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Events on Sunday 16 October 1859 1
1859John Brown's raid on Harpers FerryAbolitionist raid on a federal armory in VirginiaJohn Brown led a small armed band in seizing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, intending to arm enslaved people for a wider uprising. Federal troops under Robert E. Lee crushed the raid within two days, and Brown was captured, tried, and hanged in December. The raid inflamed sectional tensions and is widely seen as a prelude to the American Civil War.