*Includes pictures *Includes historic accounts of Harpers Ferry's history, including John Brown's raid and Stonewall Jackson's 1862 occupation *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Harpers Ferry, still perhaps best known as Harper’s Ferry, is one of the most unique places in American history. Situated near the confluence of the Shenandoah River and Potomac River, it is one of the few places in the country that practically borders three states, and the location ultimately compelled George Washington himself to place a federal armory and arsenal there. Although Harpers Ferry was always a small, sleepy town, its industrial capacity to manufacture weaponry for the U.S. Army made it important, and ultimately ensured its legacy thanks to John Brown’s raid. After his activities in Bleeding Kansas, Brown spent the next few years raising money in New England, and in 1859 he began to set a new plan in motion that he hoped would create a full scale slave uprising in the South. Brown’s plan relied on raiding the main federal arms depot at Harpers Ferry thanks to its proximity to the South, after which he would take the seized weapons, gather slaves, and swell his numbers as he went. The slaves would then be armed and ready to help free more slaves, inevitably fighting Southern militias along the way.