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Harpers Ferry History
Heyward Shepherd
On October 17, 1859, abolitionist John Brown attacked Harper's Ferry to launch a war against slavery, Heyward Shepherd, a free African American railroad baggage master, was shot and killed by Brown's men shortly after midnight.
Seventy-two years later, on October 10, 1931, a crowd estimated to include 300 whites and 100 blacks gathered to unveil and dedicate the Heyward Shepherd monument.
During the ceremony, voices raised to praise and denounce the monument. Conceived around the turn of the century, the monument has endured controversy. In 1905, the United Daughters of the Confederacy stated that "erecting the monument would influence for good the present and coming generations, and prove that the people of the South who owned slaves valued and respected their good qualities as no one else ever did or will do."
Another Perspective
In 1932, W.E.B. DuBois founder of the Niagara Movement and a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), responded to the Shepherd monument by penning these words:
Here, John Brown aimed at human slavery a blow that woke a guilty nation. With him fought seven slaves and sons of slaves. Over his crucified corpse marched 200,000 Black soldiers and 4,000,000 freedmen singing: "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on!" |