JOHN BROWN'S RAID: Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859

John Brown, the infamous fighter on the Kansas plains and detester of slavery, led a band of 19 men on a desperate nighttime raid that targeted the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. There, they planned to begin a war to end slavery in the U.S. But after 36 hours, Brown's raid failed, and Brown himself became a prisoner of the state of Virginia. Well illus.