"TREASON AT CHRISTIANA."
Having inserted the Fugitive Slave Bill in these records of the
Underground Rail Road, one or two slave cases will doubtless suffice to
illustrate the effect of its passage on the public mind, and the colored
people in particular. The deepest feelings of loathing, contempt and
opposition were manifested by the opponents of Slavery on every hand.
Anti-slavery papers, lecturers, preachers, etc., arrayed themselves
boldly against it on the ground of its inhumanity and violation of the
laws of God.
On the other hand, the slave-holders South, and their pro-slavery
adherents in the North demanded the most abject obedience from all
parties, regardless of conscience or obligation to God. In order to
compel such obedience, as well as to prove the practicability of the
law, unbounded zeal daily marked the attempt on the part of
slave-holders and slave-catchers to refasten the fetters on the limbs of
fugitives in different parts of the North, whither they had escaped.
In this dark hour, when colored men's rights were so insecure, as a
matter of self-defence, they felt called upon to arm themselves and
resist all kidnapping intruders, although clothed with the authority of
wicked law. Among the most exciting cases tending to justify this
course, the following may be named:
James Hamlet was the first slave case who was summarily arrested under
the Fugitive Slave Law, and sent back to bondage from New York.
William and Ellen Craft were hotly pursued to Boston by hunters from
Georgia.
Adam Gibson, a free colored man, residing in Philadelphia, was arrested,
delivered into the hands of his alleged claimants, by commissioner
Edward D. Ingraham, and hurried into Slavery.
Euphemia Williams (the mother of six living children),--her case excited
much interest and sympathy.
Shadrach was arrested and rescued in Boston.
Hannah Dellum and her child were returned to Slavery from Philadelphia.
Thomas Hall and his wife were pounced upon at midnight in Chester
county, beaten and dragged off to Slavery, etc.
And, as if gloating over their repeated successes, and utterly
regardless of all caution, about one year after the passage of this
nefarious bill, a party of slave-hunters arranged for a grand capture at
Christiana.
One year from the passage of the law, at a time when alarm and
excitement were running high, the most decided stand was taken at
Christiana, in the State of Pennsylvania, to defeat the law, and defend
freedom. Fortunately for the fugitives the plans of the slave-hunters
and officials leaked out while arrangements were making in Philadelphia
for the capture, and, information being sent to the Anti-slavery office,
a messenger was at once dispatched to Christiana to put all persons
supposed to be in danger on their guard.
Among those thus notified, were brave hearts, who did not believe in
running away from slave-catchers. They resolved to stand up for the
right of self-defence. They loved liberty and hated Slavery, and when
the slave-catchers arrived, they were prepared for them. Of the contest,
on that bloody morning, we have copied a report, carefully written at
the time, by C.M. Burleigh, editor of the "Pennsylvania Freeman," who
visited the scene of battle, immediately after it was over, and
doubtless obtained as faithful an account of all the facts in the case,
as could then be had.
"Last Thursday morning, (the 11th inst,), a peaceful
neighborhood in the borders of Lancaster county, was made the
scene of a bloody battle, resulting from an attempt to capture
seven colored men as fugitive slaves. As the reports of the
affray which came to us were contradictory, and having good
reason to believe that those of the daily press were grossly
one-sided and unfair, we repaired to the scene of the tragedy,
and, by patient inquiry and careful examination, endeavored to
learn the real facts. To do this, from the varying and
conflicting statements which we encountered, scarcely two of
which agreed in every point, was not easy; but we believe the
account we give below, as the result of these inquiries, is
substantially correct.
Very early on the 11th inst. a party of slave-hunters went into
a neighborhood about two miles west of Christiana, near the
eastern border of Lancaster county, in pursuit of fugitive
slaves. The party consisted of Edward Gorsuch, his son,
Dickerson Gorsuch, his nephew, Dr. Pearce, Nicholas Hutchins,
and others, all from Baltimore county, Md., and one Henry H.
Kline, a notorious slave-catching constable from Philadelphia,
who had been deputized by Commissioner Ingraham for this
business. At about day-dawn they were discovered lying in an
ambush near the house of one William Parker, a colored man, by
an inmate of the house, who had started for his work. He fled
back to the house, pursued by the slave-hunters, who entered the
lower part of the house, but were unable to force their way into
the upper part, to which the family had retired. A horn was
blown from an upper window; two shots were fired, both, as we
believe, though we are not certain, by the assailants, one at
the colored man who fled into the house, and the other at the
inmates, through the window. No one was wounded by either. A
parley ensued. The slave-holder demanded his slaves, who he said
were concealed in the house. The colored men presented
themselves successively at the window, and asked if they were
the slaves claimed; Gorsuch said, that neither of them was his
slave. They told him that they were the only colored men in the
house, and were determined never to be taken alive as slaves.
Soon the colored people of the neighborhood, alarmed by the
horn, began to gather, armed with guns, axes, corn-cutters, or
clubs. Mutual threatenings were uttered by the two parties. The
slave-holders told the blacks that resistance would be useless,
as they had a party of thirty men in the woods near by. The
blacks warned them again to leave, as they would die before they
would go into Slavery.
From an hour to an hour and a half passed in these parleyings,
angry conversations, and threats; the blacks increasing by new
arrivals, until they probably numbered from thirty to fifty,
most of them armed in some way. About this time, Castner
Hanaway, a white man, and a Friend, who resided in the
neighborhood, rode up, and was soon followed by Elijah Lewis,
another Friend, a merchant, in Cooperville, both gentlemen
highly esteemed as worthy and peaceable citizens. As they came
up, Kline, the deputy marshal, ordered them to aid him, as a
United States officer, to capture the fugitive slaves. They
refused of course, as would any man not utterly destitute of
honor, humanity, and moral principle, and warned the assailants
that it was madness for them to attempt to capture fugitive
slaves there, or even to remain, and begged them if they wished
to save their own lives, to leave the ground. Kline replied, "Do
you really think so?" "Yes," was the answer, "the sooner you
leave, the better, if you would prevent bloodshed." Kline then
left the ground, retiring into a very safe distance into a
cornfield, and toward the woods. The blacks were so exasperated
by his threats, that, but for the interposition of the two white
Friends, it is very doubtful whether he would have escaped
without injury. Messrs. Hanaway and Lewis both exerted their
influence to dissuade the colored people from violence, and
would probably have succeeded in restraining them, had not the
assailing party fired upon them. Young Gorsuch asked his father
to leave, but the old man refused, declaring, as it is said and
believed, that he would "go to hell, or have his slaves."
Finding they could do nothing further, Hanaway and Lewis both
started to leave, again counselling the slave-hunters to go
away, and the colored people to peace, but had gone but a few
rods, when one of the inmates of the house attempted to come out
at the door. Gorsuch presented his revolver, ordering him back.
The colored man replied, "You had better go away, if you don't
want to get hurt," and at the same time pushed him aside and
passed out. Maddened at this, and stimulated by the question of
his nephew, whether he would "take such an insult from a d----d
nigger," Gorsuch fired at the colored man, and was followed by
his son and nephew, who both fired their revolvers. The fire was
returned by the blacks, who made a rush upon them at the same
time. Gorsuch and his son fell, the one dead the other wounded.
The rest of the party after firing their revolvers, fled
precipitately through the corn and to the woods, pursued by some
of the blacks. One was wounded, the rest escaped unhurt. Kline,
the deputy marshal, who now boasts of his miraculous escape from
a volley of musket-balls, had kept at a safe distance, though
urged by young Gorsuch to stand by his father and protect him,
when he refused to leave the ground. He of course came off
unscathed. Several colored men were wounded, but none severely.
Some had their hats or their clothes perforated with bullets;
others had flesh wounds. They said that the Lord protected them,
and they shook the bullets from their clothes. One man found
several shot in his boot, which seemed to have spent their force
before reaching him, and did not even break the skin. The
slave-holders having fled, several neighbors, mostly Friends and
anti-slavery men, gathered to succor the wounded and take charge
of the dead. We are told that Parker himself protected the
wounded man from his excited comrades, and brought water and a
bed from his own house for the invalid, thus showing that he was
as magnanimous to his fallen enemy as he was brave in the
defence of his own liberty. The young man was then removed to a
neighboring house, where the family received him with the
tenderest kindness and paid him every attention, though they
told him in Quaker phrase, that "they had no unity with his
cruel business," and were very sorry to see him engaged in it.
He was much affected by their kindness, and we are told,
expressed his regret that he had been thus engaged, and his
determination, if his life was spared, never again to make a
similar attempt. His wounds are very severe, and it is feared
mortal. All attempts to procure assistance to capture the
fugitive slaves failed, the people in the neighborhood either
not relishing the business of slave-catching, or at least, not
choosing to risk their lives in it. There was a very great
reluctance felt to going even to remove the body and the wounded
man, until several abolitionists and Friends had collected for
that object, when others found courage to follow on. The
excitement caused by this most melancholy affair is very great
among all classes. The abolitionists, of course, mourn the
occurrence, while they see in it a legitimate fruit of the
Fugitive Slave Law, just such a harvest of blood as they had
long feared that the law would produce, and which they had
earnestly labored to prevent. We believe that they alone, of all
classes of the nation, are free from responsibility for its
occurrence, having wisely foreseen the danger, and faithfully
labored to avert it by removing its causes, and preventing the
inhuman policy which has hurried on the bloody convulsion.
The enemies of the colored people, are making this the occasion
of fresh injuries, and a more bitter ferocity toward that
defenceless people, and of new misrepresentation and calumnies
against the abolitionists.
The colored people, though the great body of them had no
connection with this affair, are hunted like partridges upon the
mountains, by the relentless horde which has been poured forth
upon them, under the pretense of arresting the parties concerned
in the fight. When we reached Christiana, on Friday afternoon,
we found that the Deputy-Attorney Thompson, of Lancaster, was
there, and had issued warrants, upon the depositions of Kline
and others, for the arrest of all suspected persons. A company
of police were scouring the neighborhood in search of colored
people, several of whom were seized while at their work near by,
and brought in.
CAstner Hanaway and Elijah Lewis, hearing that warrants were
issued against them, came to Christiana, and voluntarily gave
themselves up, calm and strong in the confidence of their
innocence. They, together with the arrested colored men, were
sent to Lancaster jail that night.
The next morning we visited the ground of the battle, and the
family where young Gorsuch now lives, and while there, we saw a
deposition which he had just made, that he believed no white
persons were engaged in the affray, beside his own party. As he
was on the ground during the whole controversy, and deputy
Marshall Kline had discreetly run off into the corn-field,
before the fighting began, the hireling slave-catcher's eager
and confident testimony against our white friends, will, we
think, weigh lightly with impartial men.
On returning to Christiana, we found that the United States
Marshal from the city, had arrived at that place, accompanied by
Commissioner Ingraham, Mr. Jones, a special commissioner of the
United States, from Washington, the U.S. District Attorney
Ashmead, with forty-five U.S. Marines from the Navy Yard, and a
posse of about forty of the City Marshal's police, together with
a large body of special constables, eager for such a manhunt,
from Columbia and Lancaster and other places. This crowd divided
into parties, of from ten to twenty-five, and scoured the
country, in every direction, for miles around, ransacking the
houses of the colored people, and captured every colored man
they could find, with several colored women, and two other white
men. Never did our heart bleed with deeper pity for the peeled
and persecuted colored people, than when we saw this troop let
loose upon them, and witnessed the terror and distress which its
approach excited in families, wholly innocent of the charges
laid against them."
On the other hand, a few extracts from the editorials of some of the
leading papers, will suffice to show the state of public feeling at that
time, and the dreadful opposition abolitionists and fugitives had to
contend with.
From one of the leading daily journals of Philadelphia, we copy as
follows:
"There can be no difference of opinion concerning the shocking
affair which occurred at Christiana, on Thursday, the resisting
of a law of Congress by a band of armed negroes, whereby the
majesty of the Government was defied and life taken in one and
the same act. There is something more than a mere ordinary,
something more than even a murderous, riot in all this. It is an
act of insurrection, we might, considering the peculiar class
and condition of the guilty parties, almost call it a servile
insurrection--if not also one of treason. Fifty, eighty, or a
hundred persons, whether white or black, who are deliberately in
arms for the purpose of resisting the law, even the law for the
recovery of fugitive slaves, are in the attitude of levying war
against the United States; and doubly heavy becomes the crime of
murder in such a case, and doubly serious the accountability of
all who have any connection with the act as advisers,
suggesters, countenancers, or accessories in any way whatever."
In those days, the paper from which this extract is taken, represented
the Whig party and the more moderate and respectable class of citizens.
The following is an extract from a leading democratic organ of
Philadelphia:
"We will not, however, insult the reader by arguing that which
has not been heretofore doubted, and which is not doubted now,
by ten honest men in the State, and that is that the
abolitionists are implicated in the Christiana murder. All the
ascertained facts go to show that they were the real, if not the
chief instigators. White men are known to harbor fugitives, in
the neighborhood of Christiana, and these white men are known to
be abolitionists, known to be opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law,
and _known_ to be the warm friends of William F. Johnston,
(Governor of the State of Pennsylvania). And, as if to clinch
the argument, no less than three white men are now in the
Lancaster prison, and were arrested as accomplices in the
dreadful affair on the morning of the eleventh. And one of these
white men was committed on a charge of high treason, on Saturday
last, by United States Commissioner Ingraham."
Another daily paper of opposite politics thus spake:
"The unwarrantable outrage committed last week, at Christiana,
Lancaster county, is a foul stain upon the fair name and fame of
our State. We are pleased to see that the officers of the
Federal and State Governments are upon the tracks of those who
were engaged in the riot, and that several arrests have been
made.
We do not wish to see the poor misled blacks who participated in
the affair, suffer to any great extent, for they were but tools.
The men who are really chargeable with treason against the
United States Government, and with the death of Mr. Gorsuch, an
estimable citizen of Maryland, are unquestionably _white_, with
hearts black enough to incite them to the commission of any
crime equal in atrocity to that committed in Lancaster county.
Pennsylvania has now but one course to pursue, and that is to
aid, and warmly aid, the United States in bringing to condign
punishment, every man engaged in the riot. She owes it to
herself and to the Union. Let her in this resolve, be just and
fearless."
From a leading neutral daily paper the following is taken: "One would
suppose from the advice of forcible resistance, so familiarly given by
the abolitionists, that they are quite unaware that there is any such
crime as treason recognized by the Constitution, or punished with death
by the laws of the United States. We would remind them, that not only is
there such a crime, but that there is a solemn decision of the Supreme
Court, that all who are concerned in a conspiracy which ripens into
treason, whether present or absent from the scene of actual violence,
are involved in the same liabilities as the immediate actors. If they
engage in the conspiracy and stimulate the treason, they may keep their
bodies from the affray without saving their necks from a halter.
It would be very much to the advantage of society, if an example could
be made of some of these persistent agitators, who excite the ignorant
and reckless to treasonable violence, from which they themselves shrink,
but who are, not only in morals, but in law, equally guilty and equally
amenable to punishment with the victims of their inflammatory counsels."
A number of the most influential citizens represented the occurrence to
the Governor as follows:
"To the Governor of Pennsylvania:
The undersigned, citizens of Pennsylvania, respectfully
represent:
That citizens of a neighboring State have been cruelly
assassinated by a band of armed outlaws at a place not more than
three hours' journey distant from the seat of Government and
from the commercial metropolis of the State:
That this insurrectionary movement in one of the most populous
parts of the State has been so far successful as to overawe the
local ministers of justice and paralyze the power of the law:
That your memorialists are not aware that 'any military force'
has been sent to the seat of insurrection, or that the civil
authority has been strengthened by the adoption of any measures
suited to the momentous crisis.
They, therefore, respectfully request the chief executive
magistrate of Pennsylvania to take into consideration the
necessity of vindicating the outraged laws, and sustaining the
dignity of the Commonwealth on this important and melancholy
occasion."
Under this high pressure of public excitement, threatening and alarm
breathed so freely on every hand, that fugitive slaves and their friends
in this region of Pennsylvania at least, were compelled to pass through
an hour of dreadful darkness--an ordeal extremely trying. The
authorities of the United States, as well as the authorities of the
State of Pennsylvania and Maryland, were diligently making arrests
wherever a suspected party could be found, who happened to belong in the
neighborhood of Christiana.
In a very short time the following persons were in custody: J. Castner
Hanaway, Elijah Lewis, Joseph Scarlett, Samuel Kendig, Henry Spins,
George Williams, Charles Hunter, Wilson Jones, Francis Harkins, Benjamin
Thomson, William Brown (No. 1), William Brown (No. 2), John Halliday,
Elizabeth Mosey, John Morgan, Joseph Berry, John Norton, Denis Smith,
Harvey Scott, Susan Clark, Tansy Brown, Eliza Brown, Eliza Parker,
Hannah Pinckney, Robert Johnson, Miller Thompson, Isaiah Clark, and
Jonathan Black.
These were not all, but sufficed for a beginning; at least it made an
interesting entertainment for the first day's examination; and although
there were two or three non-resistant Quakers, and a number of poor
defenceless colored women among those thus taken as prisoners, still it
seemed utterly impossible for the exasperated defenders of Slavery to
divest themselves of the idea, that this heroic deed, in self-defence,
on the part of men who felt that their liberties were in danger, was
anything less than actually levying war against the United States.
Accordingly, therefore, the hearing gravely took place at Lancaster. On
the side of the Commonwealth, the following distinguished counsel
appeared on examination: Hon. John L. Thompson, District Attorney; Wm.
B. Faulney, Esq.; Thos. E. Franklin, Esq., Attorney-General of Lancaster
county; George L. Ashmead, Esq., of Philadelphia, representative of the
United States authorities; and Hon. Robert Brent, Attorney-General of
Maryland.
For the defence--Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Reah Frazer, Messrs. Ford,
Cline, and Dickey, Esquires.
From a report of the first day's hearing we copy a short extract, as
follows:
"The excitement at Christiana, during yesterday, was very great.
Several hundred persons were present, and the deepest feeling
was manifested against the perpetrators of the outrage. At two
o'clock yesterday afternoon, the United States Marshal, Mr.
Roberts, United States District Attorney, J.H. Ashmead, Esq.,
Mr. Commissioner Ingraham, and Recorder Lee, accompanied by the
United States Marines, returned to the city. Lieut. Johnson, and
officers Lewis S. Brest, Samuel Mitchell, Charles McCully,
Samuel Neff, Jacob Albright, Robert McEwen, and ---- Perkenpine,
by direction of the United States Marshal, had charge of the
following named prisoners, who were safely lodged in Moyamensing
prison, accompanied by the Marines:--Joseph Scarlett, (white),
William Brown, Ezekiel Thompson, Isaiah Clarkson, Daniel
Caulsberry, Benjamin Pendergrass, Elijah Clark, George W.H.
Scott, Miller Thompson, and Samuel Hanson, all colored. The last
three were placed in the debtors' apartment, and the others in
the criminal apartment of the Moyamensing prison to await their
trial for treason, &c."
In alluding to the second day's doings, the Philadelphia Ledger thus
represented matters at the field of battle:
"The intelligence received last evening, represents the country
for miles around, to be in as much excitement as at any time
since the horrible deed was committed. The officers sent there
at the instance of the proper authorities are making diligent
search in every direction, and securing every person against
whom the least suspicion is attached. The police force from this
city, amounting to about sixty men, are under the marshalship of
Lieut. Ellis. Just as the cars started east, in the afternoon,
five more prisoners who were secured at a place called the Welsh
Mountains, twelve miles distant, were brought into Christiana.
They were placed in custody until such time as a hearing will
take place."
Although the government had summoned its ablest legal talent and the
popular sentiment was as a hundred to one against William Parker and his
brave comrades who had made the slave-hunter "bite the dust," most nobly
did Thaddeus Stevens prove that he was not to be cowed, that he believed
in the stirring sentiment so much applauded by the American people,
"Give me liberty, or give me death," not only for the white man but for
all men. Thus standing upon such great and invulnerable principles, it
was soon discovered that one could chase a thousand, and two put ten
thousand to flight in latter as well as in former times.
At first even the friends of freedom thought that the killing of Gorsuch
was not only wrong, but unfortunate for the cause. Scarcely a week
passed, however, before the matter was looked upon in a far different
light, and it was pretty generally thought that, if the Lord had not a
direct hand in it, the cause of Freedom at least would be greatly
benefited thereby.
And just in proportion as the masses cried, Treason! Treason! the hosts
of freedom from one end of the land to the other were awakened to
sympathize with the slave. Thousands were soon aroused to show sympathy
who had hitherto been dormant. Hundreds visited the prisoners in their
cells to greet, cheer, and offer them aid and counsel in their hour of
sore trial.
The friends of freedom remained calm even while the pro-slavery party
were fiercely raging and gloating over the prospect, as they evidently
thought of the satisfaction to be derived from teaching the
abolitionists a lesson from the scaffold, which would in future prevent
Underground Rail Road passengers from killing their masters when in
pursuit of them.
Through the efforts of the authorities three white men, and twenty-seven
colored had been safely lodged in Moyamensing prison, under the charge
of treason. The authorities, however, had utterly failed to catch the
hero, William Parker, as he had been sent to Canada, _viâ_ the
Underground Rail Road, and was thus "sitting under his own vine and fig
tree, where none dared to molest, or make him afraid."
As an act of simple justice it may here be stated that the abolitionists
and prisoners found a true friend and ally at least in one United States
official, who, by the way, figured prominently in making arrests, etc.,
namely: the United States Marshal, A.E. Roberts. In all his intercourse
with the prisoners and their friends, he plainly showed that all his
sympathies were on the side of Freedom, and not with the popular
pro-slavery sentiment which clamored so loudly against traitors and
abolitionists.
Two of his prisoners had been identified in the jail as fugitive slaves
by their owners. When the trial came on these two individuals were among
the missing. How they escaped was unknown; the Marshal, however, was
strongly suspected of being a friend of the Underground Rail Road, and
to add now, that those suspicions were founded on fact, will, doubtless,
do him no damage.
In order to draw the contrast between Freedom and Slavery, simply with a
view of showing how the powers that were acted and judged in the days of
the reign of the Fugitive Slave Law, unquestionably nothing better could
be found to meet the requirements of this issue than the charge of Judge
Kane, coupled with the indictment of the Grand Jury. In the light of the
Emancipation and the Fifteenth Amendment, they are too transparent to
need a single word of comment. Judge and jury having found the accused
chargeable with Treason, nothing remained, so far as the men were
concerned, but to bide their time as best they could in prison. Most of
them were married, and had wives and children clinging to them in this
hour of fearful looking for of judgment.