The raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry by John Brown and his abortive attempt to spark a slave uprising, an event that helped transform the sectional crisis into a full-blown civil war in 1861.
In October 1859, Brown and a small band of followers seized the arsenal, intending to distribute the weapons to escaped slaves and thereby fashion a crusading army that would march south and end the institution of slavery once and for all.
John Brown was active in the abolition movement for decades before the Civil War and had earned a notorious reputation for his antislavery activities in Kansas during the 1850s.
Learn more about the raid on harpers ferry here: https://brainly.com/question/21775368
#SPJ2
