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August 2, 2000: When abolitionist John Brown seized the federal
armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, October 16, 1859, he gave America one
its most dramatic and historic moments. With the seizure, conducted
with the help of some 20 men in his "army of liberation" and secretly supported
by prominent people such as New England Transcendentalist Theodore Parker,
Brown hoped to ignite and arm a massive slave insurrection. The effort
failed, however, after only a few days and resulted in Brown's execution
on December 2. Nevertheless, Brown's bold move inspired Herman Melville's
poem "The Portent"
and may even have helped to bring on the Civil War. During our visit
to Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park on a warm, clear afternoon, it occurred to me that Brown deserves
credit for one other service: Thanks to his history-making move, America
has taken the initiative to preserve a lovely town in a breathtaking spot.
Having climbed a stone staircase that the town's residents carved out of
a hill, Lisa, Essie, and I could look down on simple but lovely red-brick
buildings situated among sheer cliffs. Later, we climbed even higher,
and I scaled a few rocks to take in a sight that Thomas Jefferson--standing
in the same spot two centuries earlier--had said was worth a trip across
the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the towering cliffs, I could see
the Shenandoah River far below me. As a whole, Harpers Ferry was
surely worth a trip across two states. |
August
3, 1996: On our way back to Chapel Hill from Indiana, we stopped in
Point Pleasant to visit the West Virginia State Farm Museum and a battleground
from the Revolutionary War era. The farm museum was a huge disappointment--a
ridiculous collection of rusty junk and stuffed birds devoid of logical
arrangement or meaningful labels--but the battleground was enjoyable. A
monument marks the spot where colonists fought hundreds of Native Americans
next to the Ohio River, and a tavern from 1796 still stands on the same
site.