John Anthony Copeland Jr. and Shields Green, two Black men who joined abolitionist John Brown in his raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, were executed by hanging in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia). The raid, which took place in October 1859, was an attempt to incite a slave uprising and arm enslaved people with weapons seized from the arsenal.

• John Copeland was a free Black man from Ohio and a member of the Underground Railroad.

• Shields Green, often called “Emperor,” was an escaped enslaved man who reportedly met with Frederick Douglass before deciding to join Brown’s raid.

Though the raid failed militarily, it is widely seen as a catalyst that intensified national tensions leading up to the Civil War. Copeland and Green died fighting for the liberation of enslaved people and are remembered as heroes of the abolitionist movement.