This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. The road to America’s bloodiest conflict was certainly a long one. But the spark that set the war in motion began on October 16th, 1859. That night, a fierce abolitionist named John Brown staged a bloody raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry. Historians have long cited John Brown’s raid as the beginning of the end for slavery in the United States. But little has been known about the man himself, until now. Tony Horwitz, an award-winning author and Civil War expert, tells the story of John Brown in his new book, “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Road that Sparked the Civil War.”
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