4 minute read
John Brown
From the ACWM Collection
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led his small band of followers to Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, with the intent of capturing the U.S. arsenal and the thousands of weapons there and raising a slave rebellion in the surrounding counties.
Overconfidence in his own abilities and incredibly poor planning doomed the endeavor almost before it began. Despite the financial backing by some prominent northern abolitionists, he was unable to fulfill his dream of ridding the country of slavery. John Brown was captured two days after his great rebellion began, was tried, and sentenced to hang. Republican politicians tried to publically distance themselves from Brown, condemning his methods while at the same time praising his ideals. Many abolitionists saw him as a martyr, while those in the slave states saw him as a dangerous example of things to come if the “Black Republicans” gained control of the White House at the next election.
Approximately 950 pikes were commissioned for use in his fight against slavery in Kansas, but ending up being brought to Harper’s Ferry. The pikes were intended to arm the slaves who rushed to join his rebellion but were left unused.
Despite orders to the contrary, many of the pikes were taken as souvenirs by soldiers and civilians in Harper’s Ferry. Southern secessionists used them as propaganda, displaying them in public with such sardonic messages as: “Sample of the favors designed for us by our Northern Bretheren.”
There was a strong military presence at Brown’s execution. In fear of a rescue attempt, the public was kept well away from the proceedings. The route from the jail to the scaffold was flanked with lines of riflemen, and two hollow squares of soldiers, standing shoulder to shoulder with fixed bayonets, surrounded the scaffold. The scene more resembled a military parade than an execution.
The donor of this photograph (below) described it as “a relic of the ‘John Brown war’ taken at Harper’s Ferry or Charles Town” in 1859. She identified the two seated figures and speculated on the identities of two others. Seated left is William B. Taliaferro, later to become a general in the Confederate army. Seated right is Samuel French who would serve as a volunteer aide-de-camp on “Stonewall” Jackson’s staff. Standing in the center is Alexander Taliaferro (brother of William Taliaferro), and to his left is Captain Obadiah Jennings Wise, son of Virginia’s governor, Henry Wise. The man in profile saluting is unidentified.
Members of the 1st Company, Richmond Howitzers (pictured below), believed taken in Charlestown, (West) Virginia in 1859, at the time of John Brown's execution. Soldiers in the photograph include George Wythe Randolph, John Camden Shields, Hugh Rose Pleasants, and William F. Watson.
The scaffold for the execution of John Brown was erected in the middle of a large, nondescript field at the edge of Charlestown not far from the courthouse jail where Brown was incarcerated. The field was covered in rye and corn stubble and without any distinguishing landmarks. Such a barren site was chosen “so as to prevent any one being able to recognize it thereafter.” The authorities did not want the spot to become “hallowed ground” to those professing Brown’s martyrdom. The scaffold was erected one day and taken down the next. END
