Posted on 03/21/2009 7:02:03 AM PDT by Liz
A series of reenactments, dramatic productions, family activities and special tours are scheduled this year as Civil War sites in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania commemorate the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s October 1859 raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Although the raid itself failed, it succeeded in exacerbating the divide between North and South, pushing the nation closer to civil war.
“Before the raid, negotiations and a compromise between North and South might have been possible; however, after the attack—and Brown’s trial and hanging—emotions ran so high that armed conflict became inevitable,” says Tom Riford of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
At the time, Brown was denounced on both sides of the Mason–Dixon Line as a terrorist and an enemy of the Union, but others just as passionately revered him as a martyr. Brown inspires those same polarized opinions among today’s visitors to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (nps.gov/hafe), says Todd Bolton, events committee chair for the John Brown Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee (johnbrownraid.org). “Our job at Harpers Ferry is to present the facts and the history, and let people decide for themselves,” he says.
There will be plenty of opportunities this year to learn about Brown, beginning on April 18 with the first Signature Event of the sesquicentennial: “Prelude to History: The Wedding of Virginia Kennedy” at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The day’s attractions include a dramatic monologue about the raid told from the perspective of the wife of raider John Cook. Visitors can also enjoy period music, youth activities and tours of the Lower Town at Harpers Ferry, which has been preserved as it appeared during the Civil War era.
The town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, bordering Maryland and Virginia. The 3,500-acre National Park extends into all three states. Brown had his northern headquarters in Pennsylvania, the fourth member of the quad-state committee. On May 22, the John Brown House in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, will be rededicated and reopened after a major renovation.
The Kennedy Farmhouse in Samples Manor, Maryland, staging place for the raid, will host a rare open house with tours and demonstrations July 12. Frederick County, Maryland, attracts the spotlight August 8–9 for its Militia and Fire Company Days, with displays of antique fire-fighting equipment. Other events happen throughout the summer and fall, including regular ranger-guided tours of Brown-related sites in the National Park and surrounding areas.
The centerpiece of the sesquicentennial observation takes place in the Harpers Ferry area October 16–18, 150 years to the day after the raid and subsequent siege. Following a twilight reenactment Friday of Brown’s six-mile march to Harpers Ferry, the commemoration continues on Saturday and Sunday with a full slate of music, living history, family activities and ranger-guided programs.
Because of the significance of the raid, the John Brown Sesquicentennial is regarded as a prelude to the Civil War Sesquicentennial, which the nation will observe from 2011 to 2015.
—Theresa Gawlas Medoff
Learn more about the Civil War and the nation’s sesquicentennial plans at cwar.nps.gov/civilwar/abcivwarSesqInit.htm. The information in this story was accurate when it was published in the March/April 2009 issue of AAA World, but dates, times and prices may have changed since then. We suggest you verify such details directly with the listed establishments before making travel plans.
Email: info@johnbrownraid.org
I guess that shows how full of S he was.
"Quite odd" indeed.
Brown was executed in 1859, when all the states were still "Union states."
How about the South seceding again...?.:) The present Administration certainly gives a thought of it......
You need to stop reading “uncle Tom’s Cabin”....
Most slaves were not brutalized.
Actually Uncle Tom’s Cabin made a very good case that most slaves were not brutalized.
I guess those damned slaves, inhuman as they were, should have just been left to suffer since they were just propert. A wonderful law, unless you were a slave.
And citizens of the “noble Southern heritage” wonder why more and more of the nation thinks that everything of associated with the Confederacy is nothing more than a ruse to re-establish slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws,and lynching.
BTW:And killing Jews was the “law of the land in Germany”
You animal!!!
Slavery of another human being in and of itself is brutal.
To think otherwise is inhuman.
And isn’t it funny that all of the civilized country’s ,Britain,Brazil Russia,Portugal ect manged to to free their slaves without the actions of blood swillng lunatics and rapple rousers
free dixie,sw
BOTH got PRECISELY what they deserved.
btw, Haywood Sheppard was a VA lawman, as well as a railway porter/nightwatchman. he is revered as the FIRST of many a Confederate martyr by many Virginians.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
just out of curiosity, are you also calling for another meeting of "The DAMNyankee Coven, of fools, liars, bigots, raving lunatics, antisemites & DUMB-bunnies", too???
currently, at least half of "the good 'ole rebs" are present & accounted for.
rotflmRao.
free dixie,sw
those are the same sort of UNeducated, IGNORANT (and all too frequently, downright STUPID) people, who believe that the War for Southern Independence was about "freeing the slaves".
"what most people think" is FREQUENTLY untruthful, arrogantly ignorant & filled with HATE for dixie & her people.
FYI, most of the idiots, who saddled this nation with 4 years of BHO (the FASCIST), are also DAMNyankees.
free dixie,sw
I'd say you'd probably want to re say that differently, it is unBiblical to murder anyone.
Just to add my 2 cents here, I'm pretty sure that John Brown didn't see his killings as murder but saw his work of killing as taking of the Biblical law into his own hands instead of letting the government of the land that he was living in do it. He saw that the government of the land wasn't going to do anything about the injustice he saw so he set out to do justice as he saw it in Biblical terms. A modern day example of this thinking is some one that is pro life shooting some one that preforms abortions. In my opinion the Biblical case would be for him to teach or preach to other about the injustice he saw and to get the government of the land in which he lived to change their law to reflect a more Biblical law or to enforce the Biblical law that was built into the civil law which I believe was already on the books at the time. Basically it is the Biblical duty to teach the law, let the government of the land to fulfill the law or not, and to let God bless them or curse them for keeping the law or for breaking the law.
So you agree that “Most slaves were not brutalized.” and that slavery in and of itself is not brutal??
Oh My God.
If you took the time to read the post you would realize that by his/her statements, the moron I was replying to inferred that because Uncle Tom’s Cabin made the case for slaves not all being brutalized slavery was O.K.
THAT is why I went after him, not about friggin’ geography.
No. I don’t believe anyone should wish someone else to go there.
By the way, it’s been a while. Hope you are well.
That book ever arrive?
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