On October 16, 1859 John Brown, fresh from a successful guerrilla war that kept Kansas from entering the US as a slave state, attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in today's West Virginia with a small force of armed men. Brown came to Virginia to carry the war against slavery directly to the slaveowners' doorsteps. His plan was to put an army of runaway slaves and abolitionists onto the Blue Ridge. He and his backers believed that this initial force would terrorize the slaveowners, embolden those still in captivity and liberate the South.
Brown's expectations were cut short when his small army was trapped and then captured in town by U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee.
The People's Organization for Progress will honor the 150th Anniversary of the Harpers Ferry Raid on Thursday, Oct 15, 2009, with a presentation by Dr. Bill Sales, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Seton Hall University. To download a PDF version of the event poster, click HERE on this link.
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