Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston, South Carolina

From afar, Ft. Sumter looks like the stump of a tree cut off at its base. It was. From 1861 to 1865, tens of thousands artillery shells fell on or near it. I admit I was a bit disappointed. I had trouble imaging the drama and recreating the fort prior to April 1861. What helped was Paul, a guide on the ferry, who said that Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was a sister fort. Below is Fort Point last summer. Once I recalled that, I realized that I was looking at a stump of a fort, its fifty-five foot high walls demolished by Confederate and then Union bombardments.

Fort Sumter from the ferry (Photo by Hunner)

Fort Point, a sister to Fort Sumter (Photo by Hunner)

Charleston has perhaps the best harbor for a port along the Atlantic South coast. Founded in 1670, it helped shape the South and the country. Patriot soldiers fought off nine British warships who tried to capture the port in 1776. Native son Charles Pinckney helped draft the Constitution in 1787. As the port closer to Africa than most other colonies, it was the biggest slave market in the country.  A center for business and culture of the South, by 1790 Charleston was the 4^th biggest city in the new nation.

In downtown Charleston, the Old Slave Market tells the history of slavery, from Africans captured and crammed onto ships and suffering through the Middle Passage to slave markets to forced labor in harsh conditions. Many of the European colonies in North, South, and Central America imported more than 9,000,000 slaves to the New World.[1]

Northern states began to abolish slavery in the 1780s, and the U.S. Constitution banned the importation of slaves by 1808. But the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 invigorated the South. With this machine, fifty times as much cotton could be cleaned than by hand. Since plantation owners needed more labor to grow and process cotton, a slave society grew.

Cotton harvesting (From exhibit at the Civil War Interpretive Center, Corinth, Mississippi)

From 1789 to 1865, one million American born men, women, and children of African descent were bought and sold. The Old Slave Market notes that “splitting families was a business decision.”[2] By 1860, 4,000,000 slaves worked in the South. For more about slavery and the causes of the civil war, please go to these postings at Driven by History: African Burial Grounds and the causes of the Civil War.

In 1856, Charleston outlawed the outdoor auction of slaves, so the markets went indoors. In the four block area around the Old Slave Market, forty indoor marts sprang up. The building that houses the museum was one—Ryan’s Mart. The last auction at Ryan’s occurred on November 1863. In this building, a healthy man sold for around $36,000 in 2007 dollars, a woman, $ 32,000, and a girl between $21,000 to $26,000. In 1860, Charleston had a population of 44,000 including 14,000 slaves, and 3,000 free blacks.[3]

To protect Charleston's harbor, the U.S. built Fort Sumter in 1829 by dumping New England granite onto a sand shoal at the mouth of the harbor to create an island. To construct the fort, slaves made bricks and used them to make the massive walls. No one entered Charleston without sailing past the guns on the island.

Fort Sumter before the war (From exhibit at Fort Sumter)

Charleston was no stranger to protesting the federal government. During the Nullification Crisis in 1828 and again in 1832, South Carolina called for secession. It refused to pay taxes on imported manufactured goods. Such tariffs protected the northern states’ growing industries like textile factories, but penalized the southern states who produced the cotton. It also harmed the South’s trade relations with England. Vice President John Calhoun resigned, and federal troops arrived in Charleston to collect the back duties. Even though a compromise tariff calmed the waters in 1833, taxation continued to raise hackles in the new Republic.

Technology changed in the first half of the 19th century, not only in weaponry but perhaps just as important for armies this big, in transportation. Initially canals, then railroads and river traffic knitted the Republic together. Steamboats toted heavy loads of cargo and people up shallow rivers, and railroads did the same through the heart of the continent. These steam powered conveyances connected farms to markets, towns to cities, and during the war, battlefields to battlefields and soldier to soldier.

As the movement to abolish slavery in the North grew, a new national party emerged. The presidential election of 1860 saw a four-person race, including the first time the Republican Party offered a candidate- Abraham Lincoln. The Republican platform did not call for the abolition of all slavery, but did want to close off the western territories to it. Lincoln won as the vote splintered among the four men, and the South rose up to challenge the power of the federal government to limit their rights to own slaves.

The presidential and vice presidential candidates for the Republican Party in 1860
(From exhibit at the Civil War Interpretive Center, Corinth, Mississippi)

The Secession winter tore the country in two. Southerners argued about whether to stay in the Union or not. Addressing the South Carolina’s Democratic convention in 1860, J.S. Preston said: “Slavery is our King. Slavery is our Truth. Slavery is our Divine Right.”[4] That state seceded first on December 12, 1861, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana in January, Texas in February (when the government of the Confederate States of America formed), Virginia, Arkansas, and North Carolina in April, and Tennessee in June.   

The North and the South organized their armed forces on massive scales, but to win with such large armies took time to figure out. New armies don’t win overnight. Organizing the training, the movement of troops, the supplying of food, ammunition, clothing, and medical support takes coordination. An army at dawn learns by the mistakes it makes.[5] Those mistakes cost men their lives, both in the early battles as well as in the missed opportunities that could have ended the war sooner, for either side. Few anticipated the wrath and sorrow that was descending on the people of the crumbling Republic.

And so, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, a civil war erupted. Confederate shells fell on the Union fort at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. After South Carolina seceded, eighty-five Union soldiers under Major Robert Anderson bolted from Fort Moultrie and rowed over to Fort Sumter. There they holed up in a fort meant to be defended by 650 and waited for reinforcements.

The bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861 (From exhibit at Fort Sumter)

Having been warned by Lincoln that a Union supply ship was due, Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Fort Sumter fired on. On April 13, General P.G.T. Beauregard (one of Anderson’s students at West Point) opened up with his batteries from Fort Moultrie against Fort Sumter. The bombardment lasted for thirty-four hours, and then Anderson, low on men and supplies, surrendered.

Once the Confederacy had Fort Sumter, much of the blockade running that supplied the South with goods from Europe sought the safe harbor of Charleston. Davis stated: “Fort Sumter, where was first given to the breeze the flag of the Confederacy.” Lincoln had his own thoughts: “The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably expired at the assault on Fort Sumter.”[6]

The first state to secede, the first shots of the Civil War, and now a haven for Southern supplies, Charleston and South Carolina attracted the North’s ire. The Union focused on Fort Sumter as a key target. For twenty-two months, Union cannons from first sea and then land targeted the fort. A Confederate log book from the fort recorded the action: “Aug. 18, 1863- enemy opened fire 5 am to 7 pm. 876 shots and shells fired. 452 struck outside, 24, inside, 180 passed over.” In total, Union cannons shot more than 44,000 shells during its almost two year long bombardment. At the fort, 309 Southern soldiers died.

Confederate held Fort Sumter under attack (From exhibit at Fort Sumter)

Fort Sumter sparked the Civil War and was reduced to almost rubble. Standing on the rail of the ferry after the 1 ½ hour visit and watching it recede, I imagined an overlay of a multi-storied brick fortress rising out of the straits at the mouth of Charleston Harbor but saw a short stump, a symbol of the amputated country, of the veterans without limbs, and how the legacy of Civil War continues to impact the country.

The fort as the ferry sails back to Charleston (Photo by Hunner)

Fort Sumter joined the NPS as a National Monument in 1948 under President Truman. Fort Moultrie was acquired on May 1, 1963 and added to Fort Sumter.

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[1] From exhibit at Old Slave Market, SC. Web?

[2] From exhibit at the Old Slave Market, Charleston, SC. Web?

[3] From exhibit at the Old Slave Market, Charleston, SC,

[4] From the Fort Sumter exhibit at Liberty Square, Charleston, S.C.

[5] I borrowed this term from Rick Atkinson’s title of the same. He wrote about the Allied forces at the beginning of World War II in north Africa.

[6] Both quotes come from the exhibit at Fort Sumter.

Notes from the Road, October 10, 2016

After my side trip to Scandinavia, I returned to driving to history on Wednesday, Sept. 28 when I visited Manassas National Battlefield Park. The next day, I picked up the trailer at Shannon Farms (thanks again to the kind folks there for letting me store it and especially to Barbara and George for their hospitality) and on Thursday, spent the afternoon at Petersburg National Battlefield. Ranger Christopher immersed Kath from Maryland and me in an in-depth tour of the site. Immersed because at times, a torrential downpour drenched us. I am glad to say the storm did not dampen our spirits.

A tour of the Manassas Battlefield (Photo by Hunner)

A tour of the  trenches at the Petersburg Battlefield, in a downpour. (Photo by Hunner)

Christopher showed us three units of the park along the Dimmock Line, an earthen embankment that ran for thirty miles protecting Petersburg and Richmond in 1864-65. For 9 ½ months, Confederates and Union forces fought from trenches in a stalemate that lasted through that winter. We went to a reconstruction of a gabion where Christopher walked us through  attack and defense of such a fortified position. We also saw trenches from World War I used to train U.S. soldiers on their way to the front in Europe. Civil War Petersburg was a precursor to the trench warfare that happened in Flanders Field and other places during World War I.

The next day, I visited Colonial Williamsburg. As many of you know, I teach living history at New Mexico State University. But I had never spent time at Williamsburg, one of the premier living history parks in the country. They interpret this capital of Virginia in 1775, as revolutionary fervor fanned by some of the people from Williamsburg started to burst in the flames. I learned a lot about colonial life in the houses I went into, and a lot about the founding of our democracy at the State House. Then at the end of the afternoon, not having seen any first person interpreters, I stumbled on five African Americans sitting on a bench on the Duke of Gloucester Street in period costume. They portrayed slaves from the time period. In an accompanying blog this week, I write more about the causes of the Civil War.

Interpreters talking about slavery at Colonial Williamsburg (Photo by Hunner)

It took me a full day to drive from Virginia to Charleston, South Carolina. I was going to pay my respects to Kitty Hawk, but I got worried that Hurricane Matthew could curtail my coastal ramblings. One of my must-see parks is Fort Sumter NHS. So I by-passed the Outer Banks and went to Charleston and Fort Sumter on Sunday.

Painting of the shelling of Fort Sumter which started the Civil War (From exhibit at the fort)

Fort Sumter is a small place considering the big part it played in starting the Civil War. I took a ferry from Patriots Point where we motored under the bow of the venerable U.S.S. Yorktown, the aircraft carrier from World War II to Ft. Sumter. Driving by History will focus on the Civil War over the next few weeks so stay tuned.

The ferry to Fort Sumter motoring under the U.S.S. Yorktown (Photo by Hunner)

After Fort Sumter, I walked around Charleston, one of the prettiest cities in the country. The colonial style houses, the narrow cobblestone streets, and friendly people all contributed to its charm and authenticity. I was definitely in the South. I also decided to go to one of the forts at the mouth of Charleston Bay which fired on Fort Sumter so I drove around to Fort Moultrie.

I was looking forward to spending a couple of days at the Huntington Beach State Park, catching up on my writing and enjoying the beach. I cycled over to Brookgreen Gardens and followed their trail through the rice fields and the grounds where the slave village used to be.

The beach at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina several days before Hurricane Matthew hit (Photo by Hunner)

On a tour at Huntington Beach State Park, this alligator bellows, possibly a  warning of the impending hurricane.
 (Photo by Hunner)

When I got back to my trailer, a ranger knocked on my door and told me I would have to evacuate by noon the next day because of Hurricane Matthew. The news estimated that 1,000,000 were in the evacuation zone, so I decided to bug out that night and headed for a special hurricane evacuation center in Asheville—that is, at my brother Chuck and Annette, his wife’s, house. On the way, I stopped by King’s Mountain, an American Revolutionary war park which Thomas Jefferson said “turned the tide.”

At King's Mountain, we stop at the grave of the British officer Ferguson who led the Loyalist Americans. (Photo by Hunner)

While in Asheville riding out the hurricane, I popped over to Greenville, Tennessee and the Andrew Johnson NHS. Johnson took over the presidency after Lincoln was murdered, and he had a difficult time bringing the country back together after the Civil War. He was impeached by the House, but not convicted by the Senate in 1868-1869. A former student of the Public History Program at NMSU works there-- Stephanie Steinhorst. She is the Chief of Interpretation and Education, and it was great seeing her advance in the NPS. Well done Stephanie.

Former NMSU student Stephanie Steinhorst at the Andrew Johnson NHS in front of the photos of Yosemite that Lincoln saw. Afterwards, Lincoln signed an agreement to protect Yosemite,  which was the start of the National Parks. (Photo by Hunner)

Hurricane Matthew dropped only rain on Asheville so I was glad to be away from the force of its winds, rain, and surf. Hearing the news from the affected areas in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Haiti, I am lucky to be able to evacuate and find safe haven away from the storm. With perhaps 2,000 people dead in Haiti, and parts of these three states with their own deaths and massive flooding, I know that some of the places I enjoyed just a week ago in Charleston and Huntington Beach have taken an almost direct hit. The eye of Matthew came ashore twenty-five miles south of my campsite and about twenty-five miles north of Charleston. I hope they recover quickly.

Many thanks to Annette and Chuck for their southern hospitality—the home grown tomatoes, the micro-brews, and the arts and crafts of the area.

The entry by the Andrew Johnson NHS into the Halloween contest at Greenville, Tennessee (Photo by Hunner)

I leave on Monday, October 10 for the last part of my road trip to the East Coast and the South—here’s is a revised schedule of my travels. Of course, this itinerary is subject to change.

Week of Oct 10

Great Smoky Mountains NP, Tennessee

Manhattan Project NHP at Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Tennessee Valley Authority, Tennessee

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Parks, Tennessee

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Georgia

Week of Oct 17

Andersonville NHS, Georgia

Tuskegee Airmen NHS, Alabama

Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Trail, Alabama

Week of Oct 24

Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail and Parkway, Alabama and Mississippi

Vicksburg NMP, Mississippi

New Orleans Jazz NHP, Louisiana

Acadian Village, Louisiana

Week of Oct 30

San Jacinto State Historic Park, Texas

Palo Alto Battlefield NHP, Texas

San Antonio Missions NHP, Texas

Fort Davis NHS, Texas

Return to Las Cruces, New Mexico

The Causes of the Civil War

Traveling around the East Coast since August, I have visited many NPS sites that commemorate the Civil War. To begin to understand that war, we have to discuss its causes. Even 150 years later, this raises disagreements and even high emotions. I want to say from the beginning that slavery was the main cause. The following blog weaves experiences I had at various sites with a history of slavery in the United States. Finally, I will offer some thoughts on why some continue to debate what caused the Civil War.

The historical park Colonial Williamsburg has a core of interpreters who portray people from 1775. On the Duke of Gloucester Street, Revolutionary hero General Knox rallied the crowd with his shouts for freedom. Hearing this, slave Jacob turned to me and asked: “How can you trust a man who cries for freedom but has slaves? A man can’t love freedom and slaves at the same time.” Benjamin, also sitting on the bench with Jacob, chimed in: “If my master, Mr. Witt, stood on these steps and said ‘Freedom for all,’ he’d get cheered. If I stood and said ‘Freedom for all,’ I’d get jeered.” At Colonial Williamsburg, the contradiction of the American Revolution to make all men equal is evident to those who interpret slavery there.

Interpreters Jacob on left and Benjamin standing in grey vest talk to visitors about being slaves in 1775.
(Photo by Hunner)

Slavery came early to the shores of North America. In 1619, a Dutch ship carrying some twenty captured Africans landed at Jamestown, Virginia and traded them for food. Then in 1626, Dutch merchants sold eleven West African slaves at New Amsterdam (which became New York). Slavery spread throughout the colonies and continued even after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal. By the start of the Revolution, 470,000 slaves lived in the British colonies, which equaled 22% of the total population. Colonies north of the Mason-Dixon line had a population of 4% slaves, while North Carolina had 35% slaves and South Carolina’s numbers totaled 61%.[1]

Map of slave population in the South (From exhibit at Ft. Sumter Visitors' Center)

Slavery increased in the 18^th century in both the North and the South. New York served as a center for trade between England, its American colonies (including West Indian plantations), and Africa, and so it transshipped slaves, sugar, and sterling in a profitable exchange of goods and peoples. Ships delivered slaves to docks outside of the fort on the tip of Manhattan. See the blog on The African Burial Grounds. New England shipping firms made money on building slave ships as well as transporting captured West Africans to the Americas.

Perhaps the first Muslims to land on the shores of North America were slaves. Some 15% of people taken in Sub-Saharan Africa and brought to the western hemisphere were Muslims according to the "Islam and the United States" podcast on Backstory.[2]

Many slaves worked in fields, growing tobacco, rice, and cotton, but some were skilled laborers who worked in blacksmith and wheelwright shops, restaurants and hotels, distilleries, shipyards, and lumber camps. As a NPS publication states: “African slavery was central to the success of British North America.”[3]

Slaves working in the cotton fields (From exhibit at Ft. Sumter Visitors' Center)

At Colonial Williamsburg, Benjamin-- one of the slave interpreters—told us: “These beautiful buildings were built by slaves. Nothing’s paid for here.” Without slaves, there would be no Williamsburg. In fact, before the Civil War, slaves worked on both the White House and the Capitol buildings in Washington D.C., a fact not lost on President Obama. Indeed, without slaves, the early history of America would be vastly different, our towns and cities would look vastly different, and our commerce would not have been as vigorous. Slaves fueled a lot of growth during the colonial and early Republic period.

Jacob offered another reason for the American Revolution. He said: “A couple of years ago, in 1772, England banned slavery. So are these white men going to war against taxes or because they are afraid of losing their slaves?” When the American Revolution ignited, slavery was legal in all thirteen colonies. But afterwards, northern states began to ban slavery—Vermont in 1777 and Massachusetts in 1783 or passed laws for its gradual abolition—Pennsylvania in 1780, New Hampshire in 1783, Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784, and New York in 1785.[4]

The contradiction of a country established on liberty dependent on slaves troubled some people; however, the Constitution of 1787 side-stepped the issue and did not mention “slavery” once. Instead they used the term “property” to denote slaves. The Constitution did include the “three-fifths clause” that representation in the House of Representatives “shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free Persons … three fifths of all other Persons.” So slaves were 3/5ths of a person for counting population toward determining legislative representation.

Map of the Compromise of 1820 (From the exhibit at the Ft. Sumter Visitors' Center)

As the nation expanded westward, slavery took center stage. Would the new territories allow slavery? The Missouri Compromise of 1820 addressed this issue as it set the boundary between free and slave territories at the 36° 30’ parallel. Afterwards, Thomas Jefferson worried about slavery: “This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror…. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed … for the moment, but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence.” Over the first half of the 19th century, the reprieve and compromises slowly unraveled, strained by sectional conflicts and by competing moral and Biblical arguments about slavery.

The Compromise of 1850 sought to settle whether slavery would exist in the new territories gained from the Mexican-American War. This Compromise admitted California as a free state and allowed the territories of New Mexico and Utah to vote on the matter. As recompense to Southerners, the Fugitive Slave Act forced Northerners to assist in the capture of escaped slaves.

Map of the Kansas Nebraska Act 1854 (From exhibit at the Ft. Sumter Visitors' Center)

Slave labor was essential for the economy of the South. By 1860, the region produced 1,650,000,000 pounds of cotton.  Much of that cotton supplied the textile mills of the U.S. Northeast and England. During the first half of the 19th century, cotton far outpaced all other American foreign exports. The twelve richest counties in the country resided there, and in the 1840s and 1850s, the South constituted the fourth largest economy in the world. Part of this wealth came from slave labor, and some of it came from the value of slaves as property.

Many abolitionists fought hard to abolish slavery on moral and Biblical grounds. One of the most vocal opponents of slavery was Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave.  In 1852, he asked this question to an audience about the nation’s July 4^th celebrations: 

“This Fourth July is yours, not mine.... Fellow citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them…. To [a slave], your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity…. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”[5] Many abolitionists worked with Douglass to end slavery, including John Brown.

Frederick Douglass's parlor with his bust on the right (From Frederick Douglass's NHS in Washington, D.C.) 

When I toured the Petersburg Battlefield, a man walked up at the end of the tour. He said that everyone knows that the Civil War was about money. I politely differed with him. I agreed that the North fought to protect its growing industrial might and so profits were a motivation. But for the South, protecting slavery was the primary cause. Those politicians and elites who voted for secession, voted so to protect slavery. 

For example, here is the Vice-President of the Confederate State of America, Alexander Stevens: “[Our] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Numerous leaders in the South agreed with Stevens that preserving slavery was the cornerstone of the reason to leave the Union. I will discuss why individual soldiers on both sides of war fought in a future blog.

So why do people claim causes other than slavery? Descendants of Confederate veterans want to see their ancestors as not fighting to enslave fellow humans, but for more noble reasons—like ensuring states’ rights or resisting northern aggression. The Lost Cause myth grew post-Civil War to help shift the reason away from slavery to something more acceptable. For anyone interested in what motivated at least the leaders in the South, read the transcripts from the floor of the U.S. Congress and from the various secession conventions in the South between November 1860 and May 1861. Any reading of these documents will reveal that states seceded to protect slavery.[6]

Granted, this is tricky territory, partially because the Civil War is still contentious in many parts of our nation. But to dive into the Civil War as we will over the next few weeks, I wanted to be clear about what caused the war. Sure, not everyone fought for or against slavery. Yes, very few whites thought slaves were equal in either the North or the South.

Nonetheless, the United States had to reconcile our promise of liberty and freedom for all with the 4,000,000 slaves denied that promise. As Robert Watson, who portrayed a slave candle maker at Colonial Williamsburg, said after a long discussion about civil rights then and now: “We still got a lot of work to do.”

Robert Watson making candles and talking about human rights at the Randolph House in Colonial Williamsburg
(Photo by Hunner) 

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[1] Robert Sutton, John Latschar, and Rick Beard, Slavery in the United States: A Brief History (Washington, DC: Eastern National, 2013), 19.

[2] Backstory broadcast on Oct. 24, 2014. Archived at http://backstoryradio.org/shows/islam-the-united-states/

[3] Slavery: Cause and Catalyst of the Civil War, (NPS, Southeast Region, Division of Interpretation and Education), 2.

[4] Slavery in the United States, 22.

[5] Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” Given in Rochester, NY, July 5, 1852. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13837.htm

[6] Thanks to Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, former chief historian of the NPS, for his work on plowing through these volumes of primary sources to uncover what people who debated and voted on secession said as to why they did so. 

Harpers Ferry NHP, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and Maryland

The tragedy of a country founded on freedom engaging in a war to keep some of its citizens enslaved and the tragedy of Americans fighting Americans, with hundreds of thousands of men killed by their fellow countrymen challenges our comprehension. Perhaps these two facts help illustrate the tragedy: on a single day in September 1862 at the Battle of Antietam, more than 23,000 men were killed or injured.  This totals more than all of the causalities in all of the battles that the United States had fought up to that time.  During the four years of the Civil War, over 600,000 men died -- with 360,000 killed from the North and 258,000 from the South. Many more died of their injuries in the months and years after combat.  The legacy of the Civil War continues as its sites still attract tourists from around the country and the world, as its battle tactics are still studied, and even after 150 years, as its causes and effects still stir heated debates.

Volunteer Burt leads a tour of Harpers Ferry to a group of tourists (Photo by Hunner)

A conflict that engulfed millions of people and lasted four years took a long time to develop. Driven by History will focus on the causes of the conflict over the next few weeks and has already posted a history of slavery in New York City at African Burial Ground For now, let’s focus on the beginnings of the armed conflict that occurred in Kansas and Harpers Ferry.

Harpers Ferry sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Thomas Jefferson passed by the valley with his daughter in 1783 on his way to serve in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia that it was “one of the most stupendous scenes in nature” and “worth a trip across the ocean” to witness.

The Thomas Jefferson Rock overlooking Harpers Ferry.  (Photo by Hunner)

President George Washington established a federal armory and arsenal there. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis obtained guns, powder horns, bullet molds, knives, and an iron frame for a portable boat to take on the Voyage of Discovery. It was an important place in the 19^th century.

A replica of Lewis's steel framed boat which he had made at Harpers Ferry (Photo by Hunner)

Dennis Frye, the Chief of Interpretation at Harpers Ferry, laid out its importance for me. First, Harpers Ferry was one of the earliest industrial centers in the U.S. The falls at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers provided ample water power for the mills that produced manufactured goods for the new republic. In 1819, John Hall used his government contract to make guns at Harpers Ferry with a revolutionary idea of manufacturing interchangeable parts that fit every musket.[1]

Muskets made at the Armory at Harpers Ferry (From exhibit at Visitors' Center)

Second, transportation innovations that transformed the United States came to Harpers Ferry in the 1830s. From Baltimore, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad raced to the west through Harpers Ferry to tap into the verdant region in Ohio. The route through this valley continues as trains screeched by my RV park day and night in nearby Brunswick, Maryland.

Harpers Ferry and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge over the Potomac River (From the exhibit at the Visitors' Center)

Third, the military importance of the gap through the Blue Ridge Mountains manifested itself even before the Civil War when John Brown raided the armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry to supply a slave revolt. Some say that the Civil War started then. During the war, the town changed hands eight times since it served as a strategic gateway to both the Shenandoah Valley and as an invasion route to the north for the Confederates. Harpers Ferry had more than 1,400 days of contest during the Civil War, even more if you factor in John Brown’s raid in 1859. By comparison, the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg lasted one and three days respectively.

Troops crossing the Potomac on a temporary bridge during the Civil War (From the exhibit at the Visitors' Center)

And fourth, civil rights in the 20^th century got a start here with the Niagara Movement in 1906 that helped found the NAACP in 1909. From industrialization to transportation to war to civil rights,

Harpers Ferry saw some of the most significant events in our nation’s history in the 19^th and early 20^th century. So Harpers Ferry played an important role both before and after the Civil War. It is a town anchored in many of the main developments in our nation’s past.

Students at Storer College in Harpers Ferry (From exhibit at the Visitors' Center)

Let’s focus on the beginning of the Civil War with John Brown and his raid. For an opportunistic attack on a nexus of the nation that targeted slavery, Harpers Ferry was ideal for Brown.

Born in 1800 to a family that farmed the hard hills of Connecticut, Brown embraced Calvinism, an austere faith that fought sin and material attachments. He also embraced the precepts of the young nation, especially the promise that all men are created equal. His fierce belief in this founding principle fueled a passionate drive to rid the nation of slavery.

Portraits of John Brown over the years (From the exhibit at the Visitors' Center)

Brown arrived in Kansas Territory in October 1855. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had opened up those territories to a popular vote on slavery. Pro and anti-slavery advocates moved in to contest the vote, and emotions ran hot. As one pro-slavery newspaper proclaimed: “We will continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch, and hang every white-livered abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil.”[2]

In May 1856, 400 “Border Ruffians” attacked the Free State enclave at Lawrence, Kansas and anti-slavery settlers elsewhere. In retaliation, Brown, with four sons and two other men, descended on pro-slavery homes along the Pottawatomie Creek where they hacked to death five men. Violence continued to flare in Kansas, including the "Battle of Osawatomie" where Brown and forty men fought with several hundred Border Ruffians. Then Brown, now nationally known as the fiery abolitionist of Bleeding Kansas, left the territory to hatch a bigger plan to abolish slavery.

Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry

Brown wanted to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry with its 100,000 guns and distribute those weapons to start a slave rebellion. He recruited men, raised money from abolitionists, and infiltrated the area in July 1859. Brown declared: “I want to free all the Negros in this state. If the citizens interfere with me, I must only burn the town and have blood.”[3]

On Sunday evening, October 16, John Brown, two of his sons, and eighteen other men, including five African Americans, set out from a nearby farm through the autumnal chill to attack Harpers Ferry. They quickly captured the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge across the Potomac River, while shooting Heyward Shepherd, who died the next day. Shepherd, a free black luggage porter for the B & O, was their first victim.

A tribute to Heyward Shepherd near where he was killed from the United Daughters of the Confederacy (Photo by Hunner) 

 Quickly, Brown’s raiders secured the railroad bridge and parts of the town and kidnaped several plantation owners. Local men began to snipe at the raiders, and then militia from nearby Charlestown arrived. They recaptured the B & O Railroad bridge and continued shooting at Brown and his men, who had holed up in the Armory, the arsenal across the street, and the Rifle Works down the road. Brown’s headquarters in the Armory was in the Engine House, a thick brick building where he held the captives. A few of Brown’s men, particularly in the Rifle Works, tried to slip away, and most were gunned down by the militia. Brown’s son Watson was shot as he escorted a hostage out in the street to negotiate. The local men had no patience for any raiders who wanted to free slaves.

A replica of the Engine House, Brown's headquarters during the raid. (Photo by Hunner)

Two future commanders of the Confederate Army responded to the raid. Lt. Jeb Stuart, a cavalryman with the Army, led the ninety marines sent to the conflict. From D.C., they arrived by train at Harpers Ferry around 11 pm on the 17^th.  After calling for surrender, which Brown ignored, the marines stormed the Engine House. In his report on the action, future Confederate General Robert E. Lee commented that in a few minutes, ten of Brown’s men died as well as five hostages, including the mayor of Harpers Ferry and one marine.[4]

A  drawing of the interior of the Engine House with Brown's raiders and their hostages. (From the exhibit at the Visitors' Center)

Punishment came swiftly to Brown and his surviving men. One week after the raid, Brown faced trial in Charlestown. After a week of testimony, the jury needed only forty-five minutes to convict him of treason and murder. On Dec. 2, 1859, John Brown was hung.

The raid failed to start a slave rebellion. But it did spark an increase in abolition action in the north, and in the south, increased fears of both slave revolts and northern attacks on slavery. Brown’s intention of forcing the issue of slavery onto center stage worked.

Harpers Ferry continued to see action in the Civil War. In April 1861, Virginian troops, led by Thomas (later dubbed Stonewall) Jackson, captured the town and sent it weapons-making machinery south to produce arms for the Confederacy. In the fall of 1862, Jackson and his troops returned, laid siege to the town, and forced the surrender of the federal troops there, the largest such Union surrender during the Civil War.

After the war, Free Will Baptists created Storer College to teach ex-slaves, which became a center for civil rights struggles in the later part of the 19^th and into the 20^th centuries. At the second meeting of the Niagara Movement at Storer College, W.E.B. DuBois called for changes, including the vote for African American men; an end to discrimination in public accommodations; that the 14^th and 15^th amendments be honored and that laws be enforced “against the rich as well as the poor… against white as well as black;” and that “we want our children educated.”[5] This meeting helped create the NAACP in 1909.

The second meeting of the Niagara Movement at Storer College. W.E.B. DuBois is seated, fourth from the right. (From the exhibit of the African American Museum at Harpers Ferry)

Harpers Ferry has played a significant role in our nation’s history.  As a transportation center, a gateway to the west, a site in the industrial revolution, a flash point for the Civil War, and a center for civil rights, this place instigated and witnessed major events in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry helped realize of one of the founding promises of the country, that all men are created equal. Over the next few weeks, Driven by History will visit other Civil War parks will explore the history of the bloody conflict.

President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation creating Harpers Ferry National Monument on June 29, 1944. It became a National Historical Park in 1963.

A monument to John Brown at Harpers Ferry with the Engine House on the left. (Photo by Hunner)

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[1] Horowitz, 69.

[2] Horwitz, 45.

[3] Horwitz, 131.

[4] Horwitz, 291-92.

[5] From the exhibit at the African American Museum at Harpers Ferry.

The Island Paradise of Bornholm, Denmark

Welcome to Bornholm, a lovely island between Sweden and Poland in the Baltic Sea. Some surveys say the people of Denmark are the happiest in the world and those who live on Bornholm the happiest Danes. So welcome to the happiest place in the world.

Perhaps they’re happy because of the beauty of the island. Perhaps because it is like a garden of Eden with a lot of organic products and a healthy climate. Perhaps because it in their genes, which would not explain why my immigrant brother Pete is so happy here. Perhaps he’s happy because he’s an artist doing what he wants to do. The island is a haven for creative people.

The Gray Pond (Photo by Hunner)

Obviously, there are no NPS units in Denmark. I am taking a break from the road trip through our national parks to attend a conference in Sweden and a family wedding in Denmark. So this week, I offer a history of Bornholm, a smallish island, only forty miles long by ten wide.

Map of Scandinavia with the island of Bornholm just below the "B" in Baltic Sea

Bornholm rises out of the Baltic Sea as a great granite dome. At high points, you can see the southern coast of Sweden about thirty miles to the north. From many places on the island, the constantly changing blue and gray and green hued Baltic Sea is visible. About forty thousand people live on Bornholm year round; however, during the summer, tourists descend on it so that another 100,000 or more vacation here. The economy of the island rests on agriculture and tourism.

Humans first came to the island some 10,000 years ago as the Ice Age froze the Baltic Sea and people could walk to Bornholm. Maibritt, my Danish sister-in-law, while digging in her backyard garden found stone axes which dated back 7,000 years. As in the U.S., the resourcefulness and sophistication of ancient peoples is impressive. Hunters, gatherers, fishermen, farmers, all made this their home and adapted to their times, abilities, and environment.

Stone Axes similar to those found on Bornholm (From exhibit at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen)

Small Viking warship from 1070 A.D.
(From exhibit at the Viking Ship Museum)

Sometime around the 8^th or 9^th century, Vikings arrived on the island. Before coming to Bornholm, I visited the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde, Denmark. The museum has restored five different types of boats which they found sunk in their bay. They date the boats to around 1070 A.D. In addition to the Long Ship, a fast warship that carried up to 100 warriors, the other boats on exhibit included short haul ones that farmers might have used to take goods to market and a long haul freighter that carried twenty to twenty-five tons of cargo. Viking runes, burial mounds, and petroglyphs dot the landscape of Bornholm, and a shop in Svaneke, the Vikinghuset run by Torben Sode, sells Viking replica goods.

Christianity came late to the northland. Some crusaders came here instead of to the Holy Lands to convert the heathen tribes along the Baltic. On Bornholm, they built round churches for reverence as well as protection from raiding parties. Local legend has it that the Holy Grail was brought north by the Crusaders and resides in one of the five round churches on the island. Remote sensing has found a cavity below one of the church but as yet, church authorities have refused to allow further excavations.

A  Round Church on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

The interior of a Round Church (Photo by Hunner)

Strategically located in the Baltic Sea, the island is contested territory and has been since people began sailing. Its rich farms and woods provided supplies and goods for ships, and its central location guarded water travel in the region. Denmark has usually ruled it, but Sweden and the Hansa merchants from Lϋbeck also have controlled the island. The castle at Hammershus (the largest medieval fort in northern Europe) on the northwest tip of Bornholm overlooked the sea lanes through the Baltic and testify to the importance of the island.

The castle at Hammerhus on the north end of Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

After the Vikings declined, an organization based in Lϋbeck, Germany called the Hanseatic League filled the vacuum. From the 13^th to the 16^th centuries, they dominated the Baltic Sea region as a multinational conglomeration with its own protection forces.

The Hansas established trading outposts in London, Burges, Bornholm, and elsewhere which sometimes grew into walled communities. These compounds had their own warehouses, churches, offices, residences, and weigh houses. In Tallinn, Estonia, a massive wall from the time period still surrounds the center of the city. I asked an Estonnian who the residents back then were afraid of to build such a wall, and he said: “Estonians.” Upon occasion, the Estonians revolted against the Hansa merchants and tried to storm their enclave.

The defensive city wall around Tallinn protecting the Hansa merchants (Photo by Hunner)

For much of the twentieth century, the Baltic Sea continued to be contested waters. As a gateway to eastern Russia through St. Petersburg, it is a vital link for that country. During World War II, Germany occupied Denmark including Bornholm. Resistance occurred. I talked with Bent, a fisherman who during the war helped run a chicken farm as a teenager. He told me about how they smuggled guns around the island buried under loads of fish heads which they used as chicken feed.

At war’s end, the German army refused to surrender to the Soviets, hoping instead to do so to the Americans. So the USSR bombed several cities on Bornholm in May 1945 and then moved in. The Soviets occupied Bornholm for eighteen months, and this is one of the few places that they had occupied which they left after the war.

Its strategic importance continues. During the Cold War, Denmark joined NATO, and Bornholm as the farthest east land of a member country served as a listening post into the Soviet Union. Today, resurgent Russia sends military planes routinely over the island. Other Baltic states such as Estonia and Latvia suffer similar encroachments of their airspace. While in Sweden, I heard that they have redeployed military forces on their Baltic Sea island of Gotland due to Russia’s increased posturing.

Despite its position in the center of tense geo-political webs, Bornholm has a well-deserved reputation as a haven for arts and crafts. Potters, fashion designers, and glass blowers thrive.  Here are a few examples. Eva Brandt makes pottery. Her designs incorporate nature so that tea mugs look like they are wrapped in birch bark.

Eva Brandt's pottery (Photo by Hunner)

Bente Hammer, a textile designer, silk screens patterns ranging from geometrical to Viking themes on her fabric at her studio.

Silk Screen printing of textiles at Bente Hammer's studio on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

And Maibritt Jönsson and Pete Hunner create beautiful glass at Baltic Sea Glass near the town of Gudhjem (God’s Home). They bought an old chicken farm from Bent (who I mentioned earlier in resisting the Nazis as a teenager} and his wife Grete and turned it into a studio and gallery. Their inspirations also come from nature—fall foliage, the tempest driven sea, and even Native American corn. These are just a few of the wonderful artists and craftspeople who live and work on Bornholm.

Above, Pete and Maibritt working at Baltic Sea Glass. Below, a glass bowl inspired by Native American corn
(Photos by Hunner)

Back to why Bornholmers are the happiest people in the world. David, the proprietor of my guest house, said even though everyone complains everywhere, the people here complain the most so they are happy. Brother Pete thinks they are happy because all the tourists say how lucky the residents of the island are living there. Sister-in-law Maibritt mentioned an “island mentality” which meant that the islanders take care of each other. Marianne, the minister at the wedding I went to, told me at the reception afterwards that all Bornholmers have a secret in their hearts: “When they have a problem, they go to the woods. When they have a problem, they go to the waterfalls. When they have a problem, they go to the sea. And then their problems aren’t so bad.” Even though there is no NPS on Bornholm, I think that sums up nicely why many of us go to parks. We get happier when we go to the parks.

The shore near Gudhjem on Bornholm (Photo by Hunner)

I am back on the road next week, visiting Virginia and North Carolina. Stay tuned as Driving by History goes to Williamsburg and more Civil War parks. 

Congratulations to the newlyweds driven away from the church by Torben in his 1920 Citroen.