Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The town's population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet, it is the easternmost town in West Virginia as well as its lowest point above sea level.
John Brown was a prominent leader in the American abolitionist movement in the decades preceding the Civil War. First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.
Ferry Farm, also known as the George Washington Boyhood Home Site or the Ferry Farm Site, is the farm and home where George Washington spent much of his childhood. The site is located in Stafford County, Virginia, along the northern bank of the Rappahannock River, across from the city of Fredericksburg. In July 2008, archaeologists announced that they had found remains of the boyhood home, which had suffered a fire during 1740, including artifacts such as pieces of a cream-colored tea set probably belonging to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington. In 2015, the George Washington Foundation began constructing a replica of Washington's boyhood home on the site of the original building. The replica house was completed in 2018 and is open to the public.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, originally Harpers Ferry National Monument, is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The park includes the historic center of Harpers Ferry, notable as a key 19th-century industrial area and as the scene of John Brown's failed abolitionist uprising. It contains the most visited historic site in the state of West Virginia, John Brown's Fort.
John Brown's Fort was initially built in 1848 for use as a guard and fire engine house by the federal Harpers Ferry Armory, in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. An 1848 military report described the building as "An engine and guard-house 35 1/2 x 24 feet, one story brick, covered with slate, and having copper gutters and down spouts…"
Washington Monument State Park is a public recreation area located approximately one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Boonsboro, Maryland. The park preserves the Washington Monument, a 40-foot-tall (12 m) tower honoring George Washington, the first President of the United States. The monument sits along the Appalachian Trail near the summit of South Mountain's Monument Knob. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The park is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The John Brown Farm State Historic Site includes the home and final resting place of abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859). It is located on John Brown Road in the town of North Elba, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Lake Placid, New York, where John Brown moved in 1849 to teach farming to African Americans. It has been called the highest farm in the state, "the highest arable spot of land in the State, if, indeed, soil so hard and sterile can be called arable."
Pleasant Valley is a small valley in Washington County, Maryland, United States.
The Hermitage near Charles Town, West Virginia is historic property which includes several buildings, as well as non-contributing tennis courts and a pool. The oldest structure is a small stone cottage dating to circa 1734, making it one of the oldest buildings in West Virginia. It resembles Prato Rio in nearby Leetown, West Virginia and may date to this property's first owner, Daniel Barnett, who was a partner in the Burr Iron Works circa 1740, the first of its kind in the state. A stone privy is also believed to be the oldest structure of its kind in the state.
The Allstadt House and Ordinary was built about 1790 on land owned by the Lee family near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, including Phillip Ludwell Lee, Richard Bland Lee and Henry Lee III. The house at the crossroads was sold to the Jacob Allstadt family of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1811. Allstadt operated an ordinary in the house, and a tollgate on the Harpers Ferry-Charles Town Turnpike, while he resided farther down the road in a stone house. The house was enlarged by the Allstadts c. 1830. The house remained in the family until the death of John Thomas Allstadt in 1923, the last survivor of John Brown's Raid.
Big Bottom Farm is a farm in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, on the National Register of Historic Places. The Greek Revival house was built circa 1845, possibly by John Jacob Smouse, and exhibits a level of historically accurate detailing unusual for the area. The property includes a late 19th-century barn and several frame outbuildings.
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or tragic prelude to, the American Civil War.
Laurel Hill Farm is a private park and historic home located in Ararat, Virginia. The birthplace of James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, seventy-five acres of the 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) plantation owned by the Stuart Family was saved in 1992 by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust with assistance from the Civil War Trust, a division of the American Battlefield Trust. The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, founded by Historian and Author Thomas D. "Tom" Perry, is a non-profit corporation that has interpreted the site and holds events on the property.
Samples Manor is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The Kennedy Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The William Boggs Farm is located in the Back Creek Valley of Berkeley County, West Virginia ner Hedgesville. The property was settled before 1750 by William Boggs, who may have been the first settler in the valley. A 1750 survey indicates that Boggs had 275 acres (111 ha) of land with a cabin. By 1766 Boggs had accumulated 527 acres (213 ha). Boggs grew cash crops in the fertile bottomlands along Back Creek and raised clover for pasturage on the hilltops.
John Henry Kagi, also spelled John Henri Kagi, was an American attorney, abolitionist, and second in command to John Brown in Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry. He bore the title of "Secretary of War" in Brown's "provisional government." At age 24, Kagi was killed during the raid. He had previously been active in fighting on the abolitionist side in 1856 in "Bleeding Kansas". He was considered an excellent debater and speaker.
The John Brown House, also known as the Ritner Boarding House, is an historic American home that is located in Chambersburg in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
On Sunday night, October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a band of 22 in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Jeremiah Anderson was an American abolitionist. Born in Indiana, Anderson left Yellow Springs, Iowa to attend Knox Academy in Galesburg, Illinois. He initially intended to become a minister, but worked in a sawmill before moving to Kansas Territory in 1857. He fought with freestaters James Montgomery and John Brown against those who fought as vigorously for slavery. Intending to free enslaved people, Anderson participated in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, where he was mortally wounded.
