bugannon himself. Wise he set up shop and at Harpers

(35:21):
Ferry Hotel. And after he left Brown face Senator James M.
Mason from Winchester, which is in Virginia. Also Representative Charles
Faulkner from Martinsville, Virginia and Clement of Vallen Dingham, a
copperhead from Ohio.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yes, might remember him. He's the one that got thrown
in jail for yeah, talking crap about Lincoln.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
That's true Brown.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I don't know if it was Clement, but it was
a Vallandingham right.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Old John Brown had deep ties in Ohio, lived there
for years. His sons Watson and Owen, they were born there. Vallendingham.
He was just passing through arpers Berry on the B
and O air Road heading from Washington, Ohio, when he
got worried of the raid in Baltimore. You know, I
gotta checked this shit out, Oh John Brown.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Up to this point, most folks in the North and
West thought Brown was a nutcase, a fanatic who attacked
Virginia with just twenty two men, ten of whom were
killed on the spot, with seven more headed for the gallows,
not to mention five dead and nine injured among the
marines and locals. But then the newspaper started printing these interviews,
followed by Brown's powerful words at his trial, almost overnight

(36:26):
people's view of him flipped. Henry David Thorough he called
it nothing short of a miracle He says years weren't
needed for a revolution in public opinion, days, even hours
made a huge difference. Oh wait to see what it's
like nowadays.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Spot even the Governor Wise, who was all in for
hanging John Brown, he called them the gamest man I
ever saw. Bottler had good things to say as well.
Valley Dingham, who threw later pegged as no friend to Brown,
had this to say when he got to Ohio. It
is in vain to under either the man or the conspiracy. Captain.

(37:05):
John Brown is as brave and resolute a man as ever,
headed in a direction and in good cause, with a
sufficient force, would have been a consummate partisan commander. He
has coolness, daring, persistency, the stoic faith and patience, and
a firmness of will and purpose unconquerable. He's tall, wiry, muscular,

(37:28):
but with little flesh, with a cold gray eye, gray hair,
beard and mustache, compressed lips and sharp akline, nose of
cast iron face and frame, and with the powers of
endurance equal to anything needed to be done or suffered
in any cause. Though engaged in a wicked, mad and

(37:48):
fanatical enterprise, he is the farthest possible removed from the
ordinary roofing fanatic.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Or mad man.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
But his powers are rather executory than inventive, and he
never had the death or breadth of mind to originate
and contrive himself. The plan of insurrection which he undertook
to carry out conspiracy was unquestionably far more extended than
yet appears number among the conspirators many more than a

(38:16):
handful of followers who has sailed Harper's Ferry and have
it in the North and West, if not also the
South as its councilors and abbiturs men of intelligence, position
and wealth. Certainly it was one of the best planned
and best executed conspiracies that have ever failed.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Oh quote unquote, got a little bit more men with you, buds.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
Sure, I had a lot to say about his looks.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Around midday Tuesday, October eighteenth, eighteen fifty nine, Virginia Governor
Henry Wise he rolls in the Harper's Ferry for Richmond
with ninety men, only to find the whole thing's already
wrapped up his cruise bum they missed out on the action. Wise,
though always straight up furious when he hears how fast
the marine shut it down. He's fuming, saying he'd rather
lose both arms and legs and lent Virginia take this

(39:03):
hit to its pride. Oh wow, you can't believe fourteen
white guys and five black men took over the government
works and held Harper's ferry even just for an hour? Right, Well,
Colonel Robert Lee and twelve marines cleaned it up in
ten minutes flat. Oh, should be happy, right, I don't
get that all right?

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Right? In the paymaster's office at the Arsenal, why is grill?
Why is he grills? John Brown? He's laying on the
floor alongside Aaron Dwight Stevens. They're both pretty banged up
from the fight. They're stuck. They're stuck there for about
thirty hours before getting hauled off to Jefferson County jail,
even with his wounds. Of John Brown's polite and composed,

(39:44):
and he's holding his own Andrew Hunter's jotting down notes.
But there's no full record of what was said.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Well, one back and forth we know went like this.
Why says mister Brown, The silver of your hair is
reddened by the blaue out of crime, and you should
excuse these hard works and think upon eternity. You are
suffering from wounds, perhaps fatal, and you should, and should
you escape that from these causes, you must submit to
a trial which may involve death. Oh we will your

(40:13):
confessions justify the presumption that you will be found guilty.
And even now you are committed a fellon in under
the laws of Virginia, just by uttering sentiments like these.
It is better you should turn your attention to your
eternal future than be dealing in denunciations which can only
injure you.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Oh wow, John Brown. He went on to say, Governor,
I have, from all appearances, not more than fifteen or
twenty years that start of you in the journey to
the eternity of which you kindly warn me. And whether
my time here shall be fifteen months, or fifteen days
or fifteen hours, I am equally prepared to go. There

(40:49):
is an eternity behind and an eternity before, And this
little speck in the center, however long, is but comparatively
a minute. Nice wise, the difference between is that.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
A minute or a minute?

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Right? The difference between your tenure and mine is trifling.
And I therefore tell you to be prepared. I am prepared.
You all have a heavy responsibility and it behooves you
to prepare more than it does me.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Kah Oh and Captain changered Oh, Captain Dangerfield, the paymaster's
clerk at the Harper's Ferry Arsenal. He shows up for work,
he gets nabbed as a hostage. We know that he's
in the room during Governor Henry Wise's interview with John Brown,
lying on the floor. Yes, we know he's lying on
the floor. Dangerfield later says he was blown away by
how Brown handled why is this question, noting that Wyse

(41:43):
himself seems stunned by Brown's responses. This guy right, why
we're having Why haven't you been in politics? But you
could have done something more meaningful than that than insurrection?

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yes oh. Back in Richmond on Saturday, twenty second of October,
Wise he gives a speech. They get splashed across the
newspapers where it says they are themselves mistaken who take
him to be a madman. He has a bundle of
the best nerves I've ever saw, cutting, thrust, bleeding and

(42:13):
in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage,
fortitude and simple ingenuousness. He is cool, collected and indomitable.
And it is but just to him to say that
he was humane to his prisoners, as attested to me
by Colonel Washington and mister Mills. And he's inspired me
with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth.

(42:36):
He is a fanatic, vain and giruless, but firm and
truthful and intelligence just dumb.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Well, that take from Wise got famous, and by eighteen
seventy four, all over the place. Right after he said
he was the coolest, steadiest guide ever been, you'd never
seen face in danger and death. One of Brown's sons
is dead next to him, and others been shot through.
And Brown's checking his dying son's pulse with one hand
while gripping his rifle with the other. All the while

(43:05):
he's calmly directing his men, urging them to stay strong
and make their stand count. Why is he headed to
his hotel and Harper's ferry around dinner time Tuesday, October eighteenth,
eighteen fifty nine, and he said, all right, that's it
for me.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
He's like, I can't believe this shit. A Virginia Senator
James Mason, who lived just up the road in Winchester
and would later lead the Senate Committee dig It into
the raid. He rushed to Harper's ferry to question John Brown.
Congressman Clement valing Dingham from Ohio would describe Brown as
sincere ernest.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
I'm clumbing to Vallanin Digham from Ohio. I got to
remind you of every single fucking he said.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
John Brown was sincere ernest in practical He was there
as well, as we always said, a hundred tames, along
with Virginia's Charles Faulkner, Robert E. Lee and a few
other big names. They weren't very big if you can
name them. Right. About ten to twelve people were in
the room at any given time.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Awesome coming to the party. Lee made it clear he'd
kick everyone out if the wounded men seem bothered or
pain the Brown waved that off, saying he isn't annoyed
at all. In fact, he was happy to have the
chance to lay out his reasons, to make himself crystal clear.
I claim to be here in carrying out a measure
I believe perfectly justifiable and not tack the part of
an incendiary or a rufian, but to aid those suffering

(44:17):
great wrong. I mean he had a good message.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
He just went out the wrong way of doing it.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I wish to say furthermore that you had better, all
you people at the south prepare yourselves for a settlement
of that question that must come up for a settlement
sooner than you were prepared for it. And sooner you
are prepared, the better you may dispose of me very easily.
I'm nearly disposed of now. But this question is still
to be settled, this Negro question, I mean, the end

(44:41):
of that. It's not yet.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
He was right, it's not yet.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
Reporter snographer from New York Herald showed up just after
two pm took down a verbatim transcript of John Brown's
interview in the paymaster's office.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
He's led out the floor.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
He missed the start, but what he captured got published
in full or in parts across tons of newspapers. It's
the fullest public statement we've got from John Brown about
the Harper's Ferry raid ever. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Well, by one fifteen am October nineteenth, Robert E. Lee
and the Marines, except for Israel Green, they hoped the
only eastbound express train out of Harper's Ferry and head
back to Washington.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
Yeah, they're done here.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Well, that same day, Lee wraps up his report and
fires it off to the War Department. In that report,
he breaks down what went down at Harper's Ferry. He
calls Brown's plan to raid the arsenal the work of
a fanatic or madman. He's convinced the black folks evolved
were dragged into it by Brown, writing the blacks whom
he forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far
as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance. It

(45:42):
seemed that way. Lee chalks up brown short lived success
to the chaos and panic lots people blowing the number
of raiders way out of proportion. He wraps up by
saying he's sending the Marines back to the Navy yard.
Oh okay, then they don't.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Need to me right Meanwhile, up nor wise, He's still
in the Harper's Ferry on Wednesday. He's taken to every
detail of the raid. He's determined to track down anyone involved.
Handwritten note on a copy of John Brown's Provisional Constitution
now at Yale University Library says that John Brown handed
it twice. Is that very day, which was October nineteenth,

(46:18):
while he was lying wounded on the ground in the
Paymaster's office just before they moved him from the United
States Grounds at Harper Ferry. That evening, the prisoners are
loaded onto a train to Charlestown and they're locked up
in Jefferson County Jail. The press calls it a very
pretty jail, like a nice private home. Wis in his

(46:40):
attorney Andrew Hunter right along the jails, described as a
meek looking a meek looking edifice. Wait, is it a
nice private home or is a door almost like it
used to be someone's fancy house. Brown writes to his
family and saying he's got pretty much everything he needs
to be comfortable. New York Tribune's reporter on the scene
choice right.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Brown is comfortably situated as a man can be in jail.
He has a pleasant room which is shared by Stevens,
whose recovery remains doubtful. He has opportunities of occupying himself
by writing and reading's Jaylor. ABIs was of the party
who assisted and captured him. Brown says Abas is one
of the bravest men he ever saw, and that his
treatment is precisely what he should expect from such a

(47:20):
brave fellow. Oh, he's permitted to receive such visitors as
he desires to see. Oh that's cool, He says, he
welcomes everyone, and that he is preaching, even in jail,
with great effect upon the normanities of slavery, and with
arguments that everybody fails to answer. His friends say with
regret that in many of his recent conversations he has
been he has given stronger reason for a belief that

(47:42):
he is insane than ever before. Oh Brown's wounds, accepting
one cut on the back of the head, they have
now all healed. Oh yeah, dude, Analds got decapitated to
da John Brown's row. John Brown's trial was rushed through
the system. Grand Jerry hit him with chilges of treason
against Virginia. They hit him with murder charges.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
They even stirred up his slaver and even stirring up
a slave rebellion. Jerry didn't take long to find him
guilty on all accounts. November second, eighteen fifty nine, he
got a death sentence after a mandatory thirty day weight.
John Brown was hanged on December second, eighteen fifty nine.
John Wilkes Booth, the actor who later killed President Lincoln,

(48:25):
was there watching the execution. The authorities kept spectators far
enough away that John Brown couldn't give a final speech,
either at the gallows or on the way there. His
last's words were scribbled on a piece of paper. He
added to his jailer, Captain John Davis, whom John Brown
always spoke highly of in his letters. This letter said, Ah,

(48:45):
John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of
this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood.
I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself, that
without very much blood sh shed it might be done.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Nope, You're gonna have a lot of bloodshed, Bud, Yeah, Well,
four other raiders are executed December sixteenth, and two more
March sixteenth, eighteen sixteenth. Dam in his last speech, had
his sentence, and he said to the court, had I
so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligence,
the so called great, or in behalf of any of
their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children,

(49:23):
or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what
I have in this interference, it would have all been
all right, and every man in this court would have
deemed it and act worthy of reward. Rather than punishment,
meaning if I would have come up and tried to
save your mom and your dad, your wife, your sister,
your brother, your husband, and anything else, you'd have praised me. Wow.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Sudden Theres had a complicated view of their enslaved people.
Many white sudden Theers were constantly on edge. They're terrified
of another slave uprising, Yet they also insisted slaves were happy.
In Shain's pointing fingers at Northern abolitionists for any unrest.
Right after John Brown's raid, the South was gripped by panic,
bracing for slave rebellions or even attacks by armed abolitionists.

(50:07):
But by the time Brown was executed, their mood shifted.
Governor Wise and others. They claimed no slaves stepped up
to even join John Brown, which Southerners took his proof
that slaves were content at being slaves.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
What are they going to give their lives up for?

Speaker 3 (50:24):
What are they gonna do? Right?

Speaker 2 (50:26):
This fed their narrative, and when Northerners started praising Brown's intentions,
some even called him a martyr, Southerners went from relief
to what historian James McPherson called unreasoning fury. Ooh. At first,
Northern abolitionists were stunned and critical Brown's raid. William Lloyd Garrison,
who swore by non violent persuasion, called it misguided, wild

(50:46):
and apparently insane.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Yeah, it was wild at least.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
But as Brown's trial unfolded and he faced the gallows,
opinions flipped. He became a martyr. In the North, Henry
David Thoreau were through Brew and his ap plea for
Captain John Brown. He argued that Brown's use of Sharp's
rifles and revolvers was justified, saying for once the tools
were in the hands of one who could use them ooh,
and claiming Brown had a spark of divinity in him.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Right. But to the South, Brown was a murderer out
to steal their property, which were their slaves, and Debao's
review raged at the North had sanctioned and plotted theft,
murder and treason. The Richmond Inquirer captured the South's reaction
as horror and an indignation. Still, it wasn't It wasn't

(51:35):
all fear and anger. Historian Can't Blazer. He notes that
in the North Carolina there was surprisingly little panic, oh,
very possible race war, and folks made a big deal
out of slaves not joining Brown like.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
The boy ash, Let's not care. Let's give him a
couple more pieces of rice for dinner.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
The Republican Party catching heat for supposedly inspiring Brown with
our anti slavery stamps, they pushed back arm They flipped
the script, arguing Brown's raid wasn't their fault, but it
was instead sparked by Democrats who packed filibusters like William
Walker and Narciso Lopez. These guys, they tried to topple
foreign governments with support from Democratic politicians, the Republicans say,

(52:15):
and that's what gave Brown the idea to pull off
something similar here in the old United States of America.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was the final big
spark that set the stage for the American Civil War.
The Richmond Inquired put it bluntly, the Harper's Ferry invasion
has done more to push the cause of disunion than
anything since the government was formed. It's polling people who
used to shudder at the idea and fired up the
dream of a Southern confederacy with ten times the passion.

(52:46):
The raid itself was a flop in that very moment,
but it shook things up big time, big time. It
helped pave the way for Abraham Lincoln's election in eighteen sixty,
and Jefferson Davis pointed to it as a reason for
the Southern is to bolt from the Union, even if
it meant wading through a sea of blood.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Well, we already know seven seven Southern states they formed
the compenacy after the war kicked off. Four more followed.
Brown seemed to see it coming. His last note before
they hanged him said, and the crimes of this guilty
land will never be purged away, but with blood. Historian
David Reynolds he sees it a bit differently, don't they always?
You know? The raid didn't end slavery, he says the
way Brown thought it would. Didn't spark slave rebellions across

(53:27):
the South, but it hit hard because of how Brown
acted during and after it, and how people on both
sides of the slavery fight saw him. The raid didn't
start the storm Brown, and the reaction to him.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Did exactly wow. The raid, the trial, and the execution.
It lit a fire under both Northern abolitionists and Southern
slavery supporters. He kicked off a wave of political organizing
up North, public meetings popped up to cheer Brown on,
often collecting money for his family. These gatherings gave the

(54:00):
era's biggest thinkers an activists a chance to double down
on their fight against slavery, but down south it hotened
the push for succession.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Sure dead, he must go over. Some casualties up in
this piece? Huh well, count old Johnny. There were twenty
two raiders fifteen white, seven black. Ten killed during the raid.
Seven were tried and executed afterwards. Five they escaped. Oh,
good for them. In addition, Brown was assisted by at
least two local enslaved people, one who was killed and

(54:29):
the other died in jail.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Oh, how do he die in jail? All right?

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Some other casualties civilian and the civilian. Civilian and military
killed Hayward Sheppard, who was a free African American railroad
baggage master. He was buried in the African American Cemetery
on Route eleven and Winchester in nineteen thirty two. No
one can find his grave. Uh, I'm assuming still. Private
lou quinn Us Marines was killed during the storming of
the engine house. He was buried in Harper's Ferry Catholic

(54:55):
Cemetery on Route three forty. I be they can buy
new grape. Thomas Boorley down person. According to Richard Hinton,
mister Burleigh, he was killed by Shields Green, son of
a bitch George Turner. He was a downsperson dead. Fontaine Beckham,
Harper's ferry mayor and railroad station master and former sheriff.

(55:15):
He was uh his well book called for the liberation
of Isaac Gilbert, Gilbert's wife and their three children upon
his death. All that when Edwin Koppick murdered Beckham, the
enslaved family was thus freedom.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Oh look at that shit.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Slave owned by Colonel Washington was killed. Slave owned by
Hossa John Alstede was killed. Both blaves voluntarily joined Brown's raiders.
One was killed trying to escape across the Potomac thought
it was wounded and later died in the jail. Last
one okay, and some wounded but survive. Private Matthew Rupert
Marines shot in the face during the storming of the
engine out Edward McCabe, Harper's ferry laborer Samuel C. Young

(55:54):
Charlestown Militia as it was permanently disabled by a wound
received in defense of the Southern institutions slavery. A pamphlet
was published to raise money for him. Okay Martinsburg, Virginia
Militia members injured, George Murphy, George Richardson, G. N. Hammond Avan, Dorsey,
Nelson Hooper and George will Let Fox up with the Georgies.
Holy shit.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
A bunch of John Brown's old homes are now small
museums you can visit. The only big street named after
him is in Port au Prince, which is in Haiti,
where you will also find an avenue Charles Sumner in
Harper's Ferry, the engine House and now called John Brown's Fort.
It's part of a park. You can walk through it.
You can even check out a display that breaks down

(56:36):
what happened there. There's also a cenotaph in Oberlin, Ohio.
This honors three black men who took part in the raid.
For you.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
I'm from fifty nine until Lincolns assassination at sixty five.
John Brown was the most famous guy in America. He
was a lightning rod for the country's divide in the north.
He was a hero. When they hanged him, it was
like a day of morning. Some cities even flew flags
at half staff to white Southerners. He was a criminal
trader stern up slave rebellions. People still debate whether Brown

(57:08):
really thought his ragtag understaff attack on Harper's ferry could work,
or if he knew it was doomed but wanted the
buzz that would create for the abolitionist cause. Maybe a
little bit about it.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
I think he actually thought would work because he thought
he was at least gonna get fifty sixty seventy eighty slaves,
and that never showed up.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
I think it was a little bit of both, though.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Yeah, William Lloyd Garrison, and he put it like this,
his raid into Virginia, Well, it looks like I had
no common sense, a desperate self sacrifice to shake the
slave system to its core and to speed up in
national reckoning. Yeah. Brown's provisional Constitution, which he had piles
of copies printed for, wasn't just a governing plan. It

(57:47):
was meant to scare people. Oh odad.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Back in eighteen fifty one, Brown wrote something tell him
the trial of one bold guy fighting for his rights
for real would stir up sympathy across the country than
the piled up wrongs and suffering of over three million
of our submissive colored population. His son Salmon, looking back
fifty years later, said he wanted to bring on the war.
I heard him talk about it plenty of.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Times, right, he wanted uprising.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Brown made sure his arrest, trial, and execution got as
much attention as possible. He even asked for his fiery
constitution to be read out loud. He love to talk.
On his way to the gallows. Authorities kept spectators too
far away so we couldn't spew some more of his bullshit.
Buddy manages to slip his now famous final message to
the old jailor who asked for his autograph as well.
Like that, And that's the story of John Brown and

(58:38):
his raid at Harper's Ferry. I mean, did what he
probably wanted to got attention. And he was old anyway,
wouldn't he He was sixties old enough, I guess. So yep,
that's John Brown, yeah, right of Harper's Ferry. One of
the kicking off moments for the Old Civil War that
we've already covered tenfold. Apparently not though you missing battles,

(59:00):
So keep it here as we uh do some more
battles and do some more everything that has to do
with the Civil War. So ye, we'll see you next
week for whatever we whatever we come up with next.
So this is the mother minching enter rating h chip