• The execution site of John Brown and six of his raiders in Charles Town is marked with a commemorative plaque.


• The song “John Brown’s Body” was originally written about John Brown a revolutionary war soldier – verses were added following John Brown’s raid at HF


• Seven of John Brown’s men got away – Seven were hanged including two black raiders – and nine, including two of John Brown’s sons, were killed in the raid


• Frederick Douglass told John Brown he was going to fall into “The Perfect Steel Trap” because the government would send troops if he attacked a federal arsenal. Douglass was right.


• The engine house was taken down and sent to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. People were charged ten cents to enter the engine house. Only eleven people paid to see it.


• The Historic Charles Town walking tour includes the hanging site, the trial site, the museum, and the reading room where John Wilkes Booth did Shakespearean reading to entertain persons who were at the trial of John Brown.


• The Historic Hilltop Hotel was built in 1888 by a black family to accommodate persons visiting Storer College.


• Martin R. Delany who was born in Charles Town was the organizer of the John Brown convention in Chatham Ontario Canada in 1858. Delany later became the first black line officer in the U.S. Army when he was appointed Major during the Civil War.


• The largest landowner in Jefferson County Virginia during the Civil War was a free black man, Mr. Roper. His descendents are still one of the largest landowners in Jefferson County today.


• The Historic Hilltop House hotel was built in 1888 by Lovett family, a black family, to provide lodging for persons visiting Storer College.


• The John Brown raid resulted in seven hangings. Besides John Brown’s hanging on December. 2, 1859, four of his men were executed on December 16 and two more were hanged on March 16, 1860. All the hangings took place at the same site in Charles Town. All seven were found guilty of murder and inciting slaves to rebel. Four were found guilty of treason. The two black raiders hanged on December. 16 were actually found innocent of treason. As black men they could not be found guilty of treason because they were not citizens – they were property.


• The Governor of Virginia (It was Harpers Ferry, Virginia) at the time of the John Brown raid, Henry Wise, later became a General in the Confederate army. It was due to the paranoia by Governor Wise that led to the largest concentration of armed troops in Charles Town for the John Brown incident than at any time in Virginia history since the Revolutionary battle at Yorktown. When Virginia seceded in April 1861 Governor Wise led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to secure the guns for the Confederacy.


• The first man killed in John Brown’s raid to free the slaves was actually a free black man, Heyward Shepherd, a B & O Railroad baggage man. The first raider killed was also a free black man, Dangerfield Newby.


• The fire engine house where John Brown was captured is within about 50 yards from where it was originally. The engine house was taken down in the 1890s and taken to the Columbia Exposition in Chicago where it was reconstructed. Visitors were charged ten cents to enter the fort. After the exposition, the building was taken down and brought back to a location near the present day KOA Kampground on the Murphy Farm. It was later moved to the campus of Storer College. When the national park was designated, the engine house was moved back downtown and placed at its present day location. Through all the moving, the front of the building was reversed. The reversal was never corrected.


• Harpers Ferry was a significant transportation hub with the crossing of the road, B & O Railroad and C & O Canal. It was the place where process of manufacturing interchangeable parts was invented. The factories here were run by waterpower from both the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. The rivers also caused much distress in Harpers Ferry whenever they flooded.


• Harpers Ferry was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In addition, contraband blacks followed the Union troops into Harpers Ferry and thousands camped here during the war.


• The area has a rich horse racing tradition that goes back as far as George Washington and his brother Charles (founded of Charles Town) who were said to have raced their horses on the town’s streets. Charles Town races has a horse racing tradition that goes back seventy-five year.


• A black history tour of Charles Town in available. Charles Town’s African American History Festival takes place in August each year.