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Indiana University 
200 Sharpe’s rifles, the same number of revolvers, and 950 
pikes. The pikes were the weapons which he thought res- 
cued slaves could use to the best advantage.^^ 
After mature deliberation he resolved to strike a blow at 
Harper’s Ferry, Va., which is on the south side of the Potomac 
River at the mouth of the Shenandoah. A bridge spanned the 
river here and made access from the Maryland side very easy. 
In July, Brown rented what was known as the Kennedy farm. 
It was about four miles from Harper’s Ferry almost north 
and in an unsuspecting neighborhood. His followers gradu- 
ally joined him at that place. There were twenty-two in 
the company, including John Brown himself. Five of them 
were negroes. Parties of these men could often be seen look- 
ing about and occasionally filling bags with what they said 
was ore of valuable minerals.^® 
Quietly and gradually the arms for their enterprise were 
shipped to Chambersburg, Pa., and from that place conveyed 
to the Kennedy farm in large boxes, addressed to I. Smith 
and Sons.^^ Everything being in readiness, it was decided to 
strike the blow on Sunday night, October 16, 1859. Brown 
now called his followers about him and, like a Scottish chief- 
tain who had summoned his clansmen, gave them final in- 
structions concerning the proposed attack. He urged them 
to respect life and not to kill unless absolutely necessary to 
save their own lives. 
Several of these men had been with Brown in Kansas; 
one was a brother of the wife of Governor Willard of Indi- 
ana one of his negroes had been educated at Oberlin College ; 
all doubtless understood their leader and were men worthy 
of a better cause. Two of them were left at the Kennedy farm 
that they might attend to certain matters later, while Brown 
with eighteen of his men, each armed with revolvers and a 
Sharpe’s rifle, moved forward in darkness and in silence. 
The telegraph wires were cut on the Maryland side of the 
river, the watchman at the bridge seized, guards placed there, 
Sanborn, op. cit. 491, 493, 464 ; Blair’s testimony in Repoi't of Senator Mason’s 
Investigating Committee. 
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (by himself), (Hartford, Conn., 1882), 325; 
Sanborn, op. cit., 538-542 ; Villard, op. cit., 403 ff. 
Testimony before Mason’s Committee. 
Confession of John E. Cook, one of Brown’s men captured and afterward hanged, 
in New York Tribune, November 26, 1859. 
John E. Cook. He was defended in the Virginia courts by Daniel W. Voorhees, 
later a noted U.S. senator fiom Indiana. The Oberlin negro was J. A. Copeland, Jr. 
Villard, op. cit., 680, 681, 684. 
