Frederick the Great’s sword

Frederick the Great’s sword is a historical heirloom taken from Colonel Lewis Washington’s home during John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Its passage from the Washington family to Brown’s raiders turns it into a charged emblem: first offered to O.P. Anderson as a symbol of the cause, it is ultimately wielded by Brown as he announces the freedom of Washington’s enslaved people, before clattering away when gunfire interrupts negotiations.

Provenance and Capture

The sword is identified as a gift from Frederick the Great to George Washington. During the raid, the raiders take it from the mantle of Colonel Washington’s fireplace. Brown presents it to O.P. Anderson as the sword of Washington’s great-uncle, making its celebrated lineage explicit even as the weapon has been removed from a white household by force.

A Symbol Refused and Reassigned

Anderson looks at the broadsword as if it were poison and asks why he must have it. When told that Brown would want him to carry it because it is symbolic, Anderson says he has no use for it. Stevens then takes the sword and puts it in his belt. The exchange separates symbolic inheritance from practical possession: Anderson declines the role attached to the object, while Stevens claims it.

Brown’s Proclamation

Inside the besieged engine house, Stevens hands the sword to Brown. Holding it aloft, Brown declares the enslaved people brought from Washington’s estate free in the name of the Provisional Government of the United States. The sword’s association with Washington is thus recast within Brown’s revolutionary claim; it accompanies a proclamation of freedom rather than remaining a family relic.

The Sword in the Siege

When Brown puts his face to a window to negotiate the hostages’ exchange for safe passage, gunfire drives him back. The sword, tucked into his belt, clatters away. Brown is not killed or badly wounded, but the interruption leaves Stevens badly wounded outside and Watson gravely wounded at the door. The sword’s fall marks a sharp turn from ceremonial declaration to the immediate peril of the siege.