John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry Triggers Southern Panic

On October 16, 1859, John Brown leads 21 men — including five Black men, among them Dangerfield Newby and Osborne Anderson — in seizing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to spark a general slave uprising. The raid fails; Brown is captured by Robert E. Lee, tried for treason, and hanged December 2. His martyrdom accelerates the march to Civil War.