Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Last week I attended a business retreat just outside of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, a village brimming with charm and history. Located 90 minutes from Washington, D.C., one feels transported back to the 1800s as you walk picturesque German Street, lined with charming restaurants and unique locally owned shops. I also had an opportunity to spend an afternoon hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains along a segment of the Appalachian Trail. The trees were in full autumn color, and the crisp temperatures ideal for a vigorous hike.

While in the area, I made a trip to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet here, playing an important role the area's history. The park experience includes strolling the picturesque streets of this restored 19th century industrial village, visiting the several shops and museums. There are also a variety of tours and living history presentations, bringing the past to life.

Here is a quick recap of some of the interesting history that this park preserves:


Industry
The United States Armory and Arsenal, established in 1799, transformed Harpers Ferry from a remote village into an industrial center. Between 1801 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Armory produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols, and employed, at times, over 400 workers. Inventor John H. Hall pioneered interchangeable firearms manufacture at his Rifle Works, and helped lead the change from craft-based production to manufacture by machine. Other industries included pulp mills, cotton mills, tannery, flour mill, sawmill, and iron foundry. Today, only ruins remain of Harpers Ferrys 19th-century industrial heyday.

John Brown's Raid

John Brown believed he could free the slaves, and on October 16, 1859, he and his 21- man "army of liberation" seized weapons at the Armory and several other strategic points with intent of using the Blue Ridge Mountains for guerrilla warfare. Thirty-six hours after the raid had begun, Brown was captured in the Armory fire engine house by U.S. Marines. Brown was brought to trial and found guilty of treason, of conspiring with slaves to rebel, and murder. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. John Brown's short-lived raid failed, but his trial and execution focused the nation's attention on the moral issue of slavery and headed the country toward civil war.

The Civil War

The Civil War had a profound and disastrous effect on Harpers Ferry, leaving a path of destruction that destroyed the town's economy and forced many residents to leave and never return. Because of the town's strategic location, Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. On April 18, 1861, after Virginia seceded from the Union, Federal soldiers set fire to the Armory and Arsenal to keep them out of Confederate hands. When the Confederates abandoned the town two months later, they burned most of the factory buildings and blew up the railroad bridge. Harpers Ferry was also the site of the largest surrender of Federal troops during the war.

African-American History

The first black arrived in Harpers Ferry in the mid-1700s as a slave to Robert Harper. By the time of John Brown's Raid in 1859, about ten percent of the town's residents were black. The town's 150 slaves, considered property, could be rented out, sold, used as collateral for business transactions, or given away. Another 150 "free" blacks worked as laborers or teamsters.
Following the Civil War, Baptist missionaries acquired several vacant Armory buildings and, in 1867, started the first integrated school, Storer College. The Niagara Movement (the forerunner to the NAACP) was also created at Storer College.

The natural beauty and the amazing history of this area truly are inspiring. To stand on the soil these historical sites stirs something in me, giving me a new appreciation to the lives and events that unfolded here.