Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Christiana Incident of 1851 About this episode 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.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:28 Tracy V. Wilson? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Old Gays are back with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons
1:13 Tracy V. Wilson? on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune into Silver Linings with The Old Gays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You ever show up late to the game and your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate? That's looking out. That's having your back. And that's exactly what AT&T does with the AT&T Guarantee. They know staying connected matters, so they actually guarantee a network that comes through when it counts. AT&T has connectivity you can depend on, or they'll proactively make it right, just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask. AT&T: Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply.
1:55 Tracy V. Wilson? Visit att.com/guarantee for details. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:11 Holly Frey? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey.
2:14 Tracy V. Wilson? And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:16 Holly Frey? 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.
2:32 Tracy V. Wilson? Yep.
2:33 Holly Frey? 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 borders between those sides of the conflict in the mid 1850s. 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 of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850,
3:19 Holly Frey? 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 Christiana in 1851 also gives us a glimpse into how the press, even in abolitionist states, talked about and framed the violence in regard to race. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
3:40 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1849, Noah Beulie, Nelson Ford, George Hammond, and Joshua Hammond all escaped enslavement from Edward Gorsuch's farm in Baltimore County, Maryland. They made their way to Christiana, Pennsylvania, a borough in Lancaster County. They found Haven in the home of a man named William Parker, who had also escaped enslavement, and he had made a life for himself in Pennsylvania. He's really important to the story, so we're going to take a minute to talk more about his history.
4:12 Holly Frey? So William Parker was born on a Maryland plantation owned by Major William Brogdon. And the plantation, known as Rowdown, was where his mother, Louisa Sims, was enslaved. Parker shared 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 Brogdon 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 Brogdon, quote, "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
4:54 Holly Frey? remarks made in my hearing from time to time by white persons. From those, 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."
5:10 Tracy V. Wilson? Louisa also died when William was a little boy. And at that point, his grandmother, who was also enslaved at Rowdown 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 said were abusive to him until he learned to fight back.
5:37 Holly Frey? After Major Brogdon died, the plantation continued for several years before the major's two sons split the property, and William then became enslaved by David Brogdon. Parker's account of life enslaved by the Brogdon's offers a lot of insight into the various ways that enslaved people were dehumanized. For example, 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 because they knew they were never going to see those loved ones again.
6:21 Holly Frey? 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 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 Brogdon mistreated him in some way, noting, quote, "I was ignorant enough to think that something besides the fact that I was a slave was necessary to exonerate me from blame and running away.
7:03 Holly Frey? A cross word, a blow, a good fright, anything would do." After a physical altercation with Brogdon, in which William defended himself and inflicted some sort of injury, though we don't specifically know what, William and his brother Charles just ran. He talked about how even as a fugitive, the promise of freedom, quote, "lends wings to the feet, boys up the spirit within."
7:28 Tracy V. Wilson? 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, 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 Douglass speak together.
8:11 Tracy V. Wilson? Parker had met Douglass when both men were enslaved, and he was moved and inspired to see that he had become an important voice in the abolitionist movement.
8:21 Holly Frey? Freshly inspired, one of the things that Parker did was band together with other formerly enslaved people to start a mutual protection group.
8:30 Holly Frey? There were often kidnappers in the area looking for black people to drag to slave states, hoping for a payoff, whether those people had been enslaved previously or not. Before the Christiana 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 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
9:14 Holly Frey? injuries and 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.
9:27 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 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. In 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 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.
10:08 Tracy V. Wilson? 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.
10:17 Holly Frey? Christiana, where Parker lived and where the four men who had escaped Gorsuch's enslavement sought safety, is about 70 miles from Baltimore and a little less than 25 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 had a large Quaker and abolitionist population, could serve as a refuge for people escaping enslavement in Maryland.
10:46 Holly Frey? Parker and his wife Eliza Ann Howard, who had also been enslaved, rented a two-story home that welcomed people in need of shelter.
10:55 Tracy V. Wilson? Coming up, we'll talk about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. But first, we'll pause for a sponsor break.
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13:35 Holly Frey? We've all done it. Tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends. Not to cancel them, not to hype them more,
14:20 Holly Frey? but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
14:44 Holly Frey? On September 18th, 1850, 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 1793. But the 1850 Act, part of the Compromise of 1850, 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 1793 law useless. This Act stated that if a person, quote, "held to service or labor," i.e. enslaved, were to escape,
15:28 Holly Frey? 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 same 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 a summary manner." The law clearly stated that the testimony
16:12 Holly Frey? 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.
16:24 Tracy V. Wilson? The Act also noted that it was illegal to help anyone escape from enslavement. This is relevant to today's story, so we'll 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 persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process, as aforesaid, 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 persons lawfully assisting, as aforesaid,
17:07 Tracy V. Wilson? when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and declared, or shall aid, abet, 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 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 for either of said offenses be subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000 and imprisonment not exceeding six months.
17:53 Holly Frey? 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 1849. And so on September 9th, 1851, 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, invoked the Fugitive Slave Act, and asked for warrants to get Beulah, Ford, and the Hammonds, and he received those warrants. The US Deputy Marshal, H. H. Klein, was authorized to arrest the men, and two Philadelphia police officers, John Agen and Thompson Tully, were brought onto the team by Gorsuch to back up Klein.
18:36 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 1 a.m. on September 11th, they had all arrived at Gap and set out for Christiana together on foot. In addition to the men already mentioned, the party included Gorsuch's son Dickinson and his nephew Joshua, as well as three other men acquainted with the Gorsuch's family. Those were Nathan Nelson, Thomas Pierce, and Nicholas Hutchings. They also had a guide who met them as they approached Christiana. That guide, William Paget, had
19:19 Tracy V. Wilson? given Gorsuch 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.
19:30 Holly Frey? That is probably because Paget, who was a white farmhand, eventually was revealed to have been a person who would feign to be friendly to...
19:42 Holly Frey? Black people who had escaped 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 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 Gorsuch posse, many people in Philadelphia were, and they had been organizing their own counterattack. There had been numerous instances in the 12 months since the Fugitive Slave Act was
20:26 Holly Frey? passed of people being taken from Christiana, 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 residents on very high alert. Since the passing of the 1850 fugitive slave law, a resistance force against kidnappers who planned to invoke it had 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 Klein as he made his way through Pennsylvania. And Samuel also got close enough to the Gorsuch gang to gather all of the pertinent
21:09 Holly Frey? information about their plans at Parker's farm, and then he carried that information back to the organized group.
21:17 Tracy V. Wilson? When the Gorsuch posse approached the house, they found the group who had assembled to keep them from kidnapping anyone, but the Gorsuch group yelled for the escaped men to come out. When nobody did, there were 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 and Joshua Hammond.
21:52 Holly Frey? After making several demands that the escaped men come out, Gorsuch 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 Klein pursued him, although then Klein fell when he encountered an obstacle in the yard. Several other members of Gorsuch's group entered the house through the open door and continued their demands that the sought-after men come down. But again, nobody did.
22:23 Holly Frey? 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 and yelled up at the second-story windows. Although Klein, 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 Gorsuch party once again asserted their legal right to be there and to pursue the men who had escaped enslavement.
23:02 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 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 of the escaped men, but they did not.
23:45 Tracy V. Wilson? 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.
23:59 Holly Frey? According to accounts relayed later, Klein took off into an adjacent field, calling to the other members of the Gorsuch group to retreat. But Edward Gorsuch would not and was adamant that he was going to retrieve his property. The tension of the situation escalated and soon there was a violent melee. This whole thing, from when Gorsuch 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. We will probably never know exactly how everything played out.
24:36 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 Stuff You Missed in History Class going.
24:51 Speaker 01 In military families, service is more than a job. It's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military.
25:15 Holly Frey? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends.
25:57 Holly Frey? Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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27:29 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter,
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28:34 Holly Frey? Here's how the early 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 Christiana Lancaster County yesterday morning. Mr. Gorsuch, the owner of the slave, was killed and his son mortally wounded. Several other persons were injured. The officers were driven from the ground by 80 armed Negroes." That number of armed black men was wildly different from account to account. And when I say wildly, some accounts say 15, some say 200. That's a big range. The largest end of the scale actually probably wasn't realistic, given the number of black
29:19 Holly Frey? 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 number closer to like, maybe two or three dozen men.
29:41 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 with him, rather than a son and a nephew. One update to this story stated that Dickinson Gorsuch had also been killed. That was incorrect, although he did sustain serious injuries. The 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, things they could just pick up on really short notice.
30:25 Tracy V. Wilson? Some accounts stated that a horn had been blown in the house, which called between 60 and 80 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 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 write-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 were eager to arrest someone that they could charge with the murder.
31:08 Tracy V. Wilson? It was also reported that the murderer was definitely one of the men who had escaped from Gorsuch in Maryland.
31:16 Holly Frey? Two weeks later, the New York Times ran an account of the events at Christiana as told by Gorsuch's son, stating, quote, "It is written by the son of Mr. Gorsuch, who is a clergyman and a man of good standing and character. His narrative is undoubtedly reliable and presents an 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 in 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 according to Dickinson Gorsuch's version of the story,
31:59 Holly Frey? as relayed by the New York Times, when a Quaker white man rode up on a horse, this was Casner 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 threatened the officers after he refused to help them apprehend the fugitive men.
32:25 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 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 law, which enjoins the performance of military duty, but it would scarcely tolerate an armed attempt
33:09 Tracy V. Wilson? on the part of the Quakers to prevent anybody else from obeying the law."
33:13 Holly Frey? 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 that Hanway gave to the Gorsuch 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 changed in some instances. So US Deputy Marshal Henry Klein, who, as we've been talking about, was part of the
33:56 Holly Frey? crew that Gorsuch wrote into Christiano 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, 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 a habitual liar, a known kidnapper of black people for his own benefit, and a completely untrustworthy person.
34:38 Tracy V. Wilson? 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 black men. There were a total of 39 indictments, but not all of those named on the indictments could be found. It was believed those outside the 28 in custody had escaped. To be clear, there were a lot more arrests than that because once the dust had settled, self-professed “slave catchers” came out of the woodwork. They captured any person of color they saw in the hopes that they could profit from it.
35:20 Tracy V. Wilson? But other than the 31 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 a cell in the two months and 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.
35:50 Holly Frey? The plan was to try all of these people for treason against the United States. If 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 ringleader of the group that overtook Gorsuch and his crew. The thinking on the part of the prosecution was that if they could get a guilty verdict against him, a white man and a Quaker, the rest of their work was going to be easy, but this strategy backfired.
36:32 Holly Frey? Abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens was the head of the defense team. The prosecution was led by U.S. District Attorney John W. Ashmead. This trial played out over three weeks, starting November 24th and running until December 16th.
36:47 Tracy V. Wilson? The opening statement of 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, “this defendant gentleman is not here through his counsel to defend those sad deeds which disgraced the sweet and peaceful valley near Christiana on the 9th 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.
37:28 Tracy V. Wilson? His defense is simply that he was in no way a party to these outrages. 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, there are realties, a band 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,
38:10 Tracy V. Wilson? begetting dread in every household and a general sense of insecurity in every home. Treason shall consist only in levying war against the United States. Do the facts of the case sustain the charge? Sir, did you hear it? That three harmless, non-resisting Quakers and 830 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 has survived the shock.
38:51 Holly Frey? I love a little sarcasm. Uh, the prosecution saw witness after witness fail to help their case on the stand. Most of them were caught in lies, Justice Klein had been. And 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 it had actually been Gorsuch's group that had been the first to become violent. When the court proceedings concluded, the jury only deliberated for 15 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 linchpin of their entire case and their plan going forward with all of the subsequent
39:34 Holly Frey? 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 16th, 1852.
39:54 Tracy V. Wilson? The result of the trial incensed many Southerners who felt it was always unfairly biased because it took place in Philadelphia. In 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 Hanway, or any 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 that's sometimes called the first battle of the Civil War.
40:33 Holly Frey? In a surprising coda to this story, Edward Gorsuch's son Dickinson, who, as we mentioned, had been really seriously injured, was nursed back to health by a Christiana Quaker named Levi Ponnol. And over the course of receiving Ponnol's care, it appears that Dickinson actually had a fairly significant change of heart regarding this 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 citizens up until his death in 1882.
41:08 Tracy V. Wilson? William Parker relocated to Buxton, Canada 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. In 1866, The Atlantic Monthly published his life story in two parts.
41:27 Holly Frey? That is the piece which we quoted from a good bit in the early part of this. And I will say, there are some
41:35 Holly Frey? 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 the four men whose escape started the whole thing, Noah Beulie, Nelson Ford, 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.
42:05 Tracy V. Wilson? Bum, bum, bum.
42:06 Holly Frey? Yeah.
42:09 Holly Frey? This story is 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, 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 hay. You make the dullest and hardest tasks go by so fast. I honestly don't know how I would make it through my longest workdays without your help. About a year ago, I got divorced. I remember your divorce ranches episode came out about a month after the topic had
42:52 Holly Frey? 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, 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 are doing well. Since my divorce, I've had a second Spotify profile sitting around collecting dust. When you released your episode on Jon Arison, I was struck with inspiration. I sent my grandma up on Spotify, and I'm happy to report that she's becoming an avid listener. She's been telling all her elderly friends about your show and was thrilled to discover
43:35 Holly Frey? a distant personal connection to Jon Arison. One of her lifelong friends has Icelandic ancestry and claims, as many do, Jon Arison as a direct ancestor. I have attached my pet tax, two bambino sphinxes. The big Siamese is Quark, my fat little boy, built like 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 Evie 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 always makes me happy. And the horses are absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing this story with us.
44:18 Holly Frey? 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 [email protected] . If you would like to subscribe to the show and you haven't gotten around to it yet, I promise it's so easy. You can do that on the iHeart Radio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
44:50 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
45:04 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx, listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Previous Pope Leo XIII Next Behind the Scenes Minis: Pope Riot Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated