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 con-
fluence 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 slav-
ery; 
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 Octo-
ber 18, 1859, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. J.E.B. Stu-
art 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, con-
spiring 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 anti-
slavery and civil rights movements with the establishment 
of Storer College, created to educate newly freed slaves 
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•HRES 568 IH 
and later became the site of the America’s first Niagara 
Movement meeting with an address delivered by African- 
American leader and scholar, William E. Du Bois whose 
speech inspired the civil rights movement and the cre-
ation of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People in 1909; and 
Whereas in a year when we celebrate the election of our Na-
tion’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 Na-
tion’s history: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog-
nizes the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid in 
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 
Æ 
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