{"id":6444,"date":"2024-10-02T20:01:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T00:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=6444"},"modified":"2024-11-02T07:24:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T11:24:34","slug":"next-in-the-lovettsville-historical-societys-2024-lecture-series-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/next-in-the-lovettsville-historical-societys-2024-lecture-series-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Next in the Lovettsville Historical Society’s 2024 Lecture Series (October)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cJohn Brown’s Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presented by Kevin Pawlak<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, October 13, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. James United Church of Christ,
10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville VA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, October 13, historian and author Kevin Pawlak will be discussing his most recent book, John Brown’s Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Start of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first shot of the American Civil War was not fired on April 12, 1861, in Charleston, South Carolina, but instead came on October 16, 1859, in Harpers Ferry, Virginia\u2014or so claimed former slave turned abolitionist Frederick Douglass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shot came like a meteor in the dark. John Brown, the infamous fighter on the Kansas plains and detester of slavery, led a band of nineteen men on a desperate nighttime raid that targeted the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. There, they planned to begin a war to end slavery in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after 36 tumultuous hours, John Brown\u2019s Raid failed, and Brown himself became a prisoner of the state of Virginia. Brown\u2019s subsequent trial further divided north and south on the issue of slavery, as Brown justified his violent actions to a national audience forced to choose sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Southerners cheered Brown\u2019s death at the gallows while Northerners observed it with reverence. The nation\u2019s dividing line had been drawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herman Melville and Walt Whitman extolled Brown as a \u201cmeteor\u201d of the war. Roughly one year after Brown and his men attacked slavery in Virginia, the nation split apart, fueled by Brown\u2019s fiery actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin’s talk tells the story of the first shots that led to disunion, and introduces his new guidebook to John Brown, Harpers Ferry, and the surrounding country relevant to this critical tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin is a historic site manager for Prince William County\u2019s Office of Historic Preservation, and a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield. He previously worked as a park ranger at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and later as Director of Education for the Mosby Heritage Area (now the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area).  Kevin is the author of seven books about the American Civil War, including John Brown’s Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Start of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859<\/em>, part of the Emerging Civil War Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin\u2019s presentation will be held at St. James United Church of Christ, 10 East Broad Way, in Lovettsville. His talk will be followed, as is customary, by questions and discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program will not be live-streamed, but a video recording of the event will be posted on the Lovettsville Historical Society website.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission is free, but donations and are welcome to defray expenses of the program and to support the activities of the Lovettsville Historical Society.

For more information, visit www.LovettsvilleHistoricalSociety.org<\/a> or email events@lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJohn Brown’s Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War\u201d Presented by Kevin Pawlak Sunday, October 13, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. St. James United Church of Christ,10 East…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war","category-lecture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6446,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6444\/revisions\/6446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}