New England Filming Trip

Last month, we went up to New England to film part of our Civil War DVD series, which will be on the antebellum period leading up to the Civil War. Stephen Breagy, one of our friends, came with us to help, and also Erik Woodard, a video producer who is staying with us. On July 7, we drove up to New England, and spent the night at Princeton. The next morning we filmed at Princeton University:

Nassau Hall at Princeton University

The Cathedral at Princeton

The shoot took longer than we were planning, and also there was traffic, so we did not get to one of the places we were planning on going to. We drove to one of our friends' houses, and spent the next three nights there. On Saturday morning, we drove to Plymouth, MA and filmed in the Church of the Pilgrimage and at Burial Hill, the cemetery on the hill next to it:

The Church of the Pilgrimage

The Church of the Pilgrimage from Burial Hill

On Sunday Daddy preached at our friend's church, and we spent the day fellowshiping with them. On Monday we drove to Boston, and filmed at the First Church of Boston and Park Street Church:

Park Street Church

We then filmed in Cambridge at two of the graves of the Secret Six, men that were influential in the abolitionist movement, and the funders of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry. We also filmed at Harvard University:

The grave of Samuel Gridley Howe, one of the Secret Six, and the husband of Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic

Harvard University

On Tuesday morning, a couple of the guys got up early and filmed at Faneuil Hall in Boston. We then drove 5 hours to John Brown's Farm in North Elba, New York:

John Brown's Farmhouse

On Wednesday we went to the Old South Church in Newburyport, MA and interviewed the pastor.

The Old South Church

Interior of Old South Church

George Whitefield's Crypt in the Old South Church

Then we went to the replica of the Friendship of Salem. We don't have any pictures because it was raining and we were busy. On Thursday we went to Concord, MA and filmed at the North Bridge, and the Wayside, a house on the underground railroad that Louisa May Alcott lived in at one point:

North Bridge (from when we went a few years ago)

We went to the grave of another of the Secret Six:

Sanborn, one of the Secret Six

We also went to Walden Pond, were Henry David Thoreau lived for a period of time:

Thoreau's Cabin

On Friday we drove to Philadelphia and filmed at Independence Hall, Congress Hall, The 1st and 2nd National Banks, the President's House, and the Declaration House:

Second National Bank

President's House

On Saturday we drove back to NC.

Panorama from the Bell Tower of the Old South church. (Click on image for larger version.)

John Brown Video

To view in HD click here.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

Today is the 150th anniversary of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, which in many ways helped caused the Civil War. This week people are celebrating how he was a martyr who died to free the slaves. This is actually not true. Brown was a very evil man. Before the raid on Harper's Ferry, he stole what would now be about a million dollars, but he was so persuasive that he convinced the man he stole it from later to lend him money. He was also a lunatic. At one point while he was in Kansas, he took a group of people out during the night and went to all the cabins of the area and murdered in cold blood everyone who was for slavery. Also it just so happened that after that murder Brown and his sons had nice new saddles. There is lost more to say, but we don't have space here to tell all of it. My father did a great talk on our trip to the Shenandoah Valley last month, and sometime we will have them available for sale.

John Brown was encouraged to raid Harper's Ferry by the "Secret Six", a group of six prominent Bostonians who were abolitionists and Unitarians. The raid was not a very smart idea. He had 21 men, 16 white and 5 black. He chose Harper's Ferry because at that time it was a large arsenal and weapon factory where about 100,000 guns were stored. His plan was to get the weapons and leave, and then he excepted the slaves to flock to him from their plantations. First of all, he did not have any way to transport the 100,000 weapons. Secondly, if the slaves did come to him, it would just be a mob. Brown had never commanded more than 30 men, and the slaves probably did not know how to use the weapons. It would have been a bigger disaster than it was.

Inside the engine house

As to the actual raid, it went well to start with. He captured the arsenal, but then he made a big mistake by not leaving. The militia of the area gathered and attacked him. He ended up trapped in the fire engine house with only four men. The next day Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. Jeb Stuart came up from Washington with 88 marines, and stormed the engine house at the point of the bayonet and captured it. John Brown and his men were tried for murder and slave insurrection and were convicted. They were hung on December 2nd. There is much interesting history about the raid which I studied before we went to the Shenandoah Valley.

It was very neat to be able to go to the site of the raid in September with the people from our church and see what actually happened there. Much of the town is the same as it was then, and it is a very neat location. Here are a few pictures.

Us in front of "John Brown's Fort"

The Bridge which Brown used to get to Harper's Ferry

The town

The original location of John Brown's Fort (it was moved)

The Potomac River. Harper's Ferry is here the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet

We are planning to produce a documentary on Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 from the video of the tour, but we will see if it happens.