VOA慢速英语 美国历史系列:奴隶制危机短期内缓解

　　VOICE ONE:

　　Brown had decided to strike at Harpers Ferry, a town of about twenty-five hundred people. It was in northern Virginia about one hundred kilometers north of Washington. Harpers Ferry was built on a narrow finger of land where the Shenandoah River flowed into the Potomac River. There were two bridges. One crossed the Shenandoah. The other, a railroad bridge, crossed the Potomac to Maryland.

　　John Brown chose Harpers Ferry because there was a factory there that made guns for the army. There also was an arsenal where several million dollars worth of military equipment was kept. Brown needed the guns and equipment for the slave army he hoped to form.

　　VOICE TWO:

　　Old Brown arrived at Harpers Ferry early in July, eighteen fifty-nine. Two of his sons, Owen and Oliver, and another man came with him. They rented an old house on a farm in Maryland not far from Harpers Ferry. Brown told people that he was a cattle buyer from New York.

　　Brown's men joined him, one or two at a time, over the next several months. They traveled at night so no one would see them. Once they reached the farm house, they had to stay in hiding.

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