Harpers Ferry

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Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet; population (2000 est) 300. First settled in 1732, and incorporated as a town in 1763, it is chiefly significant for its place in the history of the abolitionism. On 16 October 1859 the antislavery leader John Brown seized the federal government's arsenal here, with the intention of using its store of 100,000 firearms to found a republic for freed slaves. The siege lasted only 36 hours, left ten dead, and was ultimately unsuccessful; Brown was later hanged for treason. The raid signalled a rising trend of violent resistance to slavery and helped precipitate the American Civil War. In the Civil War Harpers Ferry was captured by Gen Stonewall Jackson. Most of the town has now been reconstructed as the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, established in 1944.

For many of those sympathetic to the abolitionist cause Brown was a martyr, and was revered in the song ‘John Brown's Body’. During the Civil War, Harpers Ferry, a strategically located settlement and the site of an important national munitions factory, was the centre of several engagements. The consequent destruction, combined with later flooding, caused the town to be virtually abandoned in the years following the Civil War. In 1892 John Brown's so-called ‘fort’ (the engine room stormed by Brown and his men), was sent to the Chicago World's Fair; the fort has now been rebuilt near its original location.

The stars symbolize hope and equality between the ten parishes. Green reflects the island's lush vegetation. The red disc has socialist connotations. Effective date: 3 November 1990. >>