HARPERS FERRY ARMORY

In 1796, Harpers Ferry, Virginia (the city is now in West Virginia) became the site of the second of two arsenals selected by President George Washington (1732–1799); the first was established in 1794 at Springfield, Massachusetts. The Virginia town, situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, was considered a safe and central place for military stores. Harpers Ferry developed as a center for the manufacture of rifles, but production remained inadequate. In 1798, Congress passed an act appropriating funds to purchase weapons from private armories. By the 1820s, according to American Machinist Magazine ("An Industry Evolves," August 1996), private manufacturers such as Remington and Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing, "managed to develop, through a series of painful stages, an effective combination of machines and gages to provide true interchangeability of parts" to allow for efficient mass production. One important stage of the development process occurred at Harpers Ferry Armory between 1819 and 1826: John Hall, who had established an independent rifle works within the armory, developed milling machines that produced truly interchangeable parts. This technology combined with the factory system to create the American System of Manufactures, which soon spread from Virginia to New England (via Springfield) and then to Europe— giving Harpers Ferry the reputation as the birthplace of the system.

The Harpers Ferry Arsenal became a strategic point for both sides during the American Civil War (1861–1865), changing hands several times before the conflict ended. But the town is also noted for the raid that occurred there just over a year before fighting broke out between Union and Confederate forces.

In fall 1859 American abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) led a group of twenty-one men, black and white, on a raid of the government armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown believed the action would inspire a general insurrection of southern slaves.

On October 16, 1859, the band took control of the village and seized the U.S. arsenal. Ten of Brown's followers, including two of his sons, were killed or injured, and on October 18 the band surrendered to federal troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee (1807–1870). Brown was tried for treason and convicted. He was hanged on December 2, 1859, a martyr for the cause. The raid on Harpers Ferry heightened tensions between the pro-slavery South and the free North, which would only be resolved by further bloodshed.

See also: American System of Manufactures, Harpers Ferry Raid, Springfield Armory