been said but the harper's ferry raid was interesting because the second it got on the telegraph wire that it was happening/happened, journalists flocked and the coverage became a huge story, and that as an event/news cycle likely spurred on the civil war in a big way lol.

Like it galvanized radical abolitionists and moderates alike, it spooked the shit out of the southern aristocracy. Both doubled down in response, the conditions for the civil war were laid

it's an interesting cause and effect. It's also nowhere close to the only cause, but it kind of was the straw that broke the camel.

edit: it's kind of weird to think about if it hadn't happened the way it did. What if it hadn't been covered in the same way? What if it was an obscure blip in west virginian history? Would we have gotten the war? would the outcome have been the same? would slavery have ended without the civil war? when? what would the post-emancipation landscape look like?

no good answers, all speculative, but it's weirdly important as an event imo. It gets silo'd off as this sort of separate prelude, but it's kind of way more important than that. John Brown and his sons are literally created martyrs and its weird. it's real weird.