NPR: John Copeland and Harpers Ferry

While we will be covering Hudson's most famous resident, the abolitionist John Brown, he is not the only difficult figure to interpret who took part in the raid on Harpers Ferry. Below, you will find a link to an NPR story and a portion of the transcript relating to John Anthony Copeland, a free black who moved to Oberlin, Ohio in 1842. While Brown was visiting Cleveland in support of the Oberlin-Wellington "Rescuers," he offered Copeland a position in the group which would attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

Copeland represents a free black who was quite the idealist, ready and willing to die for his cause. We will be discussing Copeland in class with both our unit relating to slavery and later in the year, when we discuss the causes of the Civil War. While there is no extra credit for listening to this presentation or reading the primary sources which accompany it, the NPR program does a great job of bringing a little-known historical figure to life.

NPR Program: John Copeland, a Hero of Harpers Ferry

Oberlin College Archives/Electronic Oberlin Group: John Copeland