John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

John Brown led 21 men — including five Black men: Dangerfield Newby, Osborne Anderson, Lewis Sheridan Leary, John Copeland, and Shields Green — in seizing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to trigger a slave rebellion. US Marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed the engine house on October 18. Newby was killed first; Leary died of wounds; Copeland and Green were captured and executed. Only Anderson escaped to write a memoir.