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| Author of letter- Charles White |
My primary source is a letter from a minister of a
Presbyterian Church at Berryville, Virginia named Charles White. This letter
was sent to his brother in-law John Felt several weeks after the raid of Harpers
Ferry Virginia led by John Brown. It is believed this letter was just family
update which contained a great detail of this raid.
The author of the letter, Charles White, was in the heat of
the raid so has a lot of good information about what happened. He explained
that John Brown came to Harpers Ferry with a group of men while taken hostages
of the city as well as slaves. After captured, the people found out that John Brown’s
purpose was to rally people to free the slaves. Mr. White gives off the
impression that the slaves were scared to go with John Brown but were forced
with the treat of being killed. Mr. White explains he awoke in the morning and
found that all the guns on his side of the town were in use of civilians trying
to protect themselves. Most white town people thought the slaves were willingly assisting John Brown,
but White tells of a slave who ran away from Brown terrified and trying to find
his way to his master. Mr. White claims to have saved a black man when a white
civilian was going to shoot him for joining brown
until White explained they
had been forced.
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| John Brown rallying up people form Virginia. |
It is interesting to speculate at the bias Mr. White had
against the slaves. He insists that most of the slaves did not want to join the
raid and that they went straight back to the plantation because they liked their
life as a slave. He even questions why a slave would not like his or her life
and laughs at the idea that anyone of them would join Mr. Brown with a hope to
be free. What he fails to realize is that even if slaves had willingly helped
Brown, after he had been captured of course they would lie to keep from getting
killed. Charles White tells explains
that the raid was mostly unsuccessful except in killing a few people and but
other than that it seeded to not be a big worry in the eyes of Mr. White.
Overall though, I think this source is a reliable source of
what happened during the raid from someone who took part in it as a civilian
both trying to save the slaves and trying to end the Brown raid. Since this is
merely
a letter to an in-law, he would have no reason to lie about situations or what
happened, but it is surly soaked with a white man’s perspective.
Source: Moore, Rayburn S. "Charles White's Account of the Raid at Harpers Ferry." Charles White's Eyewitness Account. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.
