Notes on "kidnappings" in the area, 1850-1851. Also unfinished notes regarding the Christiana Riot. 11 September 1851.
Unsigned. No date. [Referenced as "Pownall Journal" in Ella Forbes' But We Have No Country.]
Admin/Biographical History
The Christiana Resistance, commonly referred to as the "Christiana Riot" occurred in September of 1851 in Christiana, Pennsylvania, a borough in Lancaster County. The events known as the Christiana Resistance include an attack from slaveholders in Maryland on the inhabitants and home of William Parker a free black man living in Christiana, Pennsylvania. The slaveholders crossed the state border, and attempted claim and return the freedom seekers as their property, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
The violent confrontation resulted in the death of Edward Gorsuch, a slaveholder, and the escape of William Parker to freedom in Canada. Edward's son, Dickinson Gorsuch, was wounded and taken to the farm of Levi Pownall, where the Pownall family nursed him back to health. Historically, this event challenged the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and is considered a precursor to the Civil War.
System of Arrangement
Series 1 Manuscript and Printed Material, 1803-1955
The digital images of the manuscript and printed material are 300 dpi JPGs; the photographs are 600 dpi JPGs.
Object Name
Note
Container
Moores Memorial Library Series 1 Folder 3 Note Notes on "kidnappings" in the area, 1850-1851. Also unfinished notes regarding the Christiana Riot. 11 September 1851. Unsigned. No date. [Referenced as "Pownall Journal" in Ella Forbes' But We Have No Country.]
11 September 1851
Language
English
Object ID
Christiana S01 F03
Location of Originals
Moores Memorial Library
9 West Slokom Avenue
Christiana, PA 17509
chrlib@christianalibrary.org
610-593-6683 or 610-593-6687
Related Item Notes
Christiana Resistance Collection (CHRISTIANA RESISTANCE) https://collections.lancasterhistory.org/en/permalink/1287a022-e430-4f3f-bc97-330571018105
Access Conditions / Restrictions
The attached images have been provided for research. The original items are restricted for preservation purposes.
Copyright
The attached images may be used for research purposes only.
Please contact Moores Memorial Library for permission to publish:
Moores Memorial Library
9 West Slokom Avenue
Christiana, PA 17509
chrlib@christianalibrary.org
610-593-6683 or 610-593-6687
Credit
Christiana Resistance Collection, Series 1, Folder 3, Moores Memorial Library
Classification
CHRISTIANA RESISTANCE
Christiana S01 F03
Description Level
Folder
Custodial History
Moores Memorial Library (Christiana, Pa.) owns some of the most significant manuscript material relating to the Christiana Resistance. The staff of Moores Memorial Library, part of the Library System of Lancaster County, and the Lancaster County Historical Society worked together to arrange and preserve the collection and create a finding aid to make the materials accessible to the public.
The collection contains correspondence to and from the Pownall family regarding the incident, notes regarding kidnappings in the area from 1850-1851, photocopied pages of Dickinson Gorsuch's diary, and published accounts. An 1896 photograph shows Peter Woods and Samuel Hopkins, survivors of the riot. There are also photographs of the Christiana Riot House, the Pownall farm, and key figures in the riot and at the Treason Trials of 1851.
The staff of Moores Memorial Library, part of the Library System of Lancaster County, and the Lancaster County Historical Society worked together to arrange and preserve the collection and create a finding aid to make the materials accessible to the public. Funds for this project were provided by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) in 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-239) and index.
Contents
The Line -- The Parkers' World -- Border Justice -- Elizabeth's Story -- Baltimore -- Legal Justice -- Freedom -- Afterwards -- Appendix.
Summary
"In 1851, Elizabeth Parker, a free black child in Chester County, Pennsylvania, was bound and gagged, snatched from a local farm, and hurried off to a Baltimore slave pen. Two weeks later, her teenage sister, Rachel, was abducted from another Chester County farm. Because slave catchers could take fugitive slaves and free blacks across state lines to be sold, the border country of Pennsylvania/Maryland had become a dangerous place for most black people. In The Parker Sisters, Lucy Maddox gives an eloquent, urgent account of the tragic kidnapping of these young women. Using archival news and courtroom reports, Maddox tells the larger story of the disastrous effect of the Fugitive Slave Act on the small farming communities of Chester County and the significant, widening consequences for the state and the nation. The Parker Sisters is also a story about families whose lives and fates were deeply embedded in both the daily rounds of their community and the madness and violence consuming all of antebellum America. Maddox's account of this horrific and startling crime reveals the strength and vulnerability of the Parker sisters and the African American population, "--Amazon.com.
