The Mountain State - Harpers Ferry, WV

West Virginia

(Sightseeing)

June 8, 2018 - June 11, 2018

It may be that Harpers Ferry is best known for abolitionist John Brown's raid on the armory there and the raid may have been the match that lit the fuse of the Civil War.  It's location at the juncture of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers made it an important commercial port for boats transporting goods up and down the rivers.

Panoramic picture taken from the point where the Shenandoah (on the right) flows into the Potomic (on the left).
I'm standing in West Virginia.  The hill on the left is Maryland.  The hills on the right begin as West Virginia and become Virginia.

In 1796, no less than President George Washington himself, set Harpers Ferry
as the location for one of two federal gun factories (armories). 
It's location and the wealth of iron ore needed to make guns are the reason's for his choice.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition obtained both weapons and equipment from the armory and arsenal in Harper's Ferry.

While at Harpers Ferry, Lewis designed a boat he felt would carry about 8,000 pounds but would be light enough
for his crew to carry when necessary.  It consisted of curved flat metal, braced at the top and in the middle.  Each piece was connected to the next with flat metal and the entire boat was covered with animal skins (see picture below)
He commissioned that it be made at the foundry there.

Once the animal skins were in place they were to be covered with pitch as waterproofing.
Unfortunately pitch was not available in the Harpers Ferry area so buffalo tallow and wax was used instead.
When it was finally launched, the boat floated but soon the water seeped past the tallow and wax and the boat sank.
With no time left to try again, the boat was discarded and Lewis went on the expedition without it.

Tensions over the issue of slavery continued to mount in the U.S.  John Brown, an ardent abolitionist, devised a plan to take a group of men to Harpers Ferry in order to steal guns from the armory, then continue South to free the slaves.  

I don't think Brown took into consideration the geographical position of Harpers Ferry.  The town (and armory) lies at the tip of the point where the Shenandoah (flowing in from the bottom in this diorama) and Potomac (flowing in from the top in this diorama) meet.  Flat land is virtually non-existent anywhere and rocky cliffs are everywhere.  Without a boat you are virtually trapped on that tip of land.

This building was originally a fire engine house. 
After stealing some guns Brown and his men were trapped inside this building.
Brown refused the terms of surrender offered him and Robert E. Lee, then a colonel in the U.S. Calvary,
ordered his men to attack.  Within 3 minutes, all of Brown's group was killed or captured.
Brown was later tried, convicted and hung.

Two years after John Brown's raid the Civil War began.  In the very first days of the war Federal forces burned down the armory and arsenal, eliminating the town's biggest employer.  Still, because of its location, Harpers Ferry was considered strategic to both the North and South.  As a result, it changed hands 8 times during the Civil War. 
In 1865, just after the Civil War a one room school for freedmen was begun in Harpers Ferry by New England Baptists belonging to the Freewill Baptist Church.  After two years the founders realized they needed to train African American teachers in order to meet the needs of the freed slaves.  In 1867 John Storer of Maine, an abolitionist and philanthropist, endowed the school with $10,000 provided the school would be a) open to all sexes and races, b) it would become a degree granting college and c) the Freewill Baptist Church would match his $10,000 within a year.

The church did match the $10,000 and Storer Normal School opened it's doors.  Frederick Douglas was one of the school's first trustees.  Local whites initially resisted the "colored school" but eventually local attitudes changed.  Although whites were allowed to attend, Storer remained largely a black school.  It eventually added other courses and became a four year college but for various reasons, the college closed in 1955.  Never-the-less, it remains a bright chapter in Harpers Ferry history.

This is a bit hard to read.  It says:

Storer College
Educating the Newly Freed People

Before the Civil War it was against the law
to teach a person of color the alphabet.  After
the war, Storer College offered an education
to anyone who found the means to enroll.
But this story is about more than learning
how to read.  The students and teachers of
Storer struggled for 88 years against fear
and ignorance.  They won.