Editing Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (section)

===Slavery and the Christiana incident===
{{Main|Christiana Riot}}
Pennsylvania passed its [[An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery|gradual abolition law]] in 1780.<ref>[http://www.millersville.edu/~ugrr/christiana/introduction.html Introduction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107103602/http://www.millersville.edu/~ugrr/christiana/introduction.html |date=November 7, 2007 }}, Millersville University. Retrieved December 23, 2010.</ref> The law, which freed the children of duly registered enslaved women at the age of twenty-eight, was a compromise between anti-slavery conviction and respect for white property rights.<ref>[http://www.slavenorth.com/pennsylvania.htm "Slavery in Pennsylvania"], ''Slavery in the North'' website. Retrieved December 23, 2010.</ref> By the time the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850]], Pennsylvania was effectively a free state, although it did not formally abolish slavery completely until the ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]]. It did, however, pass a [[Personal liberty laws|personal liberty law]] in 1847 that made it difficult for southerners to recover any enslaved persons who made their way into Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Turner|first=Edward Raymond|url=https://archive.org/details/negroinpennsylv01turngoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/negroinpennsylv01turngoog/page/n251 238]|title=The Negro in Pennsylvania: Slavery—servitude—freedom, 1639–1861|date=1911|publisher=American historical association|language=en}}</ref>

Lying just north of the [[Mason-Dixon line]] and bordered by the [[Susquehanna River]], which had been a traditional route from the [[Chesapeake Bay]] watershed into the heart of what became Pennsylvania, Lancaster County was a significant destination of the [[Underground Railroad]] in the antebellum years. Many residents of [[Germany|German]] descent opposed slavery and cooperated in aiding fugitive slaves. Local Lancaster County resident Charles Spotts found 17 stations.<ref>[http://muweb.millersville.edu/~twstproj/HIST272/1999F/pilpath.html pilpath] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060701182512/http://muweb.millersville.edu/%7Etwstproj/HIST272/1999F/pilpath.html |date=July 1, 2006 }}. Muweb.millersville.edu. Retrieved December 23, 2010.</ref> They included hiding places with trap doors, hidden vaults, a cave, and one with a brick tunnel leading to [[Octoraro Creek]], a tributary of the Susquehanna.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

As a wealthy Maryland wheat farmer, Edward Gorsuch had [[manumission|manumit]]ted several slaves in their 20s. He allowed his slaves to work for cash elsewhere during the slow season. Upon finding some of his wheat missing, he thought his slaves had sold it to a local farmer. His slaves Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Ford, and Joshua Hammond, fearing his bad temper, fled across the [[Mason–Dixon line]] to the farm of [[William Parker (abolitionist)|William Parker]], a [[mulatto]] free man and abolitionist who lived in [[Christiana, Pennsylvania]]. Parker, 29, was a member of the Lancaster Black Self-Protection Society and known to use violence to defend himself and the fugitive slaves who sought refuge in the area.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

Gorsuch obtained four warrants and organized four parties, which set out separately with federal marshals to recover his property—the four slaves. He was killed and others were wounded. While Gorsuch was legally entitled to recover his slaves under the [[Fugitive Slave Act]], it is not clear who precipitated the violence. The incident was variously called the "Christiana Riot", "Christiana Resistance", the "Christiana Outrage", and the "Christiana Tragedy". The [[Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society]] helped provide defense for the suspects charged in the case.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The event frightened slaveholders, as black men not only fought back but prevailed. Some feared this would inspire enslaved blacks and encourage rebelliousness. The case was prosecuted in U.S. District Court in [[Philadelphia]] under the Fugitive Slave Act, which required citizens to cooperate in the capture and return of fugitive slaves. The disturbance increased regional and racial tensions. In the North, it added to the push to abolish slavery.<ref>Clayborne Carson, Emma J. Lapsanskey-Werner, Gary B. Nash, ''The Struggle for Freedom: A History of African Americans, Volume 1 to 1877'' (Prentice Hall 2011), p. 206.</ref>

In September 1851, the [[grand jury]] returned a "true bill" (indictment) against 38 suspects, who were held at [[Moyamensing Prison]] in Philadelphia, awaiting trial. U.S. District Judge [[Robert Cooper Grier]] ruled that the men could be tried for [[treason]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christiana Treason Trial (1851) |url=https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/ugrr/case_1851.htm |access-date=June 8, 2022 |website=housedivided.dickinson.edu}}</ref>

The only person actually tried was Castner Hanway, a European-American man. On November 15, 1851, he was tried for liberating slaves taken into custody by U.S. Marshal Kline, as well as for resisting arrest, conspiracy, and treason. Hanway's responsibility for the violent events was unclear. He was reported as one of the first on the scene where Gorsuch and others of his party were attacked, and he and his horse provided cover for Dickerson Gorsuch and Dr. Pearce, who were wounded. The jury deliberated 15 minutes before returning a ''Not Guilty''. Among the five defense lawyers, recruited by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, was U.S. Congressman [[Thaddeus Stevens]], who had practiced law in Lancaster County since at least 1838.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.masthof.com/bookstore/bookstore_viewbook.php?id=1619|title=Description of ''Treason at Christiana: September 11, 1851'' by L.D. "Bud" Rettew based on contemporaneous news clippings|publisher=Masthof.com|access-date=October 9, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011221625/http://www.masthof.com/bookstore/bookstore_viewbook.php?id=1619|archive-date=October 11, 2011}}</ref>