Posted on 03/21/2009 7:02:03 AM PDT by Liz
A series of reenactments, dramatic productions, family activities and special tours are scheduled this year as Civil War sites in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania commemorate the 150th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s October 1859 raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Although the raid itself failed, it succeeded in exacerbating the divide between North and South, pushing the nation closer to civil war.
“Before the raid, negotiations and a compromise between North and South might have been possible; however, after the attack—and Brown’s trial and hanging—emotions ran so high that armed conflict became inevitable,” says Tom Riford of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
At the time, Brown was denounced on both sides of the Mason–Dixon Line as a terrorist and an enemy of the Union, but others just as passionately revered him as a martyr. Brown inspires those same polarized opinions among today’s visitors to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (nps.gov/hafe), says Todd Bolton, events committee chair for the John Brown Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee (johnbrownraid.org). “Our job at Harpers Ferry is to present the facts and the history, and let people decide for themselves,” he says.
There will be plenty of opportunities this year to learn about Brown, beginning on April 18 with the first Signature Event of the sesquicentennial: “Prelude to History: The Wedding of Virginia Kennedy” at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The day’s attractions include a dramatic monologue about the raid told from the perspective of the wife of raider John Cook. Visitors can also enjoy period music, youth activities and tours of the Lower Town at Harpers Ferry, which has been preserved as it appeared during the Civil War era.
The town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, bordering Maryland and Virginia. The 3,500-acre National Park extends into all three states. Brown had his northern headquarters in Pennsylvania, the fourth member of the quad-state committee. On May 22, the John Brown House in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, will be rededicated and reopened after a major renovation.
The Kennedy Farmhouse in Samples Manor, Maryland, staging place for the raid, will host a rare open house with tours and demonstrations July 12. Frederick County, Maryland, attracts the spotlight August 8–9 for its Militia and Fire Company Days, with displays of antique fire-fighting equipment. Other events happen throughout the summer and fall, including regular ranger-guided tours of Brown-related sites in the National Park and surrounding areas.
The centerpiece of the sesquicentennial observation takes place in the Harpers Ferry area October 16–18, 150 years to the day after the raid and subsequent siege. Following a twilight reenactment Friday of Brown’s six-mile march to Harpers Ferry, the commemoration continues on Saturday and Sunday with a full slate of music, living history, family activities and ranger-guided programs.
Because of the significance of the raid, the John Brown Sesquicentennial is regarded as a prelude to the Civil War Sesquicentennial, which the nation will observe from 2011 to 2015.
—Theresa Gawlas Medoff
Learn more about the Civil War and the nation’s sesquicentennial plans at cwar.nps.gov/civilwar/abcivwarSesqInit.htm. The information in this story was accurate when it was published in the March/April 2009 issue of AAA World, but dates, times and prices may have changed since then. We suggest you verify such details directly with the listed establishments before making travel plans.
Email: info@johnbrownraid.org
Well no, the relevant cliche is "Turnabout is fair play".
What a putz.
Other than your value as a near perfect example of the sort of mindless hate displayed by certain southerners that wrap themselves up in the mystique of the lost cause, I really don’t know why you are allowed to continue to fill your posts with such hatred and venom towards anyone that disagrees with you.
PLEASE remind everyone about the INTENTIONAL, KNOWING LIE that you told everyone, repeatedly for MONTHS, about supposedly being a "staff-member" of the New Orleans Confederate Museum, when in fact you had ONLY VISITED the museum as a SMALL CHILD, with your father.
do you believe any of us "old-timers" of FR have forgotten THAT particular LIE???? (fyi, NOBODY who was "around" then, has.)
also, be sure to remind everyone that you asked me a question about the museum that was so VAGUE & brain-LESS that a lifelong resident (and well-known New Orleans attorney, btw) of that neighborhood of New Orleans had NO idea what you were asking. (when i called Charlie on the phone to tell him what you said you meant, he laughed AT you & said, "What a NITWIT. wait till i tell the guys about this boob.")
fwiw, the rumble you hear in the distance is NOT thunder. rather it is the sound of laughter, directed at YOU & your CHILDISHNESS & DISHONESTY.
you would do everyone on FR a large favor, if you simply resigned from the forum & went over to join the other fools/nitwits/bigots/weirdos/south-HATERS on "moveon.org", "codepink4peace.org" or some other similar site on the "worldwidewierd". groups like that will WELCOME you as they too HATE the truth, conservative southerners & the southland.
free dixie,sw
Some things never change...*sigh*...
head over to "DU", "moveon.com" and "code pinkO"; they'll like you, as they also HATE dixie & the southern people.
free dixie,sw
or could it be that in your ARROGANCE & obvious HUBRIS you feel that you are somehow BETTER THAN everybody else here on FR???
free dixie,sw
Facts The democrats in the south:
Created the confederate flag
Rebelled against the US constitution and created their own that legalized slavery
Fired the first shots at Fort Sumpter
Created the Klu KLux Klan to terrorize Black and republicans in the south for over 100 years.
The same people you idolize are in fact the greatest source of racism and hatred this country has ever seen and were a constant threat to it’s very existence then and now.
As a true southern conservative I can look at what was done to whom by the confederacy and the democrats after the war and say without any shame what so ever they were wrong.
You don’t enslave people because of the color of their skin
You don’t murder them for the same reason as well
You don’t write laws that deny them the right to vote or attend schools
and you don’t praise those that attempt to do any of the above as heroes because of what they have done.
You however are perfectly willing to defend all those actions for the sake of some sort of southern civility and honor wrapped up in a bloodied red rag of rebellion and hatred for the very government our founding fathers sought to create.
And more than anyone else here has reinforced the stereotype of southron haters being racists and bigots with no concept of why the south was wrong.
poor "snake" isn't bright enough or educated enough to know that the "democrat party" of the 19th century does NOT exist anymore, except in name alone.
today's "D party" is a motley collection of BIGOTS/nitwits/lunatics/baby-killers/weirdos/union bosses/LEFTISTS/America-HATERS/peaceniks/etc.
"usmcobra" would fit in nicely in today's DIMocRAT party, as he TOO is a lunatic/BIGOT/south-HATER/fool. (sadly, he isn't intellectually able to comprehend that much.)
there are FEW or NO conservative, which is to say old-style southern democrats left. the few that DO exist are "marginalized", laughed AT & ignored by the party bosses/LEFTISTS that control the DIMocRAT party.
free dixie,sw
Stand don’t you know that every tall tale and fabrication of yours has been analyzed and categorized for use against you and that we share them amongst ourselves (and others).
You know like your claims that The north operated death camps for southern civilians that were worse than anything the Germans did in WWII and that the millions of remains are buried under a federal park.
Or that a Confederate Navy Cruiser (pleasure: 40 ft Crist Craft one each) sailing from Galveston captured a U boat and that it was on display in Galveston until sometime in the sixties when anti southern bigots had all records and the actual crafts themselves destroyed save for a single article you just happened to stumble upon in some obscure boating magazine in a library somewhere that no one to this date has every been able to find.
And then there is your own convoluted history which doesn’t from one day to another match what you have said about your self, like the stories of you and the EOD luitenant and the jeep radio....
face it bozo, you just aren't smart enough to be BELIEVED.
laughing AT your FOOLishness as most FReepers do.
free dixie,sw
I'M A LOST CAUSE FREEPER
Oh, I’m a Lost Cause Freeper, now that’s just what I am.
For standard capitalization, I do not give a damn.
No tale’s too big to make up, no sources I will quote
And I don’t need no spell-check for anything I wrote.
I hates the stars and stripes flag, I loves the stars and bars
I stuck a big Third National on the bumper of my car
I got a Cherokee flag that I had special made
Most people when they meet me, think I’m touched in the haid.
I hates all things from up north. I really, really do.
If Santa’s from the pole there, well then I hates him too.
I’ve been a Lost Cause Freeper for seven years or more.
I only talks ‘bout pancakes, and the late Civil War.
The Yanks killed all my kinfolk, ev’ry single one.
And there’s a captured U-boat on display in Galveston.
Quantrill spelled his name wrong, ev’ry single time
And ev’ry Union soldier shoulda been hung for a crime,
That I’m a protected poster many here can vouch
When Jim Rob comes to DC, he sleeps here on my couch
I can’t express myself in words like normal people do
My fingers hurt from pounding keys, I might have a loose screw
.
Three hundred thousand posts here, they all read just the same
And if my facts are incorrect, I will not take the blame
I got it from a book I read, one you cannot find
And don’t you dare suggest it’s just a figment of my mind
I’m stuck in these United States, beneath the flag I hate
I sign my posts “free dixie” but am resigned to my fate
I’ll keep on fightin’ my war, on every single thread
I won’t stop actin’ crazy until I am dead
It has a certain timelessness to it, don’t it?!
don't you get tired of being thought a FOOL, as well as a LIAR???
free dixie,sw
laughing AT you & the other semi-literate, south-HATING, members of The DAMNyankee Coven.
free dixie,sw
But not a big enough joke for someone to write a poem about. So you win that contest.
free dixie,sw
That all you got? Of course, you never did have much material.
I know. So much for the Alabama school system, eh?
ping
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