Information Panel: Foundations of Freedom

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Harpers Ferry, including Anthony Hall (to your left), played host to large and small scenes in the epic human struggle for freedom and equality. In this building, the superintendent of the national armory contemplated how to strengthen the nation's military. On these fields, great armies battled over a divided land. Here, former slaves strove to obtain the education previously denied them by law.

Photo Caption: During the Civil War, a war over the meaning of freedom, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the fields around you as staging, training, and battlegrounds.

Photo Caption: Storer College, founded in 1867, was one of the first schools in the South to open to African American students. Chartered as a school for all students, regardless of race or gender, Storer College was never able to achieve the goal of an integrated campus due to racial segregation laws.

Photo Caption: Storer College grew from a one-room schoolhouse in an abandoned armory building to a typical campus by the time it closed in 1955. Today these buildings serve as a training center and offices for the National Park Service.