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John Copeland: A Hero of Harper's Ferry
Timeline - John Anthony Copeland

Aired February 21, 2001

1830-1837
North Carolina and other southern states institute new laws governing free blacks, making it more difficult for them to own property, conduct business, testify in court, take jobs, and move freely from town to town.

1835-1840
More than 50,000 free blacks leave North Carolina for Ohio and Indiana, often moving as whole, extended families.

1843
Copeland family arrives in Ohio and decide to 'look into the chasm' that is Oberlin.

1850
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is passed, making it a federal crime for anyone to help runaway slaves evade capture, even in free states like Ohio.

1850's
John A. Copeland, Jr. attends Oberlin schools, then studies teaching at Oberlin College for one year.

1856, May 24
John Brown leads a small party of men on a retribution raid to the homes of pro-slavery settlers near Lawrence, Kansas. Five men are dragged from their homes and brutally killed. The incident brings Brown to national attention. Pro-slavery forces savage him for the attack. Some abolitionists call Brown a hero, but others express horror at the incident.

1858, July
John Brown holds the Chatham Convention, a planning and fundraising meeting for the insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Word of the meetings leak out and the raid is postponed until the following year.

1858, Sept. 13
Residents rush from Oberlin to Wellington to rescue runaway slave John Price, who has been captured and held in a Wellington hotel pending transportation back to his Kentucky slave owner. John Copeland is among those who break down the back door and remove Price from custody. While charged along with other Rescuers for violations of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Price is never incarcerated. Rumor has it he can't be found, because he has accompanied John Price to Canada.

1858-9
27 men stand trial in a Cleveland federal court for the rescue of John Price. All are eventually freed, but news of their ordeal brings the abolitionist cause to the attention of the nation. Copeland is among those charged, but not arrested. Word has it he disappeared, possibly going into hiding with his adopted sister in Chatham, Ontario.

1859, Oct. 16
John Brown and a force of just 21 men - including 3 blacks from Oberlin - launch their attack on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His object is to arm Southern slaves with weapons seized from the raid. Within 36 hours, Brown and his men surrender to a force of local farmers, militia and U.S Marines, led by Robert E. Lee. Ten men are killed outright in the attack and the rest are later tried and hanged for treason. John Copeland is wounded and barely escapes lynching. The only Canadian in the raid - Osborne Perry Anderson, a free black man from Chatham, Ontario - escapes. His story of the Harper's Ferry raid is chronicled in the Provincial Freeman, a Canadian newspaper published by Mary Ann Shadd of the Elgin settlement, North Buxton.

1859, Oct. 17
One of three men from Oberlin and a cousin of Copeland's - Lewis Sheridan 'Shad' Leary - dies of wounds received the previous day.

1859, Dec. 2
John Brown hung in Charleston, South Carolina

1859, Dec. 16
John Copeland writes his last letter home and - along with Oberlin man Shields Green - is hung in Charleston. Green dies easily of a broken neck, but newspaper reports indicate that Copeland struggled for some time before choking to death

1859, Dec. 17
James Monroe sets off to retrieve Copeland's body from Virginia authorities

1860, Dec. 24
Monroe returns empty-handed on Christmas Eve. A memorial service for Copeland and Green is held on Christmas Day at First Church. A year later, a memorial is erected to the memory of Copeland, Green and Lewis Leary at Westwood Cemetery. In 1972, the memorial is moved to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, where it still stands.

1861, March 4
Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as president

1861, April 12
Shots fired on Fort Sumter - Civil War begins