Five for Freedom

The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army

By: Eugene L. Meyer

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Late on the evening of October 16, 1859, John Brown and his band of 18 raiders descended on Harpers Ferry at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. In an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave insurrection, they seized the federal arsenal, took hostages, and retreated to a fire engine house where they barricaded themselves until a contingent of US Marines battered their way in on October 18, 1859.

The raiders were routed, and several were captured. Soon after, they were tried, convicted, and hanged. Among Brown's raiders were five African Americans whose lives and deaths have long been overshadowed by their martyred leader and, even today, are little remembered. Two - John Copeland and Shields Green - were executed. Two others - Dangerfield Newby and Lewis Leary - died at the scene. Newby, the first to go, was shot in the neck, then dismembered by townspeople and left for the hogs. He was trying to liberate his enslaved wife and children. Of the five, only Osborne Perry Anderson escaped and lived to publish the lone insider account of the event that, most historians agree, was a catalyst to the catastrophic Civil War that followed over the country's original sin of slavery.

©2018 Eugene L. Meyer (P)2018 Tantor

Well Deserved Recognition

Meyer writes an engaging and well researched account of the five Afro-Americans who participated in the raid at Harper's Ferry. These are men who deserve to be remembered. For example, John Copeland, who had attended Oberlin College, eloquently states on the day of his execution, "If I am dying for freedom, I could not die for a better cause. I had rather die than be a slave." Meyer's account tells us of just some of what was lost during this sad episode in American history.

ok read

overall good book. but too much bouncing around to today's details. I wanted history, not commentary of today's issues.