IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 568 

Recognizing the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid in Harpers Ferry, 

West Virginia. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 19, 2009 

Mrs. CAPITO (for herself, Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina, Mr. CAMPBELL, 

Mr. COHEN, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. SESTAK, and Mr. WOLF) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Oversight and Government Reform 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid 

in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 

Whereas Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, located at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers was first 

noted for its beauty by our Founding Father, Thomas 

Jefferson; 

Whereas it was designated by George Washington as a site 

for a Federal armory and arsenal that helped it grow into 

a bustling factory town where the first interchangeable 

parts for guns were created that supplied Lewis and 

Clark on their journey of westward expansion; 

Whereas Harpers Ferry is most known for John’s Brown 

Raid on October 16–18, 1859, who chose the town for its 


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•HRES 568 IH 

Federal armory and arsenal with plans to seize the town 

and began an uprising in the South that would end slavery; 

Whereas John Brown and his provisional army of 21 men 

captured the bridge, arsenal, armory, Hall’s Rifle Works, 

along with hostages, and slave owners John Allstadt and 

Lewis Washington; 

Whereas the fighting continued and on the morning of October 18, 1859, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. J.E.B. Stuart ordered 90 Marines to storm the engine house and 

captured John Brown and his 4 remaining men after 

they refused to surrender; 

Whereas a total of 16 men were killed or mortally wounded 

in John Brown’s Raid including, an unidentified slave, 

Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner, Mayor Fontaine 

Beckham, Heyward Shepherd, Luke Quinn, and 10 of 

Brown’s men, William Leeman, John H. Kagi, Jeremiah 

G. Anderson, William Thompson, Dauphin Thompson, 

Brown’s sons Oliver and Watson, Stewart Taylor, Lewis 

S. Leary, and Dangerfield Newby; 

Whereas Brown and his men were tried in Charles Town, 

Virginia (present day West Virginia), and were convicted 

to death by hanging for the charges of murder, conspiring with slaves to rebel, and treason against the State 

of Virginia, however, their actions ultimately forced the 

country to consider the future of slavery in a turn of 

events that would lead to the Civil War and the freedom 

of 4,000,000 African-Americans; 

Whereas Harpers Ferry stands as a testament to the antislavery and civil rights movements with the establishment 

of Storer College, created to educate newly freed slaves 


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and later became the site of the America’s first Niagara 

Movement meeting with an address delivered by AfricanAmerican leader and scholar, William E. Du Bois whose 

speech inspired the civil rights movement and the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of 

Colored People in 1909; and 

Whereas in a year when we celebrate the election of our Nation’s first African-American President, Barack Obama, 

let us also recognize the 150th anniversary of John 

Brown’s raid, the outbreak of America’s Civil War, and 

the important role Harpers Ferry has played in our Nation’s history: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog2 nizes the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid in 

3 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 

Æ 


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