In 1859, a fierce firefight on the US Border between the Harper's Ferry Raiders and a company of Confederate Marines commanded by Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee brought the "two Americas" to the brink of war, perhaps as the abolitionist John Brown had intended all along.

The RaidSeventy years before, the thirteen states had been part of a single Confederation. But at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Northern Federalists had advocated an entirely different form of government. And the delegates failure to agree led to the formation of that breakway Union which was to subsequently become known as the United States of America.

If the overarching principle of disagreement was States Rights, then the burning issue itself was surely the institution of slavery. And therefore the unrestricted movement of both slaves and abolitionists raised demands for stricter border controls which of course re-opened the door on the whole contentious issue.

We can never know whether John Brown actually planned to seize weapons from the armoury and to arm a slave uprising, or whether his flight to the North was simply a spur of the moment decision. But within twelve months, a regional politician in Kentucky would use the Raid to make the case for a Re-united States of America. His name was Abraham Lincoln.