Free Terror Attacks : From the Zealots to Bin Laden (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head Page A

confinement. This only added fuel to the fire, and made Brown more committed to being at the centre of the abolitionist movement.
     
    G ATHERING OF  F ORCES
     
    By November 1856, Brown was running out of funds and had to return to the East Coast. He travelled around New England for the next couple of years gathering as much money together as he could. He befriended a prominent Boston merchant by the name of Amos Adams Lawrence, who contributed a considerable amount into his fund. Brown was also introduced to several influential abolitionists who agreed to offer him financial support for his activities, and they were the ones who would eventually provide the funds for Harper’s Ferry. These supporters became known as the Secret Six and the Committee of the Six. Over the years Brown often asked for their assistance, but it is unclear as to how much these supporters actually knew. Brown spent the entire summer of 1856 gathering funds, weapons and recruits, and in August he and his supporters fought with settlers at Osawatomie, where his son Frederick was killed.
     
I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no peace in this land until slavery is done fore.
     
    In early 1857 Brown headed east with plans to invade the south. He gathered more supporters and started vigorous training. He held meetings with eastern abolitionists, and in early 1858 Brown sent his son John Jr to find out more about the country around Harper’s Ferry, which was the site of a Federal arsenal.
     
    R AID ON  H ARPER’S  F ERRY
     
    On June 3, 1859, John rown arrived at Harper’s Ferry and, using the name of Isaac Smith, he rented a farmhouse in nearby Maryland. He waited patiently for his recruits to join him, but there were fewer than he had expected. In August he met with a man named Frederick Douglass, one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, and told him of his plans to raid Harper’s Ferry. Douglass had many reservations about Brown’s plan and declined any offer to join his mission.
    Brown’s final band of men only numbered 21 (16 white and five black), ranging in age from 21 to 49. On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 of his men set out for Harper’s Ferry, leaving three men behind to guard the farmhouse. The plan was to raid the armoury, a large complex of buildings, which they estimated to contain around 100,000 muskets and rifles. Brown planned to seize the weapons and distribute them among the local slaves before they headed south, hoping this would encourage a general revolution.
    At first the raid went well, and the band of men met no resistance as they headed into town. They cut telegraph wires so that no alarm could be raised and entered the armoury easily, as it was only being guarded by one watchman. Next they rounded up hostages from surrounding farms, one of whom, Colonel Lewis Washington, was the great-grand-nephew of George Washington. They spread the news to the local slaves that they would soon be free and told them to be ready to leave. However, things started to go awry when a Baltimore and Ohio train pulled into the town. Seeing the band of men, the train’s baggage master attempted to warn his passengers, but Brown’s met shouted at him to stop and then opened fire.
    Their first victim was the baggage master himself, Hayward Shepherd, who ironically was a free black man not affected by any of the restrictions of slavery. For some unexplained reason, following the killing of Shepherd, Brown allowed the train to continue its journey, and consequently the news of the raid on the armoury reached Washington by the next morning.
    Back at the armoury, Brown’s men took prisoner an armoury clerk, John Daingerfield, who had arrived for work. He was taken to the guardhouse where he joined the other hostages.
    News had spread like wildfire of the men holding the armoury and local residents including farmers and shopkeepers, and militia came out in force and held the