Heyward Shepherd monument

The Heyward Shepherd monument

The Heyward Shepherd monument is a monument in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, dedicated in 1931. It commemorates Heyward[a] Shepherd (1825 – October 17, 1859), a free black man who was the first person killed during John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.[2]

In 1918, the all-Black Storer College dedicated a plaque on its campus celebrating John Brown's raid. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) were offended by this positive depiction of Brown, and commissioned the Heyward Shepherd monument to discredit Brown's positive image and promote the "faithful slave" as a role model for Blacks.[b] The monument misrepresented the circumstances of Shepherd's death to imply that he consciously opposed John Brown's plan to spark a slave rebellion; in reality, Shepherd was not aware of the plan and believed he was dealing with robbers. The inscription praises the "faithfulness of thousands of negroes" to the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The idea of the "faithful slave" was an important component of the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy", a pseudohistorical myth that the cause of the Confederacy was justified and not centered on slavery.[2] The Heyward Shepherd monument was one of many erected by the UDC to help popularize the Lost Cause myth.

Although the monument was completed before 1923, it was not installed immediately because local White leaders feared that it would provoke interracial animosity. The UDC eventually agreed to change the design to satisfy White leaders' concerns, and the memorial was dedicated in 1931. Despite the changes, the monument was strongly opposed by the NAACP, the Black press, and the local Black community. The NAACP responded by creating a new tablet that was even stronger in its support for John Brown. The Heyward Shepherd monument continued to be controversial. The National Park Service (NPS) designed a series of interpretative signs to place the monument in historical context, and from 1981 to 1995 kept it covered in plywood to prevent vandalism.[2] As of 2022, the monument remains on display accompanied by an interpretative sign.[3]

  1. ^ "Haywood Shepherd (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  2. ^ a b c d Janney, Caroline E. (2006). "Written in Stone: Gender, Race, and the Heyward Shepherd Memorial". Civil War History. Vol. 52, no. 2. pp. 117–141. Archived from the original on 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  3. ^ "Heyward Shepherd Monument". National Park Service. Retrieved 29 January 2024.


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