In October 1859, a man named John Brown led a group of armed abolitionists in an attack on the US military arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry used to be a part of Virginia, but it is now located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet, hence the need for a ferry. The raid was meant to be the first step in a detailed plan to create an independent refuge for freed slaves in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia. It didn’t exactly end up that way. During the raid, Brown was captured. He was then convicted of treason and hanged. It was thought that the worst of the uprising might be over, but the raid actually heightened fears of slave uprisings among the white Southerners and escalated the growing tension between the Northern and Southern states which led up to the American Civil War that raged between 1861 and 1865.
John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800 and raised in Ohio. He came from a staunchly Calvinist and anti-slavery family. Brown spent much of his life struggling with failed businesses, finally declaring bankruptcy in his early 40s and facing over 20 lawsuits. However, in 1837, his life took a drastic turn when he attended an abolition meeting in Cleveland. Brown was deeply inspired, and he pledged to dedicate himself to ending slavery. By 1848, Brown was launching plans to spark an insurrection.
In the 1850s, Brown took five of his sons to join the fight against pro-slavery forces in Kansas in the battle for 
the territory. After pro-slavery men attacked the abolitionist town of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, Brown sought revenge. A few days later, he and his sons set out to raid cabins along Pottawatomie Creek, killing five men with broadswords and sparking a summer of guerrilla warfare in the area. One of Brown’s sons lost his life during the conflict.
The death of his son only served to further anger Brown, and by 1857, he returned to the East and began raising money to carry out his vision of a mass uprising of slaves. Even with the loss of his son, Brown secured the backing of six prominent abolitionists, known as the “Secret Six.” They assembled an invasion force, and his “army” quickly grew to include more than 20 men. Several black men joined Brown and three of his sons. The group rented a Maryland farm near Harpers Ferry and began to prepare for the assault.
On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and his group seized the federal arsenal. Some of his men took several hostages, including a few enslaved individuals. News of the raid spread quickly, and by the next day, Brown and his men were surrounded. On October 18, US Marines, led by Colonel Robert E Lee and Lieutenant J 
E B Stuart, stormed the arsenal. Brown was wounded and captured, while 10 of his men, including two of his sons, were killed. Brown was tried for treason and murder in Virginia. He was found guilty on November 2nd. The 59-year-old abolitionist was executed on December 2, 1859. Before his execution, he gave his guard a note that read, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” The raid definitely failed, but it served to heighten tensions between the North and South and influence the 1860 presidential election. It also proved that further compromise was impossible and became a key factor leading to the Civil War.
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