John Brown’s interracial revolt at Harpers Ferry realized the feared abolitionist front

Evidence

Enslavers were furious about the implications of Helper’s book, which practically called for a united front made up of Free Soilers, abolitionists, and former slaves. That unholy alliance became a reality in October 1859, when abolitionist John Brown and his nineteen-man interracial battalion captured the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, sixty miles northwest of Washington, DC. … Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee crushed the rebellion instead and apprehended Brown. Seventeen people perished. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 551