June 11, 2025 • 35 mins
The Christiana Incident offers a snapshot of the U.S. when the country was sorting into states where slavery was upheld and states that had abolished it, and what racist tension looked like at border states in the mid-1850s.
Research:
- “The Christiana Affair Again.” New York Times. Sept. 20, 1851. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/09/20/87821677.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- “Christiana Resistance 1851.” Christiana Historical Society. https://www.christianahistoricalsociety.com/christiana-resistance
- “The Christiana Trials.” New York Times. Nov. 4, 1851. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/11/04/87823549.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Fugitive Slave Acts". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Fugitive-Slave-Acts
- “Fatal Fugitive Slave Riot.” Boston Evening Transcript. Sept. 12, 1851. https://www.newspapers.com/image/734734274/
- Forbes, David R. “A True Story of the Christiana Riot.” The Sun Printing House. Quarryville, PA. 1898. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044018986661&view=1up&seq=7
- “Fugitive Slave Act 1850.” Yale Law School. Lillian Goldman Law Library. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/fugitive.asp
- “Fugitive Slave Riot in Lancaster Co., Pa.” New York Times. Sept. 18, 1851. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/09/18/109920970.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- “Christiana Riot Trial.” Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. 2015. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/christiana-riot-trial/#national-history-day
- Parker, William. “A Freedman’s Story. The Atlantic. 1866. https://www.christianahistoricalsociety.com/_files/ugd/f64fcb_e6cde1713eb34263af1f191b3f349e21.pdf
- “Who was William Parker?” Christiana Historical Society. https://www.christianahistoricalsociety.com/william-parker
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So I got reminded of today's episode because it's been,
you know, kind of lingering in the background for a
while while I was researching something else. And I'm sure
this has happened to you where you're looking at a
historical paper online and then you see a headline in
another column and you go, oh, yeah, those two things
were happening around the same time.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So this is the Christiana Incident. Sometimes it's also called
the Christiana Riot. It has other names as well, But
it offers a kind of unique snapshot of the US
when the country was sorting into states where slavery was
upheld and states that had abolished it, and what the
resulting discord and racist tension really looked like at the
(00:55):
borders between those sides of the conflict in the mid
eighteen fifties. And this also offers insights into the lives
of the people most impacted by the practice of slavery,
black people, both enslaved and free. This is really considered
an important moment in the pre Civil War years of
the US because it led to the first legal test
(01:17):
of the Fugitive Slave Law of eighteen fifty which we'll
talk about in some detail. And in addition to looking
at the ways this impacted people's lives, the immediate aftermath
of the events at Christiania in eighteen fifty one also
gives us a glimpse into how the press, even in
abolitionist states, talked about and framed the violence in regard
(01:38):
to race. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
In eighteen forty nine, Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Hammond,
and Joshua Hammond all escaped enslavement from Edward Gorsitch's farm
in Baltimore County, Maryland. They made their way to Christiana, Pennsylvania,
a borough in Lancaster County. They found haven in the
hall of a man named William Parker, who had also
(02:03):
escaped enslavement, and he had made a life for himself
in Pennsylvania. He's really important to this story, so we're
going to take a minute to talk more about his history.
So William Parker was born on a Maryland plantation owned
by Major William Brogden and the plantation known as Rodown
was where his mother, Luisa Simms, was enslaved. Parker shared
(02:25):
his story with The Atlantic later in his life. We'll
talk about that down the road. And he never mentioned
a father in that story. It's a little unclear if
his narrative is intended to point to Major Brogden as
his father. That seems possible, although that is not his
last name, and we don't know where the name Parker
comes from in that case. But he wrote of Brogden quote,
(02:47):
my old master died while I was very young, so
I know little about him, except from statements received from
my fellow slaves or casual remarks made in my hearing
from time to time by white persons. I conclude that
he was in no way peculiar, but should be classed
with those slaveholders who are not remarkable, either for the
severity or the indulgence they extend to their people. Luisa
(03:11):
also died when William was a little boy, and at
that point his grandmother, who was also enslaved at wrote
Down as the cook for the main house, was his
nearest relative. She cared for him, but because she was
in demand at the house for so much of the day.
She only saw William very briefly. The rest of the time,
he was looked after by other enslaved people, who he
(03:33):
said were abusive to him until he learned to fight back.
After Major Brogden died, the plantation continued for several years
before the major's two sons split the property, and William
then became enslaved by David Brogden. Parker's account of life
enslaved by the Brogdens offers a lot of insight into
the various ways that enslaved people were dehumanized. For example,
(03:57):
he wrote quote slaveholders are particular to keep the pedigree
and age of favorite horses and dogs, but are quite
indifferent about the age of their servants until they want
to purchase. He also talks about specific instances of people
being sold off and the casual ways that families were separated.
Something he said that they all treated like a funeral
(04:18):
because they knew they were never going to see those
loved ones again. From the time he was young, William,
after having seen his first sale of enslaved people that
he had grown up with, plotted an escape. He had
tried to convince other young men to join him at
various times, but they were all generally too fearful of
the very real risks of running away, so he and
(04:41):
his brother Charles began just quietly planning to escape just
between themselves. Parker also wrote about how he actually wanted
to wait to leave until David Brogden mistreated him in
some way, noting quote, I was ignorant enough to think
that something besides the fact that I was a slave
was necess to exonerate me from blame in running away.
(05:03):
A cross word, a blow, a good fright, anything would do.
After a physical altercation with Brogden, in which William defended
himself and inflicted some sort of injury that we don't
specifically know what, William and his brother Charles just ram
He talked about how, even as a fugitive, the promise
of freedom quote lends wings to the feet, buoys up
(05:27):
the spirit within. The passage through Baltimore to Philadelphia was
trickier than the two men anticipated because they didn't realize
how quickly the news of their escape and the warrant
for their capture would spread. But they made it to
Pennsylvania and took various odd jobs to make money. William
wrote quote, I thought of my fellow servants left behind,
(05:49):
bound in the chains of slavery, and I was free.
I thought that if I had the power, they should
soon be as free as I was. And I formed
a resolution that I would assist in liberating everyone within
reach at the risk of my life, and that I
would devise some plan for their entire liberation. He was
able to see William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas speak together.
(06:12):
Parker had met Douglas when both men were enslaved, and
he was moved and inspired to see that he had
become an important voice in the abolitionist movement. Freshly inspired,
one of the things that Parker did was banned together
with other formerly enslaved people, to start a mutual protection group.
There were often kidnappers in the area looking for black
(06:34):
people to drag to slave states, hoping for a payoff,
whether those people had been enslaved previously or not. Before
the Christiania incident we're talking about today, Parker was involved
in a number of conflicts that often included physical altercations,
as he and others in their protection group fought with
kidnappers to get black captives away from them. When the
(06:56):
wife of a friend suggested that maybe they shouldn't be
so ready to fight, and that they could perhaps avoid
trouble instead of getting into it. Parker later said that
he told her quote, we must have trouble before we
could have peace. He was very frank in telling his
life story that these altercations often resulted in injuries and
(07:16):
even deaths for both kidnappers and protectors, but that even
knowing that could happen, their group always answered the call
when someone raised the alert that people were in danger
of being snatched. On one occasion, Parker and his group
learned that a black man who lived near Christiana had
been taking people who had run from enslavement into his
(07:36):
own home and then gaining their trust enough to get
their stories, and then turning and relaying their location to
their enslavers so that they could be recaptured. And William's
words quote at last, the betrayer's connection with these transactions
was clearly tracked, and it was decided to force him
to quit the nefarious business. This man was actually difficult
(07:59):
for Parker and his associates to corner, so after a
long run of failures, they decided to burn his home
to the ground, which they did. This is a pretty
good indicator of just how serious William Parker was about
ending enslavement for as many people as possible and through
whatever means. It took.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Christiana, where Parker lived and where the four men who
had escaped Gorsuch's enslavement sought safety, is about seventy miles
from Baltimore and a little less than twenty five miles
from the Maryland state line. At the time, Maryland was
a slave state, So though there was inherent danger for
Parker in living there, he also recognized that Christiana, which
(08:38):
had a large Quaker and abolitionist population, could serve as
a refuge for people escaping enslavement In Maryland. Parker and
his wife, Eliza Ann Howard, who had also been enslaved,
rented a two story home that welcomed people in need
of shelter.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Coming up, we'll talk about the Fugitive Slave Act of
eighteen fifty, but first we'll pause or a sponsor break.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
On September eighteenth, eighteen fifty, a piece of legislation that
has come up many times on the show was made
law by Congress. That was the Fugitive Slave Act, which then,
of course became the fugitive slave law. This was not
the first fugitive slave legislation, there had been one in
seventeen ninety three, but the eighteen fifty Act, part of
(09:31):
the Compromise of eighteen fifty, which sought to relieve some
of the tension between North and South over the issue
of slavery, gave a lot more agency and power to
enslavers and rendered some of the legal workarounds that had
been found to thwart the seventeen ninety three law useless.
This act stated that if a person quote held to
(09:51):
service or labor i e. Enslaved or to escape, that
the quote person or persons to whom such service or
labor may be due, or his her or their agent
or attorney, duly authorized by power of attorney in writing,
acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal officer
or court of the state or territory in which the
(10:12):
say may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person.
This could be done quote by seizing and arresting such fugitive,
where the same could be done without process, and by
taking or causing such person to be taken forthwith before
such court, judge or Commissioner, whose duty it shall be
to hear and determine the case of such claimant in
(10:35):
a summary manner. The law clearly stated that the testimony
of the apprehended person would not be admitted into evidence,
and that they could be taken back to the state
they ran from, even if they were captured in a
state that did not have legal enslavement.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The act also noted that it was illegal to help
anyone escape from enslavement. This is relevant to today's story.
Read that section quote that any person who shall knowingly
and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent
or attorney, or any person or person's lawfully assisting him, her,
(11:13):
or them from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor,
either with or without process, as aforsaid, or shall rescue
or attempt to rescue such fugitive from service or labor
from the custody of such claimant, his or her agent
or attorney, or other person or person's lawfully assisting as aforesaid,
(11:34):
when so arrested, pursue it to the authority herein given
and declared, or shall aid a bet or assist such
person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or
indirectly to escape from such claimant, his agent or attorney,
or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid, or
(11:55):
shall harbor or conceal such fugitive so as to prevent
the discovery and arrest of such person after notice or
knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive
from service or labor, as aforesaid, shall or either of
set offenses be subject to a fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding six months.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
With the fugitive slave law in place, Edward Gorsuch believed
that he had a right to retrieve the four men
who had escaped from his farm in eighteen forty nine,
and so on September ninth, eighteen fifty one, he arrived
in Philadelphia to get all the paperwork in order to
follow up on a tip that the men were being
sheltered nearby. He went to a judge invokes a Fugitive
(12:43):
Slave Act and asked for warrants to get beuley Ford
and the Hammonds, and he received those warrants. The US
Deputy Marshall HH Klein was authorized to arrest the men
and two Philadelphia police officers, John Agent and Thompson Tully,
were brought onto the team by Gorsicch to back up climb.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The group did not initially head to William Parker's home together.
They split up and then reconvened at Gap, Pennsylvania, which
is a little less than three miles north of Christiana.
There's some confusing back and forth as the men all
tried to meet back up, but by one am on
September eleventh, they had all arrived at Gap and set
(13:23):
out for Christiana together on foot. In addition to the
men already mentioned, the party included Gorsich's son Dickinson and
his nephew Joshua, as well as three other men acquainted
with the Gorsics family. Those were Nathan Nelson, Thomas Pearce,
and Nicholas Hutchings. They also had a guide who met
them as they approached Christiana. That guide, William Paget, had
(13:46):
given Gorsich information about where to find the escaped men
in exchange for payment. He did not stay with the
group once they reached their destination of Parker's home. That
is probably because Paget, who was a white farm hand,
eventually was revealed to have been a person who would
feign to be friendly to black people who had escaped
(14:11):
enslavement and then get their stories, and then he would
sell them out. So he probably did not want anyone
at William Parker's home to see him. According to Parker's account,
he had heard that slaveholders were planning to show up
at his house, but he also didn't think much of
it because he heard that literally all the time. He
was so involved in this fight that there was always
(14:32):
someone coming to get him. But there was also another
group of people heading to his house. Because while William
Parker had not been convinced of the imminent arrival of
the Gorsach Posse, many people in Philadelphia were, and they
had been organizing their own counter attack. There had been
numerous instances in the twelve months since the Fugitive Slave
(14:52):
Act was passed of people being taken from Christiania, never
to be heard from again, and no follow up ever
presented as to what had become of them, and that
had put the area's residence on very high alert. Since
the passing of the eighteen fifty Fugitive Slave Law, a
resistance force against kidnappers who planned to invoke it had
(15:14):
been organizing and they knew that Parker's house was a target.
According to Parker, this group was known as the Special
Secret Committee, and a member of this group, Samuel Williams,
had done some very impressive and really courageous spy work
in tailing Kleine as he made his way through Pennsylvania,
and Samuel also got close enough to the Gorsach gang
(15:35):
to gather all of the pertinent information about their plans
at Parker's farm, and then he carried that information back
to the organized group. When the Gorsach posse approached the house,
they found the group who had assembled to keep them
from kidnapping anyone, but the Gorsach group yelled for the
escaped men to come out. When nobody did, there were
(15:56):
threats that they would burn the house down and shoot
everybody inside, but still no one emerged. At this point,
there were seven people in the house, William Parker and
his wife Eliza, Eliza's sister Hannah, Hannah's husband Alexander Abraham Johnson,
and two of the men Gorsuch was hunting, Nelson Ford
(16:17):
and Joshua Hammond. After making several demands that the escaped
men come out, Gorsich and his men advanced toward the home,
and at that point they saw a black man running
from it. Gorsuch believed it had been one of the
men he wished to apprehend, and Cleine pursued him, although
then Kleine fell when he encountered an obstacle in the yard.
(16:39):
Several other members of Gorsich's group entered the house through
the open door and continue their demands that the sought
after men come down, but again nobody did. They attempted
to climb the stairs, but they were met with a
fish gig that is a tool that looks kind of
like a trident, and then an axe was allegedly thrown
down at them, and they went outside at that point
(17:02):
and yelled up at the second story windows, although Kleine,
who had recovered his balance and come into the house,
tried shooting up the stairs, but he didn't hit anything
of note. According to Parker's version of events, he had
been the one who actually met them on the stairs.
He doesn't mention holding this fish gig, but he did
tell them to leave. The Gorsach party once again asserted
(17:24):
their legal right to be there and to pursue the
men who had escaped enslavement. As all of this was
playing out, a black passerby saw this commotion, and when
he tried to approach the scene, somebody brandished a gun
at him. He left, but he spread the news as
quickly as he could that there were kidnappers at William
Parker's house, and soon more men started to arrive on
(17:47):
the scene, carrying a variety of makeshift weapons. In addition
to the mostly black crowd, there were two white Quakers,
Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, who arrived on site. Hanway
was a miller and Lewis was a shopkeeper. The members
of Gorsuch's group had mixed reads of what their intent was.
Klein believed they were there to help with the seizure
(18:09):
of the escaped men, but they did not. Hanway actually
tried to disperse both sides of the dispute, telling Klein
that if they proceeded with their plan, it would likely
go very badly. He also tried to motion to the
assembled black crowd to back down. According to accounts relayed later,
Klein took off into an adjacent field, calling to the
(18:31):
other members of the Gorsach group to retreat, but Edward
Gorsich would not, and was adamant that he was going
to retrieve his property. The tension of the situation escalated.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And soon there was a violent melee. This whole thing
from when Gorsich and his group arrived to when it
was all over was less than two hours, but the
details of what precisely happened during the ensuing fight were
very inconsistent from account to account. Will probably never know
exactly how everything played out.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
In a moment, we'll talk about the way this incident
was initially reported and how the ensuing trial played out.
But first we will hear from the sponsors that keep
Stuffy Miss in history class going. Here's how the early
(19:24):
reports in newspapers recounted the scene in the days immediately
following this conflict. This one that we're reading is from
the Boston Evening transcript quote, A fearful fugitive slave riot
occurred at Christiania, Lancaster County, yesterday morning. Mister Gorsuch, the
owner of the slave, was killed and his son mortally wounded.
(19:46):
Several other persons were injured. The officers were driven from
the ground by eighty armed negroes. That number of armed
black men was wildly different from account to account, and
when I say wildly, some account say fifteen, some say
two hundred. That's a big range.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The largest end of the scale actually probably wasn't realistic
given the number of black people living in the area,
like those numbers just could not have assembled. And some
estimates based on who would have been living nearby and
able to mobilize in the short period of time that
this conflict took place, taking into account a planned group
that also came to protect the enslaved people, put the
(20:26):
number closer to like maybe two or three dozen men.
Additional details that appeared in early news coverage make it
clear that the information journalists received was not entirely accurate.
For example, that same account says that Gorsuch was hunting
two men, not four, and that his two sons were
(20:47):
with him rather than a son and a nephew. One
update to this story stated that Dickinson Gorsich had also
been killed. That was incorrect, although he did sustain serious injuries.
Black men assembled are also described as all carrying guns,
but in reality, there were just a couple of guns.
Most of them were carrying things like axes and corn knives,
(21:10):
things they could just pick up on. Really short notice.
Some accounts stated that a horn had been blown in
the house, which called between sixty and eighty armed black
men out of the woods. There was a horn, and
it was blown by Parker's wife, Eliza, both to warn
people and to call for help. She was shot at
(21:30):
as soon as she started blowing it, but the bullets
missed and she kept going ducking down in the window
for safety. So these first ride ups, which informed early
opinions on what had happened, had a range of errors,
some of them relatively harmless, but others that really misrepresented
the situation. And because Edward Gorsuch had been killed, authorities
(21:53):
were eager to arrest someone that they could charge with
the murder.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It was also reported that the murderer was definitely one
of the men who had escaped from Gorsich in Maryland.
Two weeks later, The New York Times ran an account
of the events at Christiania as told by Gorsich's son,
stating quote, it is written by the son of mister Gorsich,
who is a clergyman and a man of good standing
and character. His narrative is undoubtedly reliable and presents an
(22:22):
accurate statement of all the circumstances of this atrocious outrage.
The affair was even worse than what we had suspected.
It was evidently a conspiracy planned beforehand to resist the
officers of the law and the execution of their duty.
And even then it was not confined to the negroes,
but was apparently under the guidance and control of whites. So,
(22:45):
according to Dickinson Gorsuch's version of the story, as relaid
by the New York Times, when a Quaker white man
rode up on a horse, this was Castner Hanway, who,
by the way, rode up on a horse because he
really was not in great health and couldn't walk the
short distance to the house that this arrival inspired the
crowd quote with renewed hostility. Dickinson also claimed that Hanway
(23:08):
threatened the officers after he refused to help them apprehend
the fugitive men, and this narrative carried with it a
decidedly anti abolitionist take quote, no plea of conscience or
regard for divine law will be made by the perpetrators
of this outrage. A man would be adjudged insane who
(23:29):
should seriously claim that God's law required him to murder
men charged with the execution of the laws of the land.
The write up goes on to claim that the writer
respects that different people have different values, noting, however, that
quote the laws excuse the Quakers who plead regard for
a higher law as a reason for not obeying the
(23:52):
law which enjoins the performance of military duty. But it
would scarcely tolerate an armed attempt on the part of
the Quakers to prevent anybody else from obeying the law.
The truth is, as we said, we do not know
with certainty exactly how things played out in the conflict,
as accounts differ greatly. But even in those examples we've
been reading, right, it sounds almost like in the warning
(24:16):
that Hanway gave to the Gorsach people to go away,
he was trying to say, if you believe one version, hey,
this is not going to go well. For everyone's safety,
you should leave. And in the Dickinson version he was
threatening them that they had to leave. So what gets
interesting is that even accounts given by the same witness
(24:38):
changed in some instances. So US Deputy Marshall Henry Klein,
who as we've been talking about, was part of the
crew that Gorsetch rode into Christiana with gave testimony on
the stand that Castner Hanway had started the violence by
riling up the black resistors, but that story changed when
he was cross examined. Once he was asked more pointed questions,
(25:01):
the truth came out he had actually hidden in the
cornfield when things got contentious, so he didn't really see
what happened. After that bit of detail emerged, Hanway's defense
team had literally dozens of character witnesses who were willing
to state that Klein was known to be an habitual liar,
(25:21):
a known kidnapper of black people for his own benefit,
and a completely untrustworthy person. And the trial in which
all of that came out was the treason trial of
Castner Hanway. He and two other Quakers, Elijah Lewis and
Jeremiah Scarlett, had been arrested and charged, as well as
(25:41):
twenty five black men. There were a total of thirty
nine indictments, but not all of those named on the
indictments could be found. It was believed those outside the
twenty eight in custody had escaped. To be clear, there
were a lot more arrests than that, because once the
dust had self professed quote, slave catchers came out of
(26:03):
the woodwork. They captured any person of color they saw
in the hopes that they could profit from it. But
other than the thirty one people mentioned, no charges were
made against the dozens of others taken in. William Parker
had made his way to Canada to avoid arrest. Hanway, Lewis,
and Scarlett were allowed to spend their days together in
(26:24):
a cell. In the two months in change that they
were held before the trial. They had a lot of
regular visitors who brought them food and kept them company.
The black detainees, by contrast, were not allowed to socialize
even with one another. The plan was to try all
of these people for treason against the United States. If
(26:45):
acquitted on that charge, there would be a second round
of charges of murder, and then, if acquitted, a third
charge of obstructing the marshal and aiding enslaved people in escape.
But the prosecution had opted to try each defendant separately,
and Hanway's trial was first, as he had been characterized
as the ring leader of the group that overtook Gorsich
(27:07):
and his crew. The thinking on the part of the
prosecution was that if they could get a guilty verdict
against him.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
A white man and a Quaker, the rest of their
work was going to be easy, but this strategy backfired.
Abolitionist Thatdius Stevens was the head of the defense team.
The prosecution was led by US District Attorney John w Ashmead.
This trial played out over three weeks, starting November twenty
fourth and running until December sixteenth. The opening statement of
(27:37):
the defense lays the groundwork to discredit the treason charge
for all of the men arrested for the incident in Christiana,
although the primary setup establishes that Castner Hanway was not
responsible for any of it. Quote, this defendant gentleman, is
not here, through his council, to defend those sad deeds
which disgraced the sweet and peaceful valley near Christiani on
(28:00):
the ninth of September last, or by one unkind or
reproachful word to open again the yet fresh wounds of
any member of that family which suffered so deeply there.
It is no part of his defense to defend those
who took part in that conflict. His defense is simply
that he was in no way a party to these outrages,
(28:22):
but as a precaution, I shall pass beyond this line,
and added to this will open to you that, however
grave and serious may be and is the offense of
those who took part in those outrages, yet it does
not amount to the offense charged in the indictment on
the borders of Lancaster County. Their realty is a band
(28:42):
of miscreants who are well known to the laws and
well known to the records of the penitentiary in this state.
They are professional kidnappers. These men, by a series of
lawless and diabolical outrages, have invaded the peace of this valley,
begetting and every household and a general sense of insecurity
(29:03):
in every home. Treason shall consist only in levying war
against the United States. Do the facts of the case
sustain the charge?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Sir? Did you hear it that three harmless, non resisting
Quakers and eight and thirty wretched, miserable, penniless negroes, armed
with corn cutters, clubs, and a few muskets, and headed
by a miller in a felt hat, without a coat,
without arms, and mounted on a sorrel nag, levied war
against the United States. Blessed be God that our union
(29:37):
has survived the shock. I love a little sarcasm. The
prosecution saw witness after witness failed to help their case
on the stand. Most of them were caught in lies,
just as Klein had been. While the various witnesses called
by both sides told different versions of the story, a
few facts were consistent throughout, and most damning was that
(29:59):
it had actually been or such as group that had
been the first to become violent. When the court proceedings concluded,
the jury only deliberated for fifteen minutes before coming back
with a not guilty verdict for Hanway, and the opposite
of the prosecution's plan played out from there. Because Klein
had been the lynchpin of their entire case and their
(30:20):
plan going forward with all of the subsequent charges, and
when he was discredited in the first trial and no
other hard evidence had been presented, there really wasn't anything
to move forward with. The grand jury dismissed all remaining
charges and all of the men who had been charged
were released by January sixteenth, eighteen fifty two. The result
(30:43):
of the trial incensed many Southerners, who felt it was
always unfairly biased because it took place in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
There had already been a sentiment that the Fugitive Slave
Law was a case of the federal government infringing on states' rights,
but as the prosecution failed to establish any real evidence
for their narrative in the case against Tanway or any
(31:06):
of the defendants, really that point is almost moot. Just
the same, the controversy over the outcome only added to
the already tense relations between the northern and Southern states.
It's sometimes called the first Battle of the Civil War.
In a surprising coda to this story, Edward Gorsuch's son Dickinson,
who as we mentioned, had been really seriously injured, was
(31:30):
nursed back to health by a Christiana Quaker named Levi Pownall,
and over the course of receiving Pownall's care, it appears
that Dickinson actually had a fairly significant change of heart
regarding the situation, and he eventually sought to reconcile with
the people that his family had fought against, and he
reportedly enjoyed a pretty positive relationship with many of Christiana's
(31:52):
citizens up until his death. In eighteen eighty two, William
Parker relocated to Buxton, cam and settled there while he
had initially run away from Christiana without Eliza. The two
of them were reunited in Canada, although he eventually left
Eliza for another woman, and eighteen sixty six The Atlantic
Monthly published his life story in two parts. That is
(32:16):
the piece which we quoted from a good bit in
the early part of this, and I will say there
are some general notations about like we don't know how
accurate his version is or not, But to me it's
his lived experience and thus becomes a pretty important narrative
of what was going on at the time. As for
(32:37):
the four men whose escape started the whole thing, Noah
Bulee Nelson for George Hammond and Joshua Hammond, what happened
to them after the incident is not known. They were
not captured, and it is often speculated that they followed
William Parker to Canada.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, this story is so so ceaselessly interesting to me.
I particularly am fascinated by the press coverage. But in
the meantime I have very unrelated listener mail. This is
from our listener James, who writes, Hi, Holly and Tracy. First,
(33:17):
let me say I love your show. I've been listening
since high school, right around the time the show became yours.
I used to listen on the bus on my way
to school. Now I listen while I clean stalls and
portion out. Hey, you make the dullest and hardest tasks
go by so fast. I honestly don't know how I
would make it through my longest work days without your help.
About a year ago, I got divorced. I remember your divorce.
(33:38):
Ranch's episode came out about a month after the topic
had been broached between my now ex wife and I.
As stressed out and depressed as I was, the episode
inspired me. I couldn't take the time off of work
to go to Nevada for six weeks, but I did
take a few days and took off for the coast
all alone, my first trip by myself in six years.
It was a big step for me at the time,
(33:58):
and I'm happy to say I'm doing much better these days,
and I'm very happy to be an independent person again.
I'm so glad you were doing well since my divorce.
I've had a second Spotify profile sitting around collecting dust.
When you released your episode on yan Arison, I was
struck with inspiration. I sent my grandma up on Spotify
and I'm happy to report this. She's becoming an avid listener.
(34:19):
She's been telling all her elderly friends about your show
and was thrilled to discover a distant personal connection to
Joan Arison. One of her lifelong friends has Icelandic ancestry
and claims as many do Joan Arison as a direct ancestor.
I have attached my pet tax to Bambino sphinxes. The
big Siamese is Quirk, my fat little boy, built like
(34:41):
a bulldog and easily confused. The Tortoiseshell is Dax, my frail,
middle aged old lady eternally grumpy unless she's in a lap.
Also a picture of Evi and Xander grazing two of
my favorite horses at the Thoroughbred Sanctuary. I love these
pet tax pictures. I love these names for your cats. Hello,
little Star Trek reference makes me happy, and the horses
(35:03):
are absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing this
story with us. I love the idea that you turned
your grandma on to new things and new ways to
talk about history. I love it so much. So I'm
glad you're doing well, James, and I will be thinking
of you if you would like to write to us,
you can do so at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
(35:25):
If you would like to subscribe to the show and
you haven't gotten around to it yet, I promise is
so easy. You can do that on the iHeartRadio app,
or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So I got reminded of today's episode because it's been,
you know, kind of lingering in the background for a
while while I was researching something else. And I'm sure
this has happened to you where you're looking at a
historical paper online and then you see a headline in
another column and you go, oh, yeah, those two things
were happening around the same time.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So this is the Christiana Incident. Sometimes it's also called
the Christiana Riot. It has other names as well, But
it offers a kind of unique snapshot of the US
when the country was sorting into states where slavery was
upheld and states that had abolished it, and what the
resulting discord and racist tension really looked like at the
(00:55):
borders between those sides of the conflict in the mid
eighteen fifties. And this also offers insights into the lives
of the people most impacted by the practice of slavery,
black people, both enslaved and free. This is really considered
an important moment in the pre Civil War years of
the US because it led to the first legal test
(01:17):
of the Fugitive Slave Law of eighteen fifty which we'll
talk about in some detail. And in addition to looking
at the ways this impacted people's lives, the immediate aftermath
of the events at Christiania in eighteen fifty one also
gives us a glimpse into how the press, even in
abolitionist states, talked about and framed the violence in regard
(01:38):
to race. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
In eighteen forty nine, Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Hammond,
and Joshua Hammond all escaped enslavement from Edward Gorsitch's farm
in Baltimore County, Maryland. They made their way to Christiana, Pennsylvania,
a borough in Lancaster County. They found haven in the
hall of a man named William Parker, who had also
(02:03):
escaped enslavement, and he had made a life for himself
in Pennsylvania. He's really important to this story, so we're
going to take a minute to talk more about his history.
So William Parker was born on a Maryland plantation owned
by Major William Brogden and the plantation known as Rodown
was where his mother, Luisa Simms, was enslaved. Parker shared
(02:25):
his story with The Atlantic later in his life. We'll
talk about that down the road. And he never mentioned
a father in that story. It's a little unclear if
his narrative is intended to point to Major Brogden as
his father. That seems possible, although that is not his
last name, and we don't know where the name Parker
comes from in that case. But he wrote of Brogden quote,
(02:47):
my old master died while I was very young, so
I know little about him, except from statements received from
my fellow slaves or casual remarks made in my hearing
from time to time by white persons. I conclude that
he was in no way peculiar, but should be classed
with those slaveholders who are not remarkable, either for the
severity or the indulgence they extend to their people. Luisa
(03:11):
also died when William was a little boy, and at
that point his grandmother, who was also enslaved at wrote
Down as the cook for the main house, was his
nearest relative. She cared for him, but because she was
in demand at the house for so much of the day.
She only saw William very briefly. The rest of the time,
he was looked after by other enslaved people, who he
(03:33):
said were abusive to him until he learned to fight back.
After Major Brogden died, the plantation continued for several years
before the major's two sons split the property, and William
then became enslaved by David Brogden. Parker's account of life
enslaved by the Brogdens offers a lot of insight into
the various ways that enslaved people were dehumanized. For example,
(03:57):
he wrote quote slaveholders are particular to keep the pedigree
and age of favorite horses and dogs, but are quite
indifferent about the age of their servants until they want
to purchase. He also talks about specific instances of people
being sold off and the casual ways that families were separated.
Something he said that they all treated like a funeral
(04:18):
because they knew they were never going to see those
loved ones again. From the time he was young, William,
after having seen his first sale of enslaved people that
he had grown up with, plotted an escape. He had
tried to convince other young men to join him at
various times, but they were all generally too fearful of
the very real risks of running away, so he and
(04:41):
his brother Charles began just quietly planning to escape just
between themselves. Parker also wrote about how he actually wanted
to wait to leave until David Brogden mistreated him in
some way, noting quote, I was ignorant enough to think
that something besides the fact that I was a slave
was necess to exonerate me from blame in running away.
(05:03):
A cross word, a blow, a good fright, anything would do.
After a physical altercation with Brogden, in which William defended
himself and inflicted some sort of injury that we don't
specifically know what, William and his brother Charles just ram
He talked about how, even as a fugitive, the promise
of freedom quote lends wings to the feet, buoys up
(05:27):
the spirit within. The passage through Baltimore to Philadelphia was
trickier than the two men anticipated because they didn't realize
how quickly the news of their escape and the warrant
for their capture would spread. But they made it to
Pennsylvania and took various odd jobs to make money. William
wrote quote, I thought of my fellow servants left behind,
(05:49):
bound in the chains of slavery, and I was free.
I thought that if I had the power, they should
soon be as free as I was. And I formed
a resolution that I would assist in liberating everyone within
reach at the risk of my life, and that I
would devise some plan for their entire liberation. He was
able to see William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas speak together.
(06:12):
Parker had met Douglas when both men were enslaved, and
he was moved and inspired to see that he had
become an important voice in the abolitionist movement. Freshly inspired,
one of the things that Parker did was banned together
with other formerly enslaved people, to start a mutual protection group.
There were often kidnappers in the area looking for black
(06:34):
people to drag to slave states, hoping for a payoff,
whether those people had been enslaved previously or not. Before
the Christiania incident we're talking about today, Parker was involved
in a number of conflicts that often included physical altercations,
as he and others in their protection group fought with
kidnappers to get black captives away from them. When the
(06:56):
wife of a friend suggested that maybe they shouldn't be
so ready to fight, and that they could perhaps avoid
trouble instead of getting into it. Parker later said that
he told her quote, we must have trouble before we
could have peace. He was very frank in telling his
life story that these altercations often resulted in injuries and
(07:16):
even deaths for both kidnappers and protectors, but that even
knowing that could happen, their group always answered the call
when someone raised the alert that people were in danger
of being snatched. On one occasion, Parker and his group
learned that a black man who lived near Christiana had
been taking people who had run from enslavement into his
(07:36):
own home and then gaining their trust enough to get
their stories, and then turning and relaying their location to
their enslavers so that they could be recaptured. And William's
words quote at last, the betrayer's connection with these transactions
was clearly tracked, and it was decided to force him
to quit the nefarious business. This man was actually difficult
(07:59):
for Parker and his associates to corner, so after a
long run of failures, they decided to burn his home
to the ground, which they did. This is a pretty
good indicator of just how serious William Parker was about
ending enslavement for as many people as possible and through
whatever means. It took.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Christiana, where Parker lived and where the four men who
had escaped Gorsuch's enslavement sought safety, is about seventy miles
from Baltimore and a little less than twenty five miles
from the Maryland state line. At the time, Maryland was
a slave state, So though there was inherent danger for
Parker in living there, he also recognized that Christiana, which
(08:38):
had a large Quaker and abolitionist population, could serve as
a refuge for people escaping enslavement In Maryland. Parker and
his wife, Eliza Ann Howard, who had also been enslaved,
rented a two story home that welcomed people in need
of shelter.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Coming up, we'll talk about the Fugitive Slave Act of
eighteen fifty, but first we'll pause or a sponsor break.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
On September eighteenth, eighteen fifty, a piece of legislation that
has come up many times on the show was made
law by Congress. That was the Fugitive Slave Act, which then,
of course became the fugitive slave law. This was not
the first fugitive slave legislation, there had been one in
seventeen ninety three, but the eighteen fifty Act, part of
(09:31):
the Compromise of eighteen fifty, which sought to relieve some
of the tension between North and South over the issue
of slavery, gave a lot more agency and power to
enslavers and rendered some of the legal workarounds that had
been found to thwart the seventeen ninety three law useless.
This act stated that if a person quote held to
(09:51):
service or labor i e. Enslaved or to escape, that
the quote person or persons to whom such service or
labor may be due, or his her or their agent
or attorney, duly authorized by power of attorney in writing,
acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal officer
or court of the state or territory in which the
(10:12):
say may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person.
This could be done quote by seizing and arresting such fugitive,
where the same could be done without process, and by
taking or causing such person to be taken forthwith before
such court, judge or Commissioner, whose duty it shall be
to hear and determine the case of such claimant in
(10:35):
a summary manner. The law clearly stated that the testimony
of the apprehended person would not be admitted into evidence,
and that they could be taken back to the state
they ran from, even if they were captured in a
state that did not have legal enslavement.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The act also noted that it was illegal to help
anyone escape from enslavement. This is relevant to today's story.
Read that section quote that any person who shall knowingly
and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent
or attorney, or any person or person's lawfully assisting him, her,
(11:13):
or them from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor,
either with or without process, as aforsaid, or shall rescue
or attempt to rescue such fugitive from service or labor
from the custody of such claimant, his or her agent
or attorney, or other person or person's lawfully assisting as aforesaid,
(11:34):
when so arrested, pursue it to the authority herein given
and declared, or shall aid a bet or assist such
person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or
indirectly to escape from such claimant, his agent or attorney,
or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid, or
(11:55):
shall harbor or conceal such fugitive so as to prevent
the discovery and arrest of such person after notice or
knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive
from service or labor, as aforesaid, shall or either of
set offenses be subject to a fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding six months.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
With the fugitive slave law in place, Edward Gorsuch believed
that he had a right to retrieve the four men
who had escaped from his farm in eighteen forty nine,
and so on September ninth, eighteen fifty one, he arrived
in Philadelphia to get all the paperwork in order to
follow up on a tip that the men were being
sheltered nearby. He went to a judge invokes a Fugitive
(12:43):
Slave Act and asked for warrants to get beuley Ford
and the Hammonds, and he received those warrants. The US
Deputy Marshall HH Klein was authorized to arrest the men
and two Philadelphia police officers, John Agent and Thompson Tully,
were brought onto the team by Gorsicch to back up climb.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The group did not initially head to William Parker's home together.
They split up and then reconvened at Gap, Pennsylvania, which
is a little less than three miles north of Christiana.
There's some confusing back and forth as the men all
tried to meet back up, but by one am on
September eleventh, they had all arrived at Gap and set
(13:23):
out for Christiana together on foot. In addition to the
men already mentioned, the party included Gorsich's son Dickinson and
his nephew Joshua, as well as three other men acquainted
with the Gorsics family. Those were Nathan Nelson, Thomas Pearce,
and Nicholas Hutchings. They also had a guide who met
them as they approached Christiana. That guide, William Paget, had
(13:46):
given Gorsich information about where to find the escaped men
in exchange for payment. He did not stay with the
group once they reached their destination of Parker's home. That
is probably because Paget, who was a white farm hand,
eventually was revealed to have been a person who would
feign to be friendly to black people who had escaped
(14:11):
enslavement and then get their stories, and then he would
sell them out. So he probably did not want anyone
at William Parker's home to see him. According to Parker's account,
he had heard that slaveholders were planning to show up
at his house, but he also didn't think much of
it because he heard that literally all the time. He
was so involved in this fight that there was always
(14:32):
someone coming to get him. But there was also another
group of people heading to his house. Because while William
Parker had not been convinced of the imminent arrival of
the Gorsach Posse, many people in Philadelphia were, and they
had been organizing their own counter attack. There had been
numerous instances in the twelve months since the Fugitive Slave
(14:52):
Act was passed of people being taken from Christiania, never
to be heard from again, and no follow up ever
presented as to what had become of them, and that
had put the area's residence on very high alert. Since
the passing of the eighteen fifty Fugitive Slave Law, a
resistance force against kidnappers who planned to invoke it had
(15:14):
been organizing and they knew that Parker's house was a target.
According to Parker, this group was known as the Special
Secret Committee, and a member of this group, Samuel Williams,
had done some very impressive and really courageous spy work
in tailing Kleine as he made his way through Pennsylvania,
and Samuel also got close enough to the Gorsach gang
(15:35):
to gather all of the pertinent information about their plans
at Parker's farm, and then he carried that information back
to the organized group. When the Gorsach posse approached the house,
they found the group who had assembled to keep them
from kidnapping anyone, but the Gorsach group yelled for the
escaped men to come out. When nobody did, there were
(15:56):
threats that they would burn the house down and shoot
everybody inside, but still no one emerged. At this point,
there were seven people in the house, William Parker and
his wife Eliza, Eliza's sister Hannah, Hannah's husband Alexander Abraham Johnson,
and two of the men Gorsuch was hunting, Nelson Ford
(16:17):
and Joshua Hammond. After making several demands that the escaped
men come out, Gorsich and his men advanced toward the home,
and at that point they saw a black man running
from it. Gorsuch believed it had been one of the
men he wished to apprehend, and Cleine pursued him, although
then Kleine fell when he encountered an obstacle in the yard.
(16:39):
Several other members of Gorsich's group entered the house through
the open door and continue their demands that the sought
after men come down, but again nobody did. They attempted
to climb the stairs, but they were met with a
fish gig that is a tool that looks kind of
like a trident, and then an axe was allegedly thrown
down at them, and they went outside at that point
(17:02):
and yelled up at the second story windows, although Kleine,
who had recovered his balance and come into the house,
tried shooting up the stairs, but he didn't hit anything
of note. According to Parker's version of events, he had
been the one who actually met them on the stairs.
He doesn't mention holding this fish gig, but he did
tell them to leave. The Gorsach party once again asserted
(17:24):
their legal right to be there and to pursue the
men who had escaped enslavement. As all of this was
playing out, a black passerby saw this commotion, and when
he tried to approach the scene, somebody brandished a gun
at him. He left, but he spread the news as
quickly as he could that there were kidnappers at William
Parker's house, and soon more men started to arrive on
(17:47):
the scene, carrying a variety of makeshift weapons. In addition
to the mostly black crowd, there were two white Quakers,
Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, who arrived on site. Hanway
was a miller and Lewis was a shopkeeper. The members
of Gorsuch's group had mixed reads of what their intent was.
Klein believed they were there to help with the seizure
(18:09):
of the escaped men, but they did not. Hanway actually
tried to disperse both sides of the dispute, telling Klein
that if they proceeded with their plan, it would likely
go very badly. He also tried to motion to the
assembled black crowd to back down. According to accounts relayed later,
Klein took off into an adjacent field, calling to the
(18:31):
other members of the Gorsach group to retreat, but Edward
Gorsich would not, and was adamant that he was going
to retrieve his property. The tension of the situation escalated.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And soon there was a violent melee. This whole thing
from when Gorsich and his group arrived to when it
was all over was less than two hours, but the
details of what precisely happened during the ensuing fight were
very inconsistent from account to account. Will probably never know
exactly how everything played out.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
In a moment, we'll talk about the way this incident
was initially reported and how the ensuing trial played out.
But first we will hear from the sponsors that keep
Stuffy Miss in history class going. Here's how the early
(19:24):
reports in newspapers recounted the scene in the days immediately
following this conflict. This one that we're reading is from
the Boston Evening transcript quote, A fearful fugitive slave riot
occurred at Christiania, Lancaster County, yesterday morning. Mister Gorsuch, the
owner of the slave, was killed and his son mortally wounded.
(19:46):
Several other persons were injured. The officers were driven from
the ground by eighty armed negroes. That number of armed
black men was wildly different from account to account, and
when I say wildly, some account say fifteen, some say
two hundred. That's a big range.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The largest end of the scale actually probably wasn't realistic
given the number of black people living in the area,
like those numbers just could not have assembled. And some
estimates based on who would have been living nearby and
able to mobilize in the short period of time that
this conflict took place, taking into account a planned group
that also came to protect the enslaved people, put the
(20:26):
number closer to like maybe two or three dozen men.
Additional details that appeared in early news coverage make it
clear that the information journalists received was not entirely accurate.
For example, that same account says that Gorsuch was hunting
two men, not four, and that his two sons were
(20:47):
with him rather than a son and a nephew. One
update to this story stated that Dickinson Gorsich had also
been killed. That was incorrect, although he did sustain serious injuries.
Black men assembled are also described as all carrying guns,
but in reality, there were just a couple of guns.
Most of them were carrying things like axes and corn knives,
(21:10):
things they could just pick up on. Really short notice.
Some accounts stated that a horn had been blown in
the house, which called between sixty and eighty armed black
men out of the woods. There was a horn, and
it was blown by Parker's wife, Eliza, both to warn
people and to call for help. She was shot at
(21:30):
as soon as she started blowing it, but the bullets
missed and she kept going ducking down in the window
for safety. So these first ride ups, which informed early
opinions on what had happened, had a range of errors,
some of them relatively harmless, but others that really misrepresented
the situation. And because Edward Gorsuch had been killed, authorities
(21:53):
were eager to arrest someone that they could charge with
the murder.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It was also reported that the murderer was definitely one
of the men who had escaped from Gorsich in Maryland.
Two weeks later, The New York Times ran an account
of the events at Christiania as told by Gorsich's son,
stating quote, it is written by the son of mister Gorsich,
who is a clergyman and a man of good standing
and character. His narrative is undoubtedly reliable and presents an
(22:22):
accurate statement of all the circumstances of this atrocious outrage.
The affair was even worse than what we had suspected.
It was evidently a conspiracy planned beforehand to resist the
officers of the law and the execution of their duty.
And even then it was not confined to the negroes,
but was apparently under the guidance and control of whites. So,
(22:45):
according to Dickinson Gorsuch's version of the story, as relaid
by the New York Times, when a Quaker white man
rode up on a horse, this was Castner Hanway, who,
by the way, rode up on a horse because he
really was not in great health and couldn't walk the
short distance to the house that this arrival inspired the
crowd quote with renewed hostility. Dickinson also claimed that Hanway
(23:08):
threatened the officers after he refused to help them apprehend
the fugitive men, and this narrative carried with it a
decidedly anti abolitionist take quote, no plea of conscience or
regard for divine law will be made by the perpetrators
of this outrage. A man would be adjudged insane who
(23:29):
should seriously claim that God's law required him to murder
men charged with the execution of the laws of the land.
The write up goes on to claim that the writer
respects that different people have different values, noting, however, that
quote the laws excuse the Quakers who plead regard for
a higher law as a reason for not obeying the
(23:52):
law which enjoins the performance of military duty. But it
would scarcely tolerate an armed attempt on the part of
the Quakers to prevent anybody else from obeying the law.
The truth is, as we said, we do not know
with certainty exactly how things played out in the conflict,
as accounts differ greatly. But even in those examples we've
been reading, right, it sounds almost like in the warning
(24:16):
that Hanway gave to the Gorsach people to go away,
he was trying to say, if you believe one version, hey,
this is not going to go well. For everyone's safety,
you should leave. And in the Dickinson version he was
threatening them that they had to leave. So what gets
interesting is that even accounts given by the same witness
(24:38):
changed in some instances. So US Deputy Marshall Henry Klein,
who as we've been talking about, was part of the
crew that Gorsetch rode into Christiana with gave testimony on
the stand that Castner Hanway had started the violence by
riling up the black resistors, but that story changed when
he was cross examined. Once he was asked more pointed questions,
(25:01):
the truth came out he had actually hidden in the
cornfield when things got contentious, so he didn't really see
what happened. After that bit of detail emerged, Hanway's defense
team had literally dozens of character witnesses who were willing
to state that Klein was known to be an habitual liar,
(25:21):
a known kidnapper of black people for his own benefit,
and a completely untrustworthy person. And the trial in which
all of that came out was the treason trial of
Castner Hanway. He and two other Quakers, Elijah Lewis and
Jeremiah Scarlett, had been arrested and charged, as well as
(25:41):
twenty five black men. There were a total of thirty
nine indictments, but not all of those named on the
indictments could be found. It was believed those outside the
twenty eight in custody had escaped. To be clear, there
were a lot more arrests than that, because once the
dust had self professed quote, slave catchers came out of
(26:03):
the woodwork. They captured any person of color they saw
in the hopes that they could profit from it. But
other than the thirty one people mentioned, no charges were
made against the dozens of others taken in. William Parker
had made his way to Canada to avoid arrest. Hanway, Lewis,
and Scarlett were allowed to spend their days together in
(26:24):
a cell. In the two months in change that they
were held before the trial. They had a lot of
regular visitors who brought them food and kept them company.
The black detainees, by contrast, were not allowed to socialize
even with one another. The plan was to try all
of these people for treason against the United States. If
(26:45):
acquitted on that charge, there would be a second round
of charges of murder, and then, if acquitted, a third
charge of obstructing the marshal and aiding enslaved people in escape.
But the prosecution had opted to try each defendant separately,
and Hanway's trial was first, as he had been characterized
as the ring leader of the group that overtook Gorsich
(27:07):
and his crew. The thinking on the part of the
prosecution was that if they could get a guilty verdict
against him.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
A white man and a Quaker, the rest of their
work was going to be easy, but this strategy backfired.
Abolitionist Thatdius Stevens was the head of the defense team.
The prosecution was led by US District Attorney John w Ashmead.
This trial played out over three weeks, starting November twenty
fourth and running until December sixteenth. The opening statement of
(27:37):
the defense lays the groundwork to discredit the treason charge
for all of the men arrested for the incident in Christiana,
although the primary setup establishes that Castner Hanway was not
responsible for any of it. Quote, this defendant gentleman, is
not here, through his council, to defend those sad deeds
which disgraced the sweet and peaceful valley near Christiani on
(28:00):
the ninth of September last, or by one unkind or
reproachful word to open again the yet fresh wounds of
any member of that family which suffered so deeply there.
It is no part of his defense to defend those
who took part in that conflict. His defense is simply
that he was in no way a party to these outrages,
(28:22):
but as a precaution, I shall pass beyond this line,
and added to this will open to you that, however
grave and serious may be and is the offense of
those who took part in those outrages, yet it does
not amount to the offense charged in the indictment on
the borders of Lancaster County. Their realty is a band
(28:42):
of miscreants who are well known to the laws and
well known to the records of the penitentiary in this state.
They are professional kidnappers. These men, by a series of
lawless and diabolical outrages, have invaded the peace of this valley,
begetting and every household and a general sense of insecurity
(29:03):
in every home. Treason shall consist only in levying war
against the United States. Do the facts of the case
sustain the charge?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Sir? Did you hear it that three harmless, non resisting
Quakers and eight and thirty wretched, miserable, penniless negroes, armed
with corn cutters, clubs, and a few muskets, and headed
by a miller in a felt hat, without a coat,
without arms, and mounted on a sorrel nag, levied war
against the United States. Blessed be God that our union
(29:37):
has survived the shock. I love a little sarcasm. The
prosecution saw witness after witness failed to help their case
on the stand. Most of them were caught in lies,
just as Klein had been. While the various witnesses called
by both sides told different versions of the story, a
few facts were consistent throughout, and most damning was that
(29:59):
it had actually been or such as group that had
been the first to become violent. When the court proceedings concluded,
the jury only deliberated for fifteen minutes before coming back
with a not guilty verdict for Hanway, and the opposite
of the prosecution's plan played out from there. Because Klein
had been the lynchpin of their entire case and their
(30:20):
plan going forward with all of the subsequent charges, and
when he was discredited in the first trial and no
other hard evidence had been presented, there really wasn't anything
to move forward with. The grand jury dismissed all remaining
charges and all of the men who had been charged
were released by January sixteenth, eighteen fifty two. The result
(30:43):
of the trial incensed many Southerners, who felt it was
always unfairly biased because it took place in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
There had already been a sentiment that the Fugitive Slave
Law was a case of the federal government infringing on states' rights,
but as the prosecution failed to establish any real evidence
for their narrative in the case against Tanway or any
(31:06):
of the defendants, really that point is almost moot. Just
the same, the controversy over the outcome only added to
the already tense relations between the northern and Southern states.
It's sometimes called the first Battle of the Civil War.
In a surprising coda to this story, Edward Gorsuch's son Dickinson,
who as we mentioned, had been really seriously injured, was
(31:30):
nursed back to health by a Christiana Quaker named Levi Pownall,
and over the course of receiving Pownall's care, it appears
that Dickinson actually had a fairly significant change of heart
regarding the situation, and he eventually sought to reconcile with
the people that his family had fought against, and he
reportedly enjoyed a pretty positive relationship with many of Christiana's
(31:52):
citizens up until his death. In eighteen eighty two, William
Parker relocated to Buxton, cam and settled there while he
had initially run away from Christiana without Eliza. The two
of them were reunited in Canada, although he eventually left
Eliza for another woman, and eighteen sixty six The Atlantic
Monthly published his life story in two parts. That is
(32:16):
the piece which we quoted from a good bit in
the early part of this, and I will say there
are some general notations about like we don't know how
accurate his version is or not, But to me it's
his lived experience and thus becomes a pretty important narrative
of what was going on at the time. As for
(32:37):
the four men whose escape started the whole thing, Noah
Bulee Nelson for George Hammond and Joshua Hammond, what happened
to them after the incident is not known. They were
not captured, and it is often speculated that they followed
William Parker to Canada.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, this story is so so ceaselessly interesting to me.
I particularly am fascinated by the press coverage. But in
the meantime I have very unrelated listener mail. This is
from our listener James, who writes, Hi, Holly and Tracy. First,
(33:17):
let me say I love your show. I've been listening
since high school, right around the time the show became yours.
I used to listen on the bus on my way
to school. Now I listen while I clean stalls and
portion out. Hey, you make the dullest and hardest tasks
go by so fast. I honestly don't know how I
would make it through my longest work days without your help.
About a year ago, I got divorced. I remember your divorce.
(33:38):
Ranch's episode came out about a month after the topic
had been broached between my now ex wife and I.
As stressed out and depressed as I was, the episode
inspired me. I couldn't take the time off of work
to go to Nevada for six weeks, but I did
take a few days and took off for the coast
all alone, my first trip by myself in six years.
It was a big step for me at the time,
(33:58):
and I'm happy to say I'm doing much better these days,
and I'm very happy to be an independent person again.
I'm so glad you were doing well since my divorce.
I've had a second Spotify profile sitting around collecting dust.
When you released your episode on yan Arison, I was
struck with inspiration. I sent my grandma up on Spotify
and I'm happy to report this. She's becoming an avid listener.
(34:19):
She's been telling all her elderly friends about your show
and was thrilled to discover a distant personal connection to
Joan Arison. One of her lifelong friends has Icelandic ancestry
and claims as many do Joan Arison as a direct ancestor.
I have attached my pet tax to Bambino sphinxes. The
big Siamese is Quirk, my fat little boy, built like
(34:41):
a bulldog and easily confused. The Tortoiseshell is Dax, my frail,
middle aged old lady eternally grumpy unless she's in a lap.
Also a picture of Evi and Xander grazing two of
my favorite horses at the Thoroughbred Sanctuary. I love these
pet tax pictures. I love these names for your cats. Hello,
little Star Trek reference makes me happy, and the horses
(35:03):
are absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing this
story with us. I love the idea that you turned
your grandma on to new things and new ways to
talk about history. I love it so much. So I'm
glad you're doing well, James, and I will be thinking
of you if you would like to write to us,
you can do so at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
(35:25):
If you would like to subscribe to the show and
you haven't gotten around to it yet, I promise is
so easy. You can do that on the iHeartRadio app,
or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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