Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War

by Tony Horwitz

Virginians believed they were holding to their own high standards by conducting a trial in a civilian court, before the eyes of the nation, rather than administering “drum-head justice” in a closed military tribunal. All the legal “decencies” would be duly observed in the Charlestown court. But given the realities of antebellum society in Jefferson County and its surrounds, an impartial hearing for Brown and his men was impossible. Richard Parker, the presiding judge, was a respected, by-the-book jurist. He was also a slave owner and a former paymaster at the Harpers Ferry armory, who stated in his opening instructions to the jury: “I will not permit myself to give expression to those feelings which at once spring up in every breast when reflecting on the enormity of the guilt” of the defendants, who had invaded “our common country” and shot down Virginians “without mercy.” Then, having given expression to precisely those feelings, he reminded the jurors, most of whom were slaveholding farmers, that the defendants should be given “a fair and impartial trial.”