It was George Washington’s great-grand-nephew who was a captive at Harper’s Ferry, Lewis William Washington. 

It’s really difficult to fathom the Sumner-Brooks debacle. Check out some primary sources here. 

It’s called the Burned Over district because the Second Great Awakening set the area “on fire.”

John Brown’s Body was not only a marching song for the Union Army but also later a poem and play, both based on Stephen Vincent Benét’s 1928 epic poem of the same title.