American History Tellers - Bleeding Kansas | The Raid on Harpers Ferry | 3

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

In December 1858, John Brown was back in Kansas and Missouri, making headlines for dramatic and deadly raids on plantations. He and his followers freed 11 enslaved men and women and led them on an 1,100-mile journey to freedom in Canada.But all the while, Brown was focused on finally launching his long-planned attack on slavery in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. After months of preparation, on the night of October 16th, 1859, Brown and his “army” captured the town’s federal arsenal and armory. It was the start of 36 hours of chaos and bloodshed that would shake America to its core.Listen to new episodes 1 week early and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/historytellers.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's January 1859. You're near Straight Creek in northeast Kansas. It's been a year since you joined up with John Brown in his war on slavery. The decision has renewed your faith in justice and human decency. But Brown has a lot of enemies. Now you're on the run with him and 11 fugitive slaves you helped free from Missouri plantations.

You're hiding out in a cabin that doubles as a station on the Underground Railroad, and you've just gone down to the creek to water your horse. You're startled to see a young man on horseback emerging through the trees. He's carrying a rifle, wearing a shiny badge on his chest. Good morning. Deputy U.S. Marshal from Lecompton.

How do you do, Deputy? I'm searching this area for runaway slaves. You haven't seen any, have you? You know the Missouri governor is offering a $3,000 reward for Brown's capture, and this marshal is probably looking to claim it. Your mind races as you quickly come up with a plan. As a matter of fact, Deputy, I have. Captured two fugitive slaves just this morning.

They're back in my cabin. Why don't you follow me there? It's just through this patch of trees. Oh, well, thank you. I'm much obliged. You can tell your frankness has caught him off guard. He doesn't suspect a thing. Come on now, girl. You lead your horse away from the water, urging her back toward the cabin. The marshal follows along. Here we are, deputy. Let me just tie up my mare. She has a bad habit of getting away if I don't make sure her tether is secure.

You busy yourself, pretending to tie up your horse, hoping that you're giving the other men inside the cabin time to see the marshal coming. That should do it. Come on now, I'll show you where I'm keeping those slaves. The Marshal follows you up to the cabin. You stop on the porch and gesture to the closed door. After you, Deputy. They're just inside. U.S. Deputy Marshal, I'm coming in. The Marshal throws open the door, but before he can step over the threshold, your comrades rush out, guns drawn. Surrender and drop your weapon. Surprised, the Marshal drops his rifle and raises his arms.

One of the men hands you some rope and you force the Marshal's arms behind his back and tie his hands together. I'm afraid we're going to have to take you prisoner, Deputy. As you look at the Marshal's dumbstruck expression, a feeling of triumph washes over you. Before you joined John Brown, you never dreamed you'd do something like this, taking a U.S. marshal as hostage. But being part of his gang fills you with a sense of purpose and power. You are certain that the institution of slavery is a great evil, and you are on the righteous quest to do whatever it takes to destroy it. Like the product. A custom in front of our panel of experts. Gwyneth Paltrow. Anthony Anderson.

Tabitha Brown. Tony Hawk. Oh, my God. Buy it now. Stream free on Freeview and Prime Video. From the team behind American History Tellers comes a new book, The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, intimate moments, and shocking scandals that shaped our nation. From the War of 1812 to Watergate. Available now wherever you get your books. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.

At the end of 1858, John Brown was back in Kansas and once again launching bold attacks on slavery, raiding plantations, killing slaveholders, and dodging law enforcement at every turn. All the while, Brown had a bigger goal in mind. He was set on finally carrying out his long-planned invasion of Virginia and forcing a national reckoning over slavery. But he had to operate in secret after a former ally threatened to betray his plans. For years, Brown had been a soldier in a guerrilla war in Kansas. Now he was planning to lead a direct war on slavery itself. Soon, Brown would command an integrated army on a daring plot to attack a federal arsenal in Virginia, hoping to spark an uprising that would topple the institution of slavery once and for all.

This is Episode 3, The Raid on Harper's Ferry. In 1858, John Brown was restless. He desperately wanted to launch his assault on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but standing in the way was his former ally, Hugh Forbes. Forbes was an English war mercenary who had left his wife and daughter behind to seek work in America. Brown had hired him to train his troops the previous fall, but the two argued over salary and strategy and eventually fell out. Bitter and vengeful, Forbes hoped to use his inside knowledge of Brown's plot to make money for himself and his family. He threatened to blackmail leading abolitionists he thought might be backing Brown, and he wrote angry letters to

senators revealing Brown's plans. Forbes' attacks on Brown were so petty and personal that most dismissed him. But the Secret Six, the clandestine group of radical abolitionists that was funding Brown, grew nervous. They urged Brown to put his plans on hold. Brown knew that if he was going to discredit Forbes, he would need to distance himself from Virginia. So in June 1858, he returned to Kansas. He traveled in disguise, growing a long white beard and assuming an alias. Over the next several months, Brown bided his time. But by the end of the year, he was back on the offensive. In late December, Brown and his followers rode into Missouri and led raids on three plantations.

They freed 11 enslaved people from bondage, killed a slaveholder, and stole wagons and horses along the way. The raids made national news. President James Buchanan offered a $250 reward for Brown's capture, but Brown announced his own reward, $2.50 for the arrest of Buchanan. That winter, Brown and his men led the freed slaves on a 1,000-mile journey to freedom in Canada. They took shelter at underground railroad stations and evaded law enforcement through a combination of luck and sheer nerve. On January 31, 1859, a posse of 45 federal marshals caught up to Brown's force of just 21 men in Spring Creek,

Kansas. With characteristic reckless courage, Brown ordered his outnumbered men to charge. The marshals panicked, dug their spurs into their horses, galloping off in fear. Brown's men chased them for six miles and returned with a prize of five horses and four prisoners. A reporter branded the clash the Battle of the Spurs, mocking the marshal's hasty retreat. Brown's exploits cemented his status as a legend to the anti-slavery cause. A Kansas journalist wrote, Old Captain Brown cordially invites all pro-slavery men to try their hands at arresting him. Afterwards, the group pushed on through Illinois and Michigan. And finally, in March, after 82 days of difficult and dangerous travel through bitter winter cold,

Brown put the men and women he had liberated on a ferry bound for Canada. The journey was unique among Underground Railroad escapes for how brazenly open it was. Flush with this success, Brown was finally ready to reactivate his plans for Harper's Ferry. It had been a year since Forbes had sounded the alarm, and Brown felt secure that the storm had blown over. But he needed to rally his supporters. He met with members of the Secret Six, who contributed an additional $2,000 to his war chest. In June, Brown used his new funds to arrange for the completion and delivery of nearly 1,000 pikes,

the weapons he had ordered from a Connecticut blacksmith two years earlier. Brown then returned home to North Elba, New York, to say goodbye to his wife and daughters. He also went to collect his sons, who had long been his most loyal deputies. 37-year-old John Jr. agreed to help with preparations, while his younger brothers Owen, Oliver, and Watson would join the raid itself. Jason stayed behind, still scarred from his experiences in bleeding Kansas, as did Brown's second youngest son, Salmon. Though he had participated in the gory Pottawatomie Massacre, Salmon was convinced that attacking Virginia would be a grave mistake. Brown was stung by his son's

refusal, telling his wife that it disappointed him more than anything his children had ever done. On July 3, 1859, Brown arrived in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, accompanied by Owen, Oliver, and another Kansas veteran. He rented a farm a few miles away in Maryland, which would serve as his headquarters for the next three months. By then, Brown had become known for his long, flowing white beard, so he trimmed it to make himself more anonymous. He pretended to be a New York cattle buyer, introducing himself to neighbors as Isaac Smith. Locals had no idea that the farmhouse was the base of a revolution against slavery. Brown had his teenage daughter and daughter-in-law come

cook meals and create the semblance of a typical household to keep nosy neighbors at bay. And soon, one by one, Brown's recruits arrived. His army would ultimately include 21 men. It was a diverse group. Brown was joined not only by his family members, but hardened veterans of the guerrilla war in Kansas, as well as idealistic abolitionists and college students he had met and enlisted during his travels. Most were in their 20s. Five of the men were black, two of whom were born into slavery. A free black printer named Osborne Perry Anderson, whom Brown had recruited in Canada in 1858, later described the unique interracial community Brown fostered.

He wrote, In John Brown's house and in John Brown's presence, men from widely different parts of the continent met and united into one company wherein no hateful prejudice dared intrude its ugly self. The summer dragged on as the recruits trickled in. During the day, the men hid in a crowded attic, passing the time playing cards, reading magazines, and debating religion and politics. At night, they emerged to practice military drills.

In August, Frederick Douglass traveled down from Rochester, New York, to meet with Brown at a nearby stone quarry. Twelve years had passed since Brown first told Douglas about his desire to stage raids on plantations from the mountains. Now Brown revealed his determination to seize the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry and urge Douglas to join him. Douglas was the nation's leading black abolitionist, and he had grown to accept that violence might be necessary to rid the nation of slavery. But he believed that attacking U.S. government property was a suicide mission. He told Brown he would be walking into a perfect steel trap, warning that he would never get out alive. But Brown pressed his old friend, declaring,

I want you for a special purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive them. Brown knew his army was too small. He hoped that Douglas' involvement would help convince enslaved people to rise up and flock to his side. But Douglas was more pragmatic than Brown. He insisted that the plot would array the whole country against us, and refused any part in the plan. During the meeting, Brown did gather another recruit, though. Douglas traveled down from Rochester with Shields Green, a 23-year-old former slave who had run away from a South Carolina plantation.

Green was inspired to join the raid, telling Douglas, I believe I'll go with the old man. Douglas wasn't the only one skeptical of Brown's plan. As his recruits learned more details, a growing sense of uncertainty crept through the ranks. Imagine it's August, 1859. You're sitting on a wooden pallet in the cramped attic of a Maryland farmhouse, the headquarters of John Brown's army. You and a fellow recruit, a white farmer from Maine, are polishing your rifles, but you're being careful to keep quiet.

One of the neighbors is outside. She's started getting suspicious, and it's put everyone on edge. The other man puts down his rifle and speaks to you in a low voice. I don't know. I'm starting to have doubts. Captain Brown never said anything about a federal armory. I thought we were just raiding plantations. You shift uncomfortably on your pallet, craning your neck to look toward your friend. I mean, we've all had our doubts. But just look at what he's done in Kansas.

How far he's come. Well, if you ask me, he's pushing his luck. We should focus on smaller raids, grow our army, then attack Harper's Ferry and lose the element of surprise? No, we have to stay the course. You reach into your pocket and pull out a worn piece of paper. That old letter again. You clutch the letter you keep in your pocket at all times.

It's a note from your wife. I read it every day. It's what keeps me going. I was one of the lucky ones. My owner, who just so happened to be my father, gave me my freedom. But my wife and children remain in bondage to this day. I have to do something to give us a life together. You really think this is the way to do it? I don't see any other way. Harriet says our baby just started to crawl. How much more of their lives will I miss if we don't take action?

And what if attacking the arsenal gets you killed before you even get the chance? You get up to stretch your legs and walk to the small attic window. It faces south, the direction your family lies in. They're just 30 miles from here. But right now, they may as well be on a different continent. You may be right. We may all be killed. They're just 30 miles from here. But right now, they may as well be on a different continent. You may be right. We may all be killed.

But I couldn't live with myself if I knew I had the chance to liberate them and didn't take it. You're desperate and out of options. You may be dangerous, even foolish. But you feel Brown's plan is your best chance to save the people you love. Dangerfield Newby was a 44-year-old freedman who had a personal stake in the raid on Harper's Ferry. He dreamed of rescuing his wife Harriet and his seven children from slavery. Harriet feared her owner was on the verge of selling her further south. In a letter to Newby, she wrote, I know not what time he may sell me, and then all my bright hopes of the future are blasted,

for there has been one bright hope to cheer me in all my troubles, that is to be with you. Do all you can for me, which I have no doubt you will. I want to see you so much. But not everyone shared Newby's determination. Disagreements erupted over the plans for the raid. Most of the men had joined Brown thinking they would be staging uprisings on Virginia plantations. When they learned the plot centered around raiding the federal arsenal, several were certain it would be suicide. They urged Brown to scale back the attack. As the debate escalated, Brown dramatically resigned as the commander of his army. His ploy worked. When no one stepped forward to replace him, the men took a vote of confidence and reinstated Brown as their leader. In late September, a wagon carrying the pikes Brown ordered rolled onto the Maryland farm.

Brown also had a large stash of weapons purchased by northern abolitionists, including some 200 sharps rifles and 200 revolvers. When October arrived, Brown laid out his battle plans, and the men readied their weapons. Brown's abiding faith in God had long guided his mission to destroy slavery. He chose the Sabbath for the date of the attack. So on the night of Saturday, October 15th, he gathered his men together and told them the raid would take place the next day. For over 20 years, John Brown had dedicated himself to a war against slavery. He had battled U.S. Marshals, slaughtered pro-slavery settlers,

and liberated enslaved men and women from their captors. Now he was ready to lead his army into their greatest battle, one he hoped would inspire enslaved people throughout the South to rise up and revolt. children defended. Whether you're facing a drug charge, caught up on a murder rap, accused of committing war crimes, look no further than Paul Bergeron. All the big guys go to Bergeron because he gets everybody off. You name it, Paul can do it. Need to launder some money? Broker a deal with a drug cartel? Take out a witness? From Wondery, the makers of Dr. Death and Over My Dead Body, comes a new series about a lawyer who broke all the rules. Isn't it funny how witnesses disappear or how evidence doesn't show up or somebody doesn't testify correctly?

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to his strange creatures of the night. You can binge all episodes of The Real History of Dracula exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus and The Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Harper's Ferry, Virginia lay 60 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., on the tip of a narrow peninsula where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers converged. It was an industrial town, boasting several mills and a major railroad junction. Most importantly for John Brown, though, it contained a federal armory and arsenal, as well as a musket factory and rifle works.

For his goal of arming enslaved people, it was the perfect target. On the morning of Sunday, October 16th, Brown held a Bible service in his Maryland farmhouse. He and his men finalized their plans to launch their attack later that night under cover of darkness. They decided that three of the 21 men would stay behind at the farmhouse to help distribute weapons to rebel slaves. At eight o'clock that evening, Brown stood before his followers and gave them their marching orders. He declared, Men, get on your arms. We will proceed to the ferry. The men shouldered their rifles, hiding them beneath long gray shawls. Brown climbed into an old mule-drawn wagon and rolled

out of the farm. His soldiers formed pairs and marched silently in his wake. A cold drizzle fell down on them as they trudged down a winding road for six miles. After two hours, they crossed the bridge over the Potomac River and entered Harper's Ferry. At long last, the raid was about to begin. At Harper's Ferry, Brown's main targets were the Federal Armory and Arsenal, established by George Washington in the 1790s. The armory was a long strip of workshops and factories along the Potomac River, where weapons were manufactured.

Across the street, on the tip of the peninsula, was the Arsenal, where 100,000 weapons were stored. Government officials never imagined anything like what Brown had planned, and the armory and arsenal were virtually unguarded. The initial assault went just as planned. The men fanned out into separate contingents. One pair cut telegraph wires, suspending communications to the outside world. Other raiders seized the two bridges that led out of town over the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.

Brown led the rest toward the Federal Armory Complex, which was guarded by just one night watchman. When the guard refused to hand over his keys, the men broke open the lock with a crowbar. Outnumbered, the guard surrendered. Brown announced his purpose to his prisoner, declaring, I want to free all the Negroes in this state. I have possession of the U.S. Armory, and if the citizens interfere with me, I must only burn the town and have blood. His men streamed into the complex and captured the buildings inside.

Another group crossed the street and seized the unguarded arsenal. Brown led a separate contingent to a rifle works half a mile away, where they easily overpowered an elderly guard and took control of the building. In swift, short order, Brown had captured all the federal weapons buildings and the tens of thousands of guns they contained. After achieving this key objective, at midnight, Brown ordered six men to capture prominent local slaveholders and free their slaves. One of these slave owners was Colonel Lewis Washington, the 46-year-old great-grand-nephew of George Washington. When Brown's raiders stormed his house, Washington tried to appease them with whiskey. When that failed, he broke down and surrendered

two famous family heirlooms, a pistol that belonged to the Marquis de Lafayette, who commanded American troops in the Revolutionary War, and a sword given to President Washington by the Prussian King Frederick the Great. This was all according to Brown's plan. He liked the symbolism of having Washington's descendant surrender iconic artifacts of Revolutionary America to black men. The raiders hauled Colonel Washington out to his own wagon and carried him off along with several of his slaves. They then moved on to another farm, rousing a slave owner and his teenage son and whisking away six more enslaved people. So far, everything had gone like clockwork. It was still the middle of the night. Their raid had gone off undetected and without any violence. Brown could have quit

while he was ahead. He could have gathered up weapons from the armory and raided more plantations before retreating to the safety of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But Brown was not satisfied by simply conducting small raids. He was trying to spark a revolution, and he was certain that enslaved people would spontaneously rise up to his side. Brown had a favorite saying, give a slave a pike and you make him a man. He had nearly 1,000 pikes on hand to distribute, and he believed that arming enslaved men would be enough to inspire them to rebel. But because he had prioritized secrecy, Brown never actually spread word of his plans among the local enslaved population in advance of the raid. The numbers were against Brown, too. Of a population of 2,500

people in Harper's Ferry, fewer than 90 were enslaved. Brown was counting on the support of the 18,000 enslaved people in the surrounding area, but less than a third of them were adult men, and none had an inkling of his activities. But even had they known about Brown's raid, enslaved people had little reason to trust any white man, even one with a reputation like Brown's. Plus, many knew that revolting against the slave owners carried the risk of severe punishment. Enslaved people that the raiders captured

mostly reacted with confusion and fear, and several refused the weapons they were given. Still, Brown hoped his numbers would grow and continued to stall in the armory. But just after 1 a.m., a passenger train stopped in Harper's Ferry. With its arrival, Brown's carefully laid plans began to unravel. Imagine it's the early hours of October 17, 1859. You're on an eastbound Baltimore and Ohio Express train,

traveling from Wheeling, Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland, where you're hoping to find work on the harbor. It's a cold and gloomy night, with only the sound of the train chugging along the tracks, piercing the silence. The train slows and comes to a stop, and you sit up straight in your seat, turning to the man next to you. I thought this was supposed to be an express. Who boards a train at this time of night anyway? You wipe the condensation off the window and catch a glimpse of the station name, Harper's Ferry. All of a sudden, the train lurches back into motion, but it's not going forwards. It's going backwards. Confused, you flag down a uniformed crew member. Excuse me, what's going on?

Why are we stopping? The crew member gives you a forced smile. Not to worry, sir. I'm sure it's just a mix-up. I'll go out and investigate. As he walks off, you peer out into the darkness once more. Fog hangs heavily over the station, but you see a figure emerge through the

haze. You realize in horror that he's wielding a gun and pointing it right at the crew member you were just talking to. All around you, other passengers are panicking. Some clutch their bags close to their chests. Others jump out of their seats and run up the aisle to find the source of the commotion. Outside the window, the crew member staggers back to the train. You run toward the exit, fearing he's a victim of the gunshots. Are you injured? He shakes his head, but he's trembling and grips the seat back to steady himself. Listen, everyone. Armed abolitionists have taken the station. They say they're with John Brown. Whatever you do, don't try to leave the train. They've already shot one man.

Just please, stay in your seats. You try to process his words. Osawatomie Brown of Kansas is here? You've seen the news stories of his fiery speeches and bloody battles with pro-slavery forces. If he's here in Virginia, a slave state, hell could break loose at any moment. You peer anxiously out your window again into the darkness and fog, wondering whether you'll make it out of Harper's Ferry alive. Just after one o'clock in the morning on October 17th, a Baltimore-bound train rolled into Harper's

Ferry. A night watchman approached the tracks and warned the conductor of trouble. When crew members exited the train to investigate, they were driven back by gunfire from two of Brown's men. A black baggage handler named Hayward Shepard walked out toward the tracks. The raiders pounced, ordering him to stop. As Shepard tried to back away into the railway office, Brown's men shot him just below his heart. A local doctor rushed As Shepard tried to back away into the railway office, Brown's men shot him just below his heart. A local doctor rushed to Shepard's side and treated his wounds as best he could while Brown's men continued to hold the train. Shepard would spend the next 12 hours in agonizing pain before finally dying of his wounds. The first casualty of John Brown's raid,

intended to help all enslaved black people, was himself a black man. By 4 a.m., dawn was approaching. It had been four hours since Brown sent a contingent to capture prominent local slave owners, including Colonel Lewis Washington, and free their slaves. Finally, the wagons carrying the hostages arrived at the armory and the captives were taken inside. Brown handed a pike to each of the freed black men, ordering them to guard their former masters. Brown told Colonel Washington, I wanted you particularly for the moral effect it would give our cause, having one of your name as a prisoner. But by then, armory employees began to report for work. As they reached the entrance,

they were stunned to find themselves taken prisoner and crammed inside the armory. Soon, Brown had imprisoned some 35 hostages. Brown tried to reassure his captives, insisting that they had no reason to fear violence. He told them that they would not be injured if they stayed quiet, that his sole object was to free local enslaved men. By this point in the morning, the raid had mostly escaped notice. Almost all of the residents in Harper's Ferry were still sound asleep. But as daylight approached, the doctor who was treating Hayward Shepard sounded the alarm.

He sent messages to neighboring towns, telling them to call up their militias. And soon, word of the raid spread even further. Then, at dawn, Brown made a fatal mistake. He sent a message to the train station, permitting the train his men had held to finally leave town and continue on to Baltimore. In doing so, Brown undid his own efforts to isolate the town by cutting telegraph lines. When the train reached the next town by 7 a.m., the conductor sent a telegram to Baltimore and Ohio Railroad headquarters,

alerting them that armed abolitionists had seized Harper's Ferry and the U.S. Armory. The message read, they say they have come to free the slaves and intend to do it at all hazards. The head of the railroad immediately sent telegrams to the Virginia governor and President James Buchanan, warning him, this is a moment of greatest peril. As news of the raid reached Washington, D.C., Brown was still holed

up in the Federal Armory. It was becoming increasingly clear that no enslaved people were coming to his side. Meanwhile, panic was spreading from the Virginia countryside to the nation's capital. Soon, armed militias would march toward Harper's Ferry, and what had begun as a raid would become a siege. In November 1991, media tycoon Robert Maxwell mysteriously vanished from his luxury yacht in the Canary Islands. But it wasn't just his body that would come to the surface in the days that followed. It soon emerged that Robert's business was on the brink of collapse, and behind his facade of wealth and success was a litany of bad investments, mounting debt,

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app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. By the early morning of October 17th, 1859, local farmers and shopkeepers had scrambled up onto rooftops of Harper's Ferry. Resolving to defend their town from John Brown's invaders, they began spraying gunfire down at the armory grounds. Brown's men returned fire and shot a grocer, who soon died from his wounds. But Brown remained calm and made arrangements to feed his men and the hostages. He made a trade, exchanging a bartender he had

captured for forty-five breakfasts from a local hotel. But few of the hostages touched the food, fearing it had been poisoned. Brown was as composed and determined as ever, even as his chances of success dwindled. The raiders were scattered among the various armory buildings. Some sent messages to Brown urging escape while they still had the chance. Brown controlled both bridges leading out of town, and there was still an opportunity to retreat before soldiers arrived. But instead, Brown dug in his heels, determined to hold the armory. As he did, the steel trap that Frederick Douglass had warned him of began to close its jaws.

Late that morning, militia units from Maryland and Virginia poured into the town. They stormed the bridges, cutting off the raiders' escape routes. As they charged over the Potomac, Brown's army suffered its first loss. A militiaman fired his musket and killed Dangerfield Newby, the freedman who dreamed of liberating his wife and children, enslaved just 30 miles to the south. In his pocket was the letter from his wife, begging him to set her free. An angry crowd

dragged Newby's body into a gutter and mutilated it. Brown knew he was running out of options. Hoping to negotiate an escape in exchange for his hostages, he sent out William Thompson, the brother of his son-in-law, with a white flag. But a mob of townspeople ignored the ceasefire attempt. They seized Thompson and dragged him away, holding him hostage inside a nearby hotel. Brown decided he needed to take up a more secure position. Singling out the 11 hostages he thought might be the most useful for bargaining purposes, he moved them into the armory's engine house,

a small brick building with heavy oak doors. The raiders drilled holes in the doors so they could fire their rifles through them. This, Brown decided, was where he would make his final stand. Around one o'clock in the afternoon, Brown made a second attempt at negotiating a ceasefire. He sent his 24-year-old son Watson and a white raider named Aaron Stevens out with yet another white flag. Shots rained down on them and both fell to the ground. Watson was bleeding profusely, but he managed to drag himself back into the engine house. One of the hostages made the surprising move of helping his captor, carrying Stevens off to receive medical attention before

voluntarily returning to the engine house. Around the same time Watson Brown and Aaron Stevens were shot, the youngest raider, 20-year-old William Lehman, decided to break from the rest of the group and escape across the Potomac. He ran from the engine house and plunged into the river, but he was quickly shot and killed by militiamen. For the rest of the day, townspeople and soldiers used his corpse as target practice. A half mile away along the Shenandoah River, a trio of Browns raiders were stationed at the Federal Rifle Works. John Kagey was a white veteran of Bleeding, Kansas. He was holed up at the Rifle Works with two black men he had recruited in Ohio,

Lewis Leary and his nephew, a college student named John Copeland. At 2 p.m., militiamen stormed the Rifle Works, and the three raiders slipped out the back door, dashing toward the shallow waters of the Shenandoah River. Kege and Leary were shot down in the water, with Kege dying instantly and Leary fatally wounded. Copeland waded to a rock in the river, where he threw down his rifle and surrendered. He was carted off to jail. Around three o'clock that afternoon, Fontaine Beckham, the popular mayor of Harper's Ferry, made his way toward the armory engine house. Beckham was well liked by both white and black locals. He had spent the morning helping tend to the dying baggage handler, Hayward Shepard. But now in the afternoon, as Beckham appeared in the line of sight of the engine house, one of the raiders trained his rifle

on him and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through Beckham's heart and he died soon after. The townspeople were enraged. A vengeful mob forced its way into the hotel where raider William Thompson was being held prisoner. When the hotel owner's daughter tried to stop them, a furious militiaman declared, Mr. Beckham's life is worth 10,000 of these vile abolitionists. The mob grabbed Thompson and dragged him out of the hotel. Thompson shouted, you may take my life, but 80,000 will arise up to avenge me and carry out my purpose of giving liberty to the slaves. They would be his last words. The mob shot him dead and tossed his body into the Potomac. Back at the engine house, Brown and the remaining raiders and hostages were completely surrounded by militiamen. The two sides continued trading sporadic gunfire.

Brown's youngest son, Oliver, who was just 20, peered out of a crack between the engine house doors and raised his gun. But he wasn't fast enough. A militiaman shot him in the stomach, and the other raiders dragged him back away from the doors. As night fell on Harper's Ferry, the scene inside the engine house grew more desperate. Imagine it's the evening of October 17th, 1859. You're holed up inside the engine house of the Harper's Ferry Armory. You were born free, the child of an escaped slave, and you're desperate to give others the same chance at freedom. But 24 hours into the raid, you're chilled to the bone and weak from lack of food. The tiny room is thick with the suffocating smell of gunpowder. You try hard not to look at the bloody corpses

of your slain comrades. Oliver and Watson Brown lay dying in the corner. Still, their father paces back and forth, his eyes flashing and his mouth firm. Men, are you awake? You haven't slept in 36 hours. You blink your eyes hard before you answer. Yes, Captain Brown, we're awake. The hostages are sitting against the back wall. A couple of them are still shaking with fear, but one man squares his shoulders and looks up at Brown with disdain. You must realize the federal troops will be coming any time now. Once they get here, you'll be hanged for treason if they don't shoot you first. You look back and forth between the hostage and Brown. Brown looks

as steely-eyed and determined as ever. But trapped in this little room, deprived of food and sleep, your resolve is weakening. Captain Brown, you know I'd follow you to hell and back. But I thought we came here to liberate the slaves, not be martyrs. Maybe it's time we cut our losses. If we surrender to the Virginia militia, maybe we'll just see jail and not a noose. I expect it's too late for that. Just as you're about to reply, the sound of gunfire pierces the air. Outside, the crowd has whipped itself into a drunken rage, and by the

sounds of it, they're only getting more crazed. Brown looks at you and the three other uninjured raiders. Come on, men. Help me barricade the door. Barely thinking, you spring into action. You and one of the other raiders drag a heavy cart and place it against the door. You believe in the cause. You believe in John Brown. But you know that this barricade will only delay the inevitable. By the evening of October 17th, Brown's raid was in complete chaos. Eight raiders were dead or dying, including Brown's two sons.

He had just a handful of followers left with him, but Harper's Ferry was crawling with hundreds of citizens and soldiers determined to take him down. It would be a long, desperate night in the engine house. Still, Brown soldiered on, guided by his unwavering faith in his God-given mission. He was still certain of success, but U.S. Marines were on their way. John Brown's war of black liberation was teetering on the edge of collapse, but even as the raid entered its final hours, his attack would reverberate far beyond Harper's Ferry, bringing the national fight over slavery to the brink of civil war. From Wondery, this is Episode 3 of Bleeding Kansas from American History Tellers.

On the next episode, John Brown makes the last stand of his crusade on slavery as a company of U.S. Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee descends on Harper's Ferry. Brown's bloody raid stuns Americans, deepening the national divide and setting the stage for a much larger conflict. If you like American History Tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash

survey. American Historytellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Molly Bach. Sound design by Derek Behrens. Music by Lindsey Graham. Voice acting by Ace Anderson. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton. Edited by Dorian Marina. Our senior producer is Andy Herman. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman

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