Biographical Profiles - Christiana
 Dickinson Gorsuch III (1826-1882), son of Edward Gorsuch, the Maryland slave owner who was killed at Christiana in Pennsylvania in 1851. Dickinson Gorsuch traveled with his father and a small slave-catching party and was seriously wounded during the confrontation. Nursed back to health by the Pownall family, local Christiana residents, Dickinson Gorsuch went on to inherit his father's property. His remaining slaves, however, joined the Union Army during the Civil War. Gorsuch died at the age of 56, the same age his father had been when he was killed at Christiana. |
 Edward Gorsuch (1795-1851) was a Baltimore County, Maryland farmer and slave-owner, who died on September 11, 1851 while trying to recapture four of his escaped slaves in Christiana, Pennsylvania . Although Gorsuch prided himself on what he believed was his kind treatment of his slaves, four of his younger male slaves fled the farm in 1849, fearing punishment for some stolen wheat. Over the course of two years, Gorsuch unsuccessfully attempted to recapture them. In 1851, he finally succeeded in tracking the fugitives down, confronting them with a posse of slave catchers at the home of William Parker in Christiana. An altercation ensued in which Edward Gorsuch, at the age of 56, was killed. |
 Robert Cooper Grier (1794-1870) was a Supreme Court Justice who presided over the treason trial that arose from the Christiana Resistance. Grier was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Like many from his area, he studied at Dickinson College. After an interval spent teaching, Grier pursued law. In 1848, law drew Grier to Philadelphia where he spent the rest of his life. After a tenure in Pittsburgh 's district court, in 1846, Grier accepted a nomination from President James K. Polk (unanimously backed by the United States Senate) to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He presided over the frequently forgotten treason trial of the supposed instigators of the Christiana Riot. In 1857, Grier supported Roger Brooke Taney's majority decision in the case of Scott v. Sandford (the Dred Scott Case) though he staunchly supported the Union during the war. On January 31, 1870, after suffering a course of debilitating strokes, Grier retired. |
 Castner Hanway (1821-1893) resided in Delaware and then Maryland prior to Christiana where he was a miller by trade and an inadvertent participant in the Christiana resistnace. The morning of the riot, Hanway was alerted of the escalating altercation by Elijah Lewis. He rode to the scene and refused to assist the slave catchers in capturing the slaves. After the riot, Hanway was charged with treason for his refusal. Although Hanway was charged simultaneously with many other riot participants, because Hanway was white, he was also the focal point of a host of defendants that were predominantly black. Hanway and others were acquitted. He went on to become a Quaker with abolitionist tendencies. |
 William Parker (circa 1822-????) was a militant free black man who led the resistance against Gorsuch party in the Christiana standoff. Parker was born into slavery in Maryland. Although his master was said to be comparatively “kind” Parker wanted his freedom. Not the type to long for anything, one day Parker refused to go to work in the fields. Parker's master picked up a stick to beat Parker but when the first blow fell Parker seized the stick and challenged his master. Parker wounded the man and fled, settling in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he became the charismatic center of a black defensive association, formed as a source of organized resistance to threats posed to the free black community by kidnappers. On more than one occasion, the organization beat slave catchers to drive them off. Parker harbored the Gorsuch fugitives at his home in Lancaster. When the Gorsuch party arrived to reclaim the fugitives Parker took them all to the second story of his home to resist. He repeatedly exchanged defiant threats with Kline and attempted to buy time by suggesting to the Gorsuch party that the black men in the house were not the fugitives they sought. Nevertheless, the confrontation escalated violently. Edward Gorsuch was killed and once again, Parker was forced to flee to preserve his freedom and his life. Parker was put on the underground, and with the assistance of Frederick Douglas himself, delivered into Canada . His wife and children followed shortly thereafter but not without complication. |
