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 Browns 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 attackand Browns trial and hangingemotions 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 MasonDixon 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 todays 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 days 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 89 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 1618, 150 years to the day after the raid and subsequent siege. Following a twilight reenactment Friday of Browns 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 nations 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
They received no such assurances. It was the states that were ratifying, not the other way around. And in each and every ratification document was wording to the effect that they agreed to the Constitution as passed out of convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. And the states could add any assumption they wanted to their ratification documents and if the Constitution did not allow for it then their assumptions were meaningless.
This was not honoured obviously by Lincoln.
One does not honor illegal actions like rebellion.
The CSA / South did not start the war. Lincoln & the North purposely started the war when he invaded the sovereign CSA & even instigated the war when he attempted to rearm the former Union forts within the CSA thereby giving Lincoln the excuse he required when his troops were resisted.
So which did Lincoln do? Start the war? Or instigate it? Make up your mind, please.
Sumter was the property of the federal government. Built with federal funds on land deeded to the government free and clear by act of the South Carolina legislature. South Carolina had no legal claims to it whatsoever, and if the federal government merely insisted on retaining ownership of what was their's to begin with then there is nothing illegal in that. The South chose war when they chose to bombard the fort into surrender after failing to starve the garrison out.
free dixie,sw
And rejected in other cases, such as South Carolina [State v. Fleming (1848)] and North Carolina [State v. Weaver (1798)]. Whatever the law said, though, the fact is that you can probably count the number of convictions of whites for killing slaves in the south on your fingers. When cases were brought, acquittals were far more common.
In State v. Fleming, 2 Strob. 464 (1848), the Supreme Court held the the charge to be manslaughter and not murder, agreeing with the 1821 law. As it was, it held a penalty of $500 and 6 months in jail. Murder of a slave was punishable since 1740, and punishable by death without benefit of clergy since 1821. To name a few:
In South Carolina: State vs. Cheatwood, 2 Hill. 459 (1834).
In Tennessee: Fields v. The State Of Tennessee, 1 Yerger 156 (1829).
In North Carolina the legislature made the murder of a slave illegal in 1774, the courts upheld in: State v. Reed, 2 Hawk 454. (1823), State v. Hoover, 20 NC 393 (1839), State v. Motley 7 Rich. 327 (1854).
In Mississippi: The State of Mississippi v. Jones, Walker 83 (1820).
otherwise, EVERYONE here will assume you are LYING again, as you USUALLY do. (even the members of "the DY coven" assume, absent evidence to the contrary, that you ALWAYS lie, even when THE TRUTH would serve your cause better. it's evidently a psychosis.)
laughing AT you.
free dixie,sw
“I hope John Brown is where he belongs. In Hell.”
Right along side of that skinny lawyer Lincoln!
We must keep aware of what if any God these Murder defenders worship..After all ~I'd place ten dollars to your one that if Jesus walked down Yankee Ave in Sickcago and talked poorly of “Saint Lincoln” they would argue with him also!
Amen to that! :)
i suspect that more BLACKS (alone) have died from ABORTION than died in slavery in 400+ years.
WHY doesn't anyone much care about that HOLOCAUST (outside the PRO-life movement, of course)???
fyi, i'm for equal rights for MINORITIES & WOMEN, including UNBORN ones.(to any females who may be reading this: this is "a WOMEN's ISSUE", as over 80% of aborted babies are LITTLE GIRLS!!!)
free dixie,sw
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