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John Anthony Copeland, Jr. (1834–1859) was born a free black in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1843 when he was a child, his family moved north to Oberlin, Ohio, where he later attended Oberlin College. He became involved in abolitionist and antislavery activities, and participated in the successful Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. Copeland joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, was captured, convicted of treason, and hanged on December 16, 1859. ==Life== Copeland's parents were John Anthony Copeland, who was born into slavery in 1808, near Raleigh, North Carolina, and Delilah Evans, born a free black in 1809. Copeland, Sr. was emancipated as a boy about 1815. As a young man, he married Evans and they lived near Hillsboro, North Carolina until 1843, when the family fled racial persecution, first to Cincinnati, Ohio and then to Oberlin. Some of his wife's brothers and their families also settled there. The Copelands lived on the southeast corner of Professor and Morgan Streets. The son became a carpenter and briefly attended Oberlin College. His high quality of literacy and self-expression was demonstrated by later letters to his family (see below). As a young man, he became involved in the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society. Together with his maternal uncles, Henry and Wilson Bruce Evans, in September, 1858, Copeland was one of the thirty-seven men involved in the incident known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, to free John Price, a runaway slave who had been captured and held by authorities under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The men freed the slave and helped him escape to Canada. In a negotiated deal between state and federal officials, only two men were tried for their part. They received light sentences, in part due to Charles Henry Langston's eloquence.〔 In September 1859 Copeland was recruited to John Brown's armed group by his uncle and fellow raider, Lewis Sheridan Leary. Brown led twenty-one followers, sixteen white and five black men, and captured the armory guards of Harpers Ferry, then part of Virginia, where they took control of the Federal arsenal. The raiders were soon pinned down by Virginia militiamen until U.S. marines led by Robert E. Lee arrived to apprehend them. Copeland's role in the Harpers Ferry assault was to seize control of Hall's Rifle Works, along with John Henry Kagi, a white raider. Kagi and several others were killed while trying to escape from the Rifle Works by swimming across the Shenandoah River. Copeland was captured alive, taken in the middle of the river. Copeland, Brown, and five others were held for federal trial. At the trial, Copeland was found guilty of treason and murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Copeland wrote to his family to make meaning from his sacrifice. Six days before his execution, he wrote to his brother, referring to the American Revolution: "And now, brother, for having lent my aid to a general no less brave (George Washington ), and engaged in a cause no less honorable and glorious, I am to suffer death. Washington entered the field to fight for the freedom of the American people - not for the white man alone, but for both black and white. Nor were they white men alone who fought for the freedom of this country. The blood of black men flowed as freely as the blood of white men. Yes, the very first blood that was spilt was that of a negro...But this you know as well as I do,...the claims which we, as colored men, have on the American people.〔〔Copeland was referring to Crispus Attucks, an African American in Boston and the first person killed in the American Revolution.〕 Another letter reflected the religious influence of his Oberlin upbringing. In a December 16 letter, Copeland wrote to console his family: The letters were circulated beyond the family to the abolitionist public.〔 Speaking of Copeland, the trial's prosecuting attorney said: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Anthony Copeland, Jr.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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