John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

On the night of 16 October 1859, John Brown and a small interracial group seized the federal armoury at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown intended to distribute weapons and encourage enslaved people to join a widening revolt against slaveholders.

The expected uprising did not occur, and militia and United States Marines surrounded the raiders. Brown was captured on 18 October, tried by Virginia and executed in December. His conduct, defence and death made him a martyr to many abolitionists and a symbol of Northern threat to many white Southerners.

The Good Lord Bird carries Henry Shackleford through Brown’s preparations and into the failed raid.