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After the Pottawotamie Massacre, John Brown left Kansas for the East. Funded by a group of abolitionists, he planned to raid the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia and incite a slave rebellion. On October 16, 1859, Brown and eighteen men, including five African Americans, seized the arsenal, killing the town's mayor and holding eleven local citizens hostage. The following day, militia troops surrounded the arsenal; after two days of fighting, Brown surrendered to a force of U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee. Twenty-one people died at Harper's Ferry, including seven blacks and two of his sons. | |||
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"Harper's
Ferry Insurrection - The Battle Ground -
Captain Albert's Party Attacking the Insurgents," engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, November 5, 1859 Click
image to enlarge. |
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