Heyward Shepherd Monument

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

For years, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) searched for a place to memorialize the myth of the "faithful slave." In 1920, the UDC approached the town of Harpers Ferry with the idea for a monument to Heyward Shepherd, a free Black man killed during John Brown’s 1859 raid. The UDC misrepresented the facts of Shepherd’s life to support the "faithful slave” narrative in Shepherd’s death. After a decade of effort, they succeeded and set the dedication date of October 10, 1931.

Storer College’s white president, Henry McDonald, enlisted the college’s African American choir, led by Pearl Tatten, to sing at the dedication. Tatten listened to speakers criticize John Brown, justify the system of slavery, and praise the loyalty and faithfulness of past enslaved people in the South. When the time came for the Storer College Singers to perform, she stood, faced the crowd, and protested: “I am the daughter of a [Union] Connecticut volunteer, who wore the blue, who fought for the freedom of my people, for whom John Brown struck the first blow…We are pushing forward to a larger freedom…in the spirit of the new freedom and rising youth.”