The slave-owning history of the South is well known, but still, it was shocking to read this sign posted in the dry goods store.

Harpers Ferry at the time was part of the southern state of Virginia.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

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We took an hour-and-a-half drive the other day to historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Due to its strategic location at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, it hosted the first ferry and then first railroad bridge across the Potomac and served as the only rail link between the Northern and Southern states during the Civil War. It was also the site of the famous raid by abolitionist John Brown on the town’s arsenal in 1859 in the hope of starting a slave revolt across the South, which was put down by then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was subsequently tried and hanged for treason.

Re-creation, posted earlier: