AUDIO
Original Author: BackStory, a program of Virginia Humanities
Created: 2009
Publisher: VH Radio at Virginia Humanities

Moulder in Peace, John Brown

In October 1859, John Brown raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. By December 1859, his body lay a-moulderin' in the grave, a fact quickly memorialized in the famous ditty "John Brown's Body." Most people today know the song, but what has been lost to history is that it wasn't really about John Brown—at least not the famous one. BackStory producer Rachel Quimby tells the real story of "John Brown's Body."