• In 1906, W.E.B. Dubois and 46 black men attended the first Civil Rights meeting when they attended the Niagara Movement Conference at Harpers Ferry. These meetings laid the foundation for the current NAACP, which celebrates the 100th anniversary in 2009.


• One of the first schools in America specifically designed to teach former slaves after the Civil War was Storer College at Harpers Ferry.


• The courthouse in Charles Town was the site of the Brown trial and two of only three treason trials in the US and is still in use today.


• John Brown was captured by Robert E. Lee and the US Marines. Lee's aide during the raid was J.E.B. Stuart.


• Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, then a VMI instructor, and John Wilkes Booth, a young actor, were both at the hanging of John Brown in Charles Town.


• The Jefferson County Museum has several John Brown historical items on display including the wagon that carried him to his execution, several pikes (weapons), the desk that he used in his jail cell, a copy of his provisional constitution, and the gurney he laid on during his trial.