| What makes it historical? |
Founded in 1763 by millwright, Robert Harper, this town of two rivers is most well known as the site of the second national armory, starting in 1802! This strategically located armory, storing over 100,000 firearms, was highly desirable for rebel causes! In 1859, an abolitionist named John Brown, along with 21 other folks, attacked Harpers Ferry in an effort to capture these weapons and use them to liberate the slaves! Though the U.S. Marines crushed his raid in less than tw days, and Mr. Brown himself was hanged for treason, hi cause galvanized the nation and helped spur the outbreak of the Civil War, which did, ultimately, free the slave!
Harpers Ferry was super contentious during that Civil War because of its location onthe rivers and along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Between 1861 and 1865, it changed hands no less than eight times! When it ultimately came back into Union hands after the Battle of Antietam, it became the Union base of operations in the Shenandoah Valley!
With a Civil War at a close, a team of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Freewill Baptists of New England, and businessman, John Storer, acquired several of the abandoned Armory buildings and launched Storer College in 1867. Their goal was to serve the educational needs of the 30,000 newly freed slaves of the Shenandoah Valley! In the 88 years that the college was in operation, it educated over 7,000 students, and even more remarkably, enabled 75% of the town’s black citizens to own land, something that was very rare for many years! In 1955, after the ruling on Brown vs. Board of Education, the State of West Virginia cut funding for Storer College, and it closed its doors. |
