This Day in History

 

Of course, there's 9/11 - but in 1851, there was the Christiana Riot.

Above is the site, and home of William Parker in Christiana, Pennsylvania.

Maryland landowner Edward Gorsuch came into town with a posse and a warrant under the Fugitive Slave Act.  The community successfully defended the four people who had fled, and Gorsuch was fatally wounded.

37 African Americans and one white man were arrested for treason.  The accused were defended by abolitionist congressman, Thaddeus Stevens.

The Compromise of 1850 called for the return of enslaved people but permitted a jury trial, as long as the fugitives were prohibited from testifying in their own defense.

The acquittal sent a message to the South that their "property" could not be secured in the North, and this led to a series of riots including Bleeding Kansas and the raid at Harper's Ferry, which propelled the nation towards the Civil War.