ABSTRACT
On October 18, 1859 newspaper headlines in Kentucky exclaimed: "Reported Negro Insurrection in Virginia!" "Harpers Ferry in Possession of a Mob!" "Immense Excitement!" "The Military Ordered Out!" The wake from the Harpers Ferry raid was felt throughout the nation, but it was experienced in a unique way by the border states. Kentuckians, due largely to their geographic location, felt particularly vulnerable to a John Brown-style uprising. Three events that occurred within the state in the weeks and months following Brown's failed raid provide examples of how Kentuckians reacted to Harpers Ferry. That includes The Free South newspaper in Newport, Kentucky was destroyed; the Berea community of abolitionists was expelled from Madison County; and citizens demanded a reorganization of the state militia. Newport, Kentucky resident and abolitionist William Shreve Bailey had experienced antislavery violence before 1859.
