Harpers Ferry (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Barrie Stavis
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Plot: History
- Time of Work: 1859
- Setting: Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia) and a nearby farmhouse in Maryland
- Principal Characters: John Brown, Mary Brown, Oliver, Watson Brown, Martha Brown, Mrs. Huffmaster, Frederick Douglass, Colonel Robert E. Lee, Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart, Henry A. Wise, Colonel Lewis Washington, Judge Parker, Andrew Hunter
- Genres: Drama, War drama, History play
- Subjects: Virginia, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, South or Southerners, Abolitionists, Slavery or slaves, Civil War, War, Christianity, Espionage or spies, Morality or morals
- Locales: Maryland, Harpers Ferry, WV
The Play
This two-act play chronicles the assault led by John Brown in 1859 on the United States armory and arsenal at the small river town of Harpers Ferry in what was then part of the state of Virginia. The attack shook the slave-holding South to its foundations and is considered by many to be the actual beginning of the American Civil War.
The first act is set in an ordinary farmhouse in Maryland, five miles away from Harpers Ferry. The nucleus of the abolitionist guerrilla band, formed with both African American and white members, has assembled there, and the men,...
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