On October 16, 1859, John Brown and his band of eighteen raiders descended on Harpers Ferry in an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave insurrection. The raiders were routed, and several were captured. Soon after, they were tried, convicted, and hanged. Among Brown’s fighters were five African American men—John Copeland, Shields Green, Dangerfield Newby, Lewis Leary, and Osborne Perry Anderson—whose lives and deaths have long been overshadowed by their martyred leader. Only Anderson survived, later publishing the lone insider account of the event. Five for Freedom is the story of these five brave men, the circumstances in which they were born and raised, how they came together at this fateful time and place, and the legacies they left behind. It is an American story that continues to resonate in the present.
