Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- A town of extreme northeast West Virginia at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. It was the scene of John Brown's rebellion (1859), in which he briefly seized the US arsenal here. The town changed hands a number of times during the Civil War.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small town in northeastern West Virginia that was the site of a raid in 1859 by the abolitionist John Brown and his followers who captured an arsenal that was located there
- noun a small town in northeastern West Virginia that was the site of a raid in 1859 by the abolitionist John Brown and his followers who captured an arsenal that was located there
Etymologies
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Examples
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Why did Brown linger in Harpers Ferry instead of fleeing to the mountains?
An Angry Prophet David S. Reynolds 2011
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Alice Mecoy, 51, wasn't told she was John Brown's great-great-granddaughter until she was 16; her parents were embarrassed by the anti-slavery zealot who in 1859 attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what is now West Virginia.
150 years after Civil War, descendants deal with legacy 2011
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In his prologue to "Midnight Rising," Tony Horwitz laments that, in his son's ninth-grade textbook, John Brown—the militant abolitionist whose attack on Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 helped to trigger the Civil War—is only a "speed bump for students racing ahead to Fort Sumter and the Gettysburg Address."
An Angry Prophet David S. Reynolds 2011
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On the rainy evening of Oct. 16, 1859, he and 21 followers began their foray on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry.
An Angry Prophet David S. Reynolds 2011
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Had Brown made it to the mountains before he was captured at Harpers Ferry, he too might have had a powerful effect on events—a positive one unlike al Qaeda, since he aimed to free four million slaves.
An Angry Prophet David S. Reynolds 2011
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Since Virginia had resisted sudden secession, the Harpers Ferry weapons machinery remained off limits to the Confederacy.
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An attempt in October 1859 by John Brown and his twenty-one men to seize the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry and arm slaves in a massive uprising heightened sectional tensions.
Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011
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An attempt in October 1859 by John Brown and his twenty-one men to seize the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry and arm slaves in a massive uprising heightened sectional tensions.
Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011
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The only federal armory in the South was at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
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CSU Archives / Everett Collection John Brown Mr. Horwitz worries that, "through the lens of 9/11," we may now see John Brown as a "long-bearded fundamentalist" and Harpers Ferry as an "al-Qaeda prequel."
An Angry Prophet David S. Reynolds 2011
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