Editing Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (section)

==== Post-Civil War ====
Inspired by John Brown's raid, both runaway and freed slaves came to Harpers Ferry during and after the [[American Civil War]]. This created social tensions between white and black residents of the community and generated a growing need for services for the increasing African-American population. Accordingly, a freedman's school was opened on Camp Hill by [[Freewill Baptist]] missionaries following the American Civil War.<ref name=Irma>{{cite news
|title=Camp Hill. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
|publisher=[[National Park Service]]
|year=2010
|series=Cultural Landscapes Inventory
|url=https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/450570
|accessdate=March 25, 2021
|archive-date=March 28, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328050650/https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/450570
|url-status=live
}}</ref>{{rp|4}}

The town and the armory, with the exception of [[John Brown's Fort]], were destroyed during the war. "The larger portion of the houses all lie in ruins and the whole place is not actually worth $10," wrote a Massachusetts soldier to his mother in 1863.<ref name=Horwitz/>{{rp|285}} A visitor in 1878 found the town "antiquated, dingy, and rather squalid";<ref>{{cite news
|title=An Excursion to Harpers Ferry
|first=Ward
|last=Burlingame
|newspaper=Kansas Pilot ([[Kansas City, Kansas]])
|date=June 22, 1878
|page=3
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79539042/a-visit-to-harpers-ferry/
|access-date=June 14, 2021
|archive-date=June 15, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615011901/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79539042/a-visit-to-harpers-ferry/
|url-status=live
}}</ref> another, in 1879, described it as "shabby and ruined."<ref name=Horwitz/>{{rp|286}} Since the Arsenal, Harpers Ferry's largest employer before the war, was never rebuilt, the town's population never recovered to antebellum levels.
[[File:Storer College gate.jpg|thumb|Soldiers' Gate at [[Storer College]]]]