Volta
Conflict16 – 18 October 1859

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

Also called: Raid on Harpers Ferry

The abolitionist John Brown seized the federal armory at Harpers Ferry to start a slave uprising, but was overpowered by Marines, captured and hanged that December.

US Marines storming the engine house — wood engraving in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 1859, Library of Congress
US Marines storming the engine house — wood engraving in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 1859, Library of Congress

Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress · Public domain · Source

On the night of 16 October 1859 John Brown led 21 men, five of them Black, to seize the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today West Virginia). He meant to arm enslaved people for a rising, but none came, and surrounded by militia the raiders were trapped in the armory’s fire-engine house.

On 18 October Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee broke down the doors and captured Brown. Ten raiders were killed; Brown was tried for treason and hanged at Charles Town on 2 December. The South feared that the North was inciting slave revolt, while some Northerners hailed him as a martyr, and the rift between the sections widened.

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States and rulers at the time
United States — President James Buchanan
Places
Harpers Ferry

People

  • John Brown1800 – 1859

    key figure · Abolitionist who advocated armed struggle; he fought in Kansas and in 1859 raided the Harpers Ferry armory, for which he was hanged

  • Robert E. Lee1807 – 1870

    commander · Confederate general who led the Army of Northern Virginia to many victories, lost at Gettysburg and surrendered at Appomattox in 1865

  • Frederick Douglass1818 – 1895

    related figure · Born enslaved in Maryland, he escaped to become the leading abolitionist orator and writer, and recruited Black soldiers for the Union

Before and after

Earlier
1858 US–Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce
Later
1860 Election of Lincoln (1860 Presidential Election)

Themes that include this event

  • The American Civil War1850 – 1865

    From the Compromise of 1850 to Lincoln’s assassination — a nation divided over slavery fought four years of civil war, preserving the Union and ending slavery