John Brown's Raid. A Picture History of the Attack on Harper's Ferry, Virginia

[New York]: Scholastic Book Services, 1972. First edition of this richly illustrated account of abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, part of Scholastic's Firebird Books series, which centered the experience of Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants, and others whose stories were often sidelined (or omitted altogether) in American history textbooks. Although Harper's Ferry is the climax of the narrative, Lorenz Graham places Brown's crusade to end slavery in the context of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, Bleeding Kansas, and the rise of the larger abolitionist movement, including portraits of all twenty-one members of Brown's "army" and documenting Brown's last words on his walk to the gallows. The book concludes with the image of a crudely printed ballad sheet carried by Union troops during the Civil War, less than two years after Brown was hanged: "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, / His soul's marching on!" A compelling visual history for young readers, in fine condition. Single volume, measuring 7.5 x 9 inches: [6], 7-80. Original stiff color pictorial wrappers, black and white illustrations throughout text.