The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Harpers Ferry Raid (10/16/1859) - Sep. 4th, 2003

http://www.wvculture.org/history/jnobrown.html ^

[SAMWolf]

Morning all. Hopefully we'll be able to see you all later this evening

[SAMWolf]

Morning w_ove-w., cholerajoe.

It is ironic how many of the soldiers involvedd in this and in the Mexican American War would find thmeselves on opposite sides a few years later.

[Valin]

Riiiight
Ultra-extreme sarcasm>

Nobodies is going to out sarcasm me!

[manna]

Present!

[stand watie]

the FIRST MARTYR to dixie liberty was Heywood Shepard, a "freeman of colour", who was employed as an arsenal armed guard by the Commonwealth of Virginia. (NOTE: some sources spell his name Haywood Sheppard, BTW.)

john brown MURDERED him without warning, shortly after brown & his pack of criminals arrived on the scene.

FYI, Shepard was memorialized with a monument at Harper's Ferry in 1935 by the SCV & UDC; he was the first NON-white person to be so honored.

unless things have changed in the last few days, the monument was covered up with a black plywood box (by the NPS), so that "nobody would be offended or made uncomfortable by the facts & circumstances of his demise."

the more things change, the more the PC-types make me GAG.

free dixie NOW,sw

[stand watie]

the FIRST MARTYR to dixie liberty was Heywood Shepard, a "freeman of colour", who was employed as an arsenal armed guard by the Commonwealth of Virginia. (NOTE: some sources spell his name Haywood Sheppard, BTW.)

john brown MURDERED him without warning, shortly after brown & his pack of criminals arrived on the scene.

FYI, Shepard was memorialized with a monument at Harper's Ferry in 1935 by the SCV & UDC; he was the first NON-white person to be so honored.

unless things have changed in the last few days, the monument was covered up with a black plywood box (by the NPS), so that "nobody would be offended or made uncomfortable by the facts & circumstances of his demise."

the more things change, the more the PC-types make me GAG.

free dixie NOW,sw

[colorado tanker]

I didn't realize that Brown was convicted of treason against the State of Virginia, not the United States, even though his crime was seizing a United States arsenal and fighting U.S. troops. Gives an interesting mindset into the thinking of both Virginians and the U.S. Government at the time.

It's also interesting that southerners viewed the seizure of Harpers' Ferry insurrection while the seizure of Fort Sumpter was not.

Brown's story to me illustrates why Americans should not resort lightly to the Jeffersonian "right of insurrection" even when evil is afoot in the land. The democratic process worked and the election of Lincoln brought the slavery issue to a head.

John Brown gets good press because he was anti-slavery and seemed to foreshadow the victory of abolitionism a few years later. While Brown did not target the Harpers Ferry civilians, I would still classify him as a terrorist for his attacks on Missouri civilians from the Kansas side of the border.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Thanks for the ping.

John Brown had the moral high ground regarding slavery but did commit acts of murder in Kansas so I think he got what he deserved. His way of going about it wasn't the answer.

[Valin]

unless things have changed in the last few days, the monument was covered up with a black plywood box (by the NPS), so that "nobody would be offended or made uncomfortable by the facts & circumstances of his demise."

Well thank goodness they took these measures...wouldn't want to offend anyone.

[SAMWolf]

Made if back all safe and sound. Snippy and I will be putting the finishing touches on the thread fopr tomorrow.

It was a great trip!

[PhilDragoo]

Frederick Douglass called it correctly, and Brown was blowed up real good.

Toward the end of college a classmate had landed a job teaching in a black school and wanted to begin mixing.

At his insistence I accompanied him in an attempt at entering the Fred Douglass club in Naptown.

Advised by the gang at the gate and the blood in the glass booth that we did not have a "membership card" we left for his car.

We were accosted by large enforcers who laid on hands, only backing off when the police cruiser made its periodic circuit of the block.

After an eternity of tension we made our escape, having grabbed his keys and pushed him into his car.

He was so upset he took a great deal of pills which my girlfriend a nurse got out of him with Ipecac.

He had an illusion, as John Brown had an illusion.

I, having been called a h-----m-----f----- by a six-year-old black girl, and having my best friend in Cleveland shot three times in the back of the head by three black gentlemen deeming themselves losers in life's lottery, had nor have such illusions.

And the Niagara Society is now become the NAALCP, as clarified by Ali Limbali.

Yes, the fine distinction between Harpers Ferry and Fort Sumpter is lost on me, too.

The whole matter ought to have been thrashed out in national debate, Congress, the papers, public gatherings.

As it was, the lead flew and the blood flowed and one wonders what was in fact settled.

I think I do know, come to think of it, because we've got our best in Iraq right now, changing history, changing the world.

We've freed twenty-five million and they may well become our allies.

Douglass tells Brown that Virginia will "blow him and his hostages sky-high, rather than that he should hold Harper’s Ferry an hour."

[stand watie]

yeah, right.

the damnyankees @NPS & the VA do NOT want anyone to know about Shepard, as it makes their hatefilled, south-dispising, statist, socialist cause look less than perfect.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

FYI, Harper's Ferry Arsenal was VA-owned, rather than US-owned, though it manufactured weapons, ammunition & pyrotechnics for the federal government & several state's militias..

it was guarded, therefore, by VA-paid & sworn VA police, armed guards & VMI cadets.

john brown should have been tried for the coldblooded murder of Heywood Shepard, but the Commonwealth's Attorney was concerned that an all-white jury might aquit a white man for killing a free black man, so he was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of VA.

the story of the criminal acts @ HFA is far more complicated than you learned in school.

free dixie,sw

[colorado tanker]

FYI, Harper's Ferry Arsenal was VA-owned, rather than US-owned

You learn something new every day in the Foxhole.

[stand watie]

YEP!

that was why Heywood Shepard was a VIRGINIA state employee.(WVa didn't exist then, as a separate entity of course.)

incidently, as VA was NOT a rich state when HFA was opened, VMI was founded as a cheap source of guard force labor-it was a work/study program for the 19th century.they paid the cadets almost nothing, but uniforms, books & tuition were included, gratis.

free dixie,sw

[colorado tanker]

I've always wondered if that panhandle was put on West Virginia so that the arsenal would end up in W. Va. instead of Va. Any info on that?

[stand watie]

YEP. it was.

free dixie,sw

[SAMWolf]

Thanks w-Over_w.

Playing catchup on the threads I missed.

[SAMWolf]

Nobodies is going to out sarcasm me!

LOL! Well I can at least give ya a run for your money.

[SAMWolf]

You learn something new every day in the Foxhole.

So do I, we have a great pool of people who can and do provide a lot of additional information to the threads. One of the things that makes the Foxhole so interesting to me. you can always get another view, opinion or more facts.