The History Channel original podcast.

>> Just a note before we start, this

episode contains depictions of racist

language and violence from the era of

American slavery. These elements are

presented in their historical context.

History this week, April 3rd, 1851.

I'm Sally Helm.

As he moves around the city of Boston,

Thomas Sims is on high alert.

He arrived here just a few weeks ago. He

escaped from slavery down in Georgia.

He'd been laboring as a brick layer,

forced to hand over all his wages to

rice planter and enslaver James Potter.

But Sims stowed away on a ship and made

it here to the north. Massachusetts

doesn't have slavery anymore, but that

doesn't mean that Thomas Sims is safe.

Late last summer, in an attempt to keep

the country from falling into civil war,

Congress passed a very controversial

law, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It

was already legal for southern enslavers

to send bounty hunters up north to try

to kidnap the people who had fled to

freedom. But many northern states had

enacted personal liberty laws to protect

these freedom seekers. Now the new

federal fugitive slave law tries to make

these state laws irrelevant. The new law

makes it much easier for a black person

to be sent south on just a slaveholder's

word with the help of US marshals. And

the law also requires individual

northerners to cooperate. It's creating

a new sense of danger all across the

north. And today, April 3rd, Thomas Sims

is the latest person to be caught.

James Potter has gotten wind that Sims

is in Boston and had a warrant drawn up

for his arrest. And now, two Boston

police officers see him on the street.

They approach him and try to pull him

into a carriage. He's got a knife and he

resists, but he's overpowered.

As he's thrown into the carriage, he

yells out, "I'm in the hands of the

kidnappers.

Scenes like this have been playing out

all across the north. But also all

across the north, people are resisting.

From New York to Philadelphia to

Cleveland, people have long been

organized in clandestine groups to trade

information and protect black men and

women from slave catchers. Here in

Boston just a few weeks ago, people

aligned with a group called the Boston

Vigilance Committee stormed the

courthouse and rescued a fugitive slave

named Shadrach Minkens. In fact, the

Boston authorities are so worried that

someone will rescue Thomas Sims that

after they lock him up in the

courthouse, they wrap the entire

building in chains.

After more than a week of court

proceedings and abolitionist protests,

Sims is marched back to the docks,

flanked by hundreds of guards. Back in

Savannah, he's whipped in the public

square. It's nearly fatal.

This kind of incident is having the

exact opposite effect that the

legislators had intended. The Fugitive

Slave Act was part of a compromise that

was supposed to keep the country from

falling into civil war. But it seems to

be making all of the tensions worse. And

a few months later, those tensions will

flare again in a major way.

At the center of it all will be a black

man who is running one of those

clandestine support groups. This time in

Pennsylvania. He's known as the Lion of

Lancaster.

His name is William Parker.

Today, William Parker takes on the slave

hunters. How does Parker find freedom

and form an armed resistance against

those who want to take it away? And when

things explode, how does America react?

I was born opposite to Queen Anne in

Anaundle County in the state of Maryland

on a plantation called Rodown. My master

was Major William. Those are the words

of William Parker. He published an

account of his life in the Atlantic

magazine in 1866.

The plantation in Maryland where he grew

up was actually not too far from the

plantation where famous abolitionist

Frederick Douglas grew up. They knew

each other. And William Parker, like all

enslaved people, grew up facing terrible

violence and fear.

No punishment was so much dreaded by the

refractory slave as selling.

>> Slave auctions were a form of death.

>> That's Kelly Carter Jackson, chair of

the Africana Studies Department at

Welssley College. They were noted as

being called the weeping time. People

weren't even allowed to say goodbye. You

know, you might be in the field and

someone's telling you, "Hey, they're

they're selling your wife right now or

your daughter's in in the wagon. She's

headed south."

>> Without a word of warning and for no

fault of their own, parents and

children, husbands and wives, brothers

and sisters were separated to meet no

more on earth.

That was their biggest fear. It wasn't

if they got food or if they had shoes or

if they got whipped. Their biggest fear

was separating families.

Dr. Iris Lelay Barnes, director of the

Hosana School Museum, said that at a

young age, 10 years old, William Parker

and his friend hear that one of these

horrifying auctions is upon them.

Everyone's whispering and they know

something's about to happen. Somebody's

about to be sold.

So, they run and hide up in the trees so

no one can find them. Parker and his

friend go into the woods and climb up a

pine tree. And that day, Parker makes a

promise to his friend and to himself

that someday they will escape. Here's

historian Christy Coleman.

>> There's a certain sense of agency that

he employs by saying, even at 10, this

is not what I want for myself.

>> Years go by as he waits for his moment.

>> How old I was then, I do not know. But

from what the neighbors told me, I must

have been about 17.

One morning, Parker simply decides he

won't go out to the fields to work. His

master confronts him, but Parker won't

relent.

>> He then picked up a stick used for an

oxad and said, "If I did not go to work,

he will whip me as sure as there was a

god in heaven."

Then he struck at me.

But I caught the stick

and we grappled and handled each other

roughly for a time. When he called for

assistance, he was badly hurt. I let go

my hold, bade him goodbye, and ran for

the woods.

I was now on the high road to liberty. I

felt as light as a feather, and seemed

to be helped onward by an irresistible

force.

William Parker knows his first stop,

Baltimore. He's traveling with his

friend Charles, who has also escaped.

>> We reached Baltimore on the following

evening between 7 and 8:00. When we

neared the city, the patrols were out,

and the difficulty was to pass them

unseen or unsuspected.

>> Patrols, slave catchers. This is the

late 1830s, well before the enhanced

fugitive slave law is passed, but the

laws already on the books are plenty

dangerous. There are free black people

working in Baltimore, but Maryland is

not a free state. William and Charles

need a disguise. I learned of a

brickyard at the entrance to the city,

and thither we went at once, took brick

dust, and threw it upon our clothes,

hats, and boots, and then walked on. By

this rules, we reached quiet quarters

without arrest or suspicion.

>> But of course, somebody confronts them.

>> They're heading north from Baltimore

when three white men stop them on the

road late at night.

>> So, where you coming from? Why you out

this late?

>> See here, said he, you are the fellows

that this advertisement calls for. At

the same time, taking the paper out of

his pocket and reading it to us.

>> Often times, the descriptions were very

vague or they could describe 100 people.

>> This wanted poster may have described

Parker or maybe not. But either way, he

has to avoid capture. He's holding a

stick to defend himself when one of the

white men moves to draw a gun.

>> He then reached for it. When I stepped

back and struck him a heavy blow on the

arm, it felt as if it was broken. I

think it was.

>> It does require a great bit of courage

to be able to stand up for yourself in a

way that says you will not take my life.

You will not steal me. You will not

apprehend me.

So when you get to someone like, "Well,

did you have to break his arm?" To me,

that just feels like the most trivial

thing because it's like he is trying to

survive.

Parker does survive. He and Charles

eventually part ways and in the summer

of 1839, William Parker reaches

Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

This is Quaker country, and the Quakers

are by and large opposed to slavery. So,

it's a pro-abolitionist region in a free

state. Parker gets a job working for a

white abolitionist, and he sees his old

acquaintance, Frederick Douglas, again.

Douglas is becoming immersed in the

anti-slavery movement.

>> I had formerly known Mr. Douglas, as a

slave in Maryland. I was therefore not

prepared for the progress he then

showed, neither for his free spoken and

manly language against slavery.

>> For the first time in his life, Parker

is experiencing freedom.

>> I felt like a bird on a pleasant May

morning. Instead of the darkness of

slavery, my eyes were almost blinded by

the light of freedom.

I struggled to come up with an anecdote

or a metaphor that kind of would compare

to that kind of liberation. But it's

also a feeling in which you were like

the other shoe could drop at any moment.

Even in a free state like Pennsylvania,

slave catching bounty hunters are on the

prowl.

They're armed to the teeth. You're

outnumbered. No questions are being

asked or answered. Who knows who's

hiring them? Who knows who's paying

them? Who knows how much they're paying

them? And they're being incentivized to

break into your home.

>> They did not hesitate to break open

doors and to enter without ceremony the

houses of colored men and when refused

admission or when a manly and determined

spirit was shown. They were present

pistols can strike and knock down men

and women indiscriminately.

>> They're saying, "No, you're making a

mistake. They don't care." families are

left to wonder what happened to their

loved ones. Sometimes it's a long time

before they find out what happened. And

there's not really a policing force

that's going to sort of stop that or,

you know, put that at bay. And so these

black communities really have to become

their own policing forces.

Freedom seekers from the south and free

black people in the north are living

together in places like Lancaster,

putting down roots, working jobs, having

families, but they know that they are

not safe. They need to band together to

protect themselves. And that's exactly

what William Parker decides to do.

A number of us had formed an

organization for mutual protection

against slaveholders and kidnappers and

had resolved to prevent any of our

brethren being taken back into slavery

at the risk of our own lives.

>> He starts the Lancaster Black

Self-Protection Society. The whole goal

is to protect you from the violence of

slavery, from the snare of the slave

catcher.

The Lancaster Black Self-P Protection

Society. It's made up of men and women,

white and black. Their rationale was

simple. Slavery starts with violence.

Slavery is sustained with violence.

Slavery will only be overthrown with

violence. The group wants to make sure

that no one in Lancaster will be

kidnapped and brought back to slavery.

In the first big incident that Parker

writes about, they hear that a man in

the community has been arrested and is

going to be sent south, leaving his wife

and children behind. So, they decide to

show up at the courthouse and try to

free him. It's a fight.

Bricks, stones, and sticks fell in. We

fought across the road and back again.

And I thought our brains would be

knocked out.

When the whites, who were too numerous

for us, commenced making arrest, they

got me fast several times. But I

succeeded in getting away.

My friends now said that I got myself

into a bad difficulty and that my arrest

would follow. In this, they were

mistaken.

>> The man that they've been trying to

protect is eventually saved. And William

Parker is not arrested because the

authorities don't know who he is. He's

just known as the Lion of Lancaster.

>> Yeah, he's Batman. But they're keeping

the secret, right? They're keeping the

secret.

>> All through the 1840s, the Lion of

Lancaster is busy. He's protecting his

community by whatever means necessary.

One night, Parker is at a friend's home

when three slave cutters barge in trying

to arrest him or seemingly any black

person they could find.

>> After banding a few words, he drew his

pistol upon me. Before he could bring

the weapon to bear, I seized a pair of

heavy tongs

and struck him a violent blow across the

face and neck, which knocked him down.

He lay for a few minutes senseless, but

afterwards rose and walked out of the

house without a word.

>> Sometime later, Parker and six men are

in hot pursuit of a group of kidnappers.

They find out which tavern they're

staying in and knock on the front door.

>> The landlord demanded to know if we were

white or colored. I told him colored. He

then told us to be gone or he would blow

out our brains. They decide to knock on

the door again.

>> I pretended that we wanted something to

drink. He put his head out the window

and threatened again to shoot us.

>> Parker is not deterred. He breaks down

the door.

>> As soon as the door flew open, a

kidnapper shot at us and the ball lodged

in my ankle, bringing me to the ground.

But I soon rose and my comrade then

firing on them. They took to their

heels.

The next day, my ankle was very painful.

With a knife, I extracted the ball, but

kept the wound a secret. As long before

we learned that for our own security, it

was best not to let such things be

generally known.

>> The lion of Lancaster makes it through

the 1840s without being found out. He

also meets his wife, Eliza. She too

escaped slavery in Maryland, and she

becomes a key member of the

Self-Production Society. And not long

after they marry, they get word about a

new crackdown from a new law, the

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

It's signed by President Millard

Filillmore, and it's part of this whole

group of laws that is known as the

Compromise of 1850.

Conquerors can see that the country is

breaking apart and this compromise is

their attempt to fix that. And

Southerners are angry that escaped

freedom-seeking slaves can find refuge

in the north. Hence this law. It makes

it so that a group of federal

commissioners can really easily send

anyone accused of being a fugitive slave

back to the South. You don't get to go

before a jury. Sworn statements from two

men are all the evidence that's needed.

And there's also a financial incentive.

The person deciding the case gets double

the money if they decide to send someone

back to slavery rather than declaring

them free. And if any free northerners

refuse to help with slave catching

operations, they will be arrested.

States like Pennsylvania had felt

relatively safe, but this law changes

that. Under the pretext of enforcing the

fugitive slave law, the slaveholders did

not hesitate to violate all other laws

made for the good government and

protection of society and converted the

old state of Pennsylvania. So long the

hope of fleeing bondmen wearied and

heartbroken into a common hunting ground

for their human prey.

>> Southern slaveholders are ready to use

this new law to their advantage.

Take Edward Gorsuch.

He has been trying to recapture four men

who escaped from his plantation in

Maryland. He's been trying to track them

down himself, but now he has the power

of the federal government behind him.

And then Gorsuch learns that the four

men are staying in the town of

Christianana, Pennsylvania.

They're sheltering in the home of

someone named William Parker.

Edward Gorsuch, Maryland plantation

owner and enslaver, goes to Philadelphia

to get a warrant and enlist a US marshal

so that he can track down these four

men.

He knows where he's going, who he's

looking for, and and they put together a

little posi, and they think, "Oh, this

is going to be no big deal. When I get

there, I'll just talk them out of it.

They'll come along peacefully. No big

deal." Gorsuch sets off along with his

son, a US marshal named Henry Klene, and

a few other neighbors and relatives.

Meanwhile, the Lion of Lancaster, has

gotten word that they're coming.

September 11th, 1851.

Gorsuch and his posi arrive in

Christian.

They show up that morning, knock on the

door. We're here. We have a warrant for

the capture of these people. And Parker

is like, "Sorry, doesn't mean anything

to me."

>> I then told him to take another step and

I'll break his neck. He again said, "I

am the United States Marshal." I told

him I didn't care for him or the United

States.

>> William throws him off and says, "I

don't care about that. I have no

country. This is what we believe and

this is what we do. If you do this, this

is what's going to happen." Two of the

four men that Gorsuch is looking for are

inside the house. So is Parker's wife,

Eliza, plus her sister and her sister's

husband, along with other members of the

self-p protection society.

>> I told them all not to be afraid nor

give up to any slaveholder, but to fight

until death.

>> Gorsuch and Klene barge into the house,

and Parker addresses them from the top

of his staircase. The men they seek are

on the second floor.

>> Mr. The Gorsuch then said, "You have my

property." To which I replied, "Go in

the room down there and see if there's

anything there belonging to you. There

are beds in the bureau, chairs, and

other things. Then go out to the barn.

There you'll find a cow and some hogs.

See if any of them are yours."

>> At some point in the ensuing argument,

Parker throws a fishing gig down the

stairs. It's a kind of pitchfork.

And Gorsuch and Klene run out of the

house.

Parker then barricades the door and

everybody takes positions at windows

around the house, including his wife.

>> And she's like, you know, babe, you want

me to sound the alarm? I will sound the

alarm. Like, I think we should sound the

alarm. The alarm. The society members

have a pre-established signal for

danger. It's a horn. Maybe a ram's horn.

Eliza Parker takes her position at the

window and blows.

When the horn sounded from the Garrett

window, one of the ruffians asked the

others what it meant. And Klein said to

me, "What do you mean by blowing that

horn?" I did not answer.

>> They're like, "What's going on? What's

going on?" They start shooting at the

window, laying out all their bullets

into the window.

My wife then went down on her knees and

drawing her head and body below the

range of the window. The horn resting on

the seal, blew blast after blast while

the shots pour thick and fast around

her. The only thing that saves Eliza is

that it's a stone house and she is

hiding beneath the window seal so that

she won't get hit.

>> Then Corsich and his posi turn their

attention back to William Parker. While

I was leaning out the window, Klein

fired a pistol at me, but the shot went

too high. The ball broke the glass just

above my head.

>> Parker fires back

and grazes Gorsuch's shoulder.

Then, of course, the marshall says,

"We're going to get a hundred men here."

Thinking that's really going to scare

them, but he's making it up. They're

like, "Not a 100 people in miles from

here. We know that." I said, "See here.

When you go to Lancaster, don't bring a

100 men. Bring 500. It'll take all the

men in Lancaster to change our purpose

or take us alive."

>> It's now around 700 a.m. and more and

more people are showing up. Some to

support the marshall and some responding

to Eliza's signal.

>> They describe the mist rising up out of

the valley. So, you've got people

emerging from the crowd, surrounding the

house and surrounding the Gorsuch party.

>> The first men to engage Gorsuch and his

party are Quakers, white men who live

side by side with the formerly enslaved

people in the region, Elijah Lewis and

Castner Hanway.

>> And Castner Hanway was like, "Why are

you here?" Elijah Lewis is we don't take

kindly to kidnappers here. Klene then

shows his warrant. Castner Hanway reads

it and then turns, you know, basically

says, "I'm not here to help you."

>> Remember, according to the new fugitive

slave law, US citizens are legally

required to help capture escaped slaves

when asked, but these two Quakers

refuse.

>> Marshall tries to deputize him and

they're like, "Look, you know what? You

should not be messing with these people.

You going to get hurt."

>> Edward Gorsuch is still emphatic. He's

still like, "No, I'm entitled. The law

says, the state says these are my

property."

I then walked up to where he stood, his

arms resting on the gate, trembling as

if afflicted by Pauly, and laid my hand

on his shoulder, saying, "I have seen

pistols before today."

Gorsuch's son, standing nearby, decides

to taunt Parker with a slur, and Parker

says he'll knock the man's teeth down

his throat.

>> At this, he fired upon me, and I ran up

to him and knocked the pistol out of his

hand when he let the other one fall and

ran in the field.

>> William Parker's brother-in-law shoots

at Gorsuch's son as he runs. Then Samuel

Thompson, one of the men that Gorsuch

had enslaved, joins the confrontation.

Old man, you better go home to Maryland,

said Samuel. You had better give up and

come home with me, said the old man.

>> Thompson smacks Gorsuch with the butt of

his gun

>> and brought him to his knees. Gorsuch

rose, a signal to his men.

>> And then it it all pops off.

At this time, all the white men opened

fire and we rushed upon them when they

turned, threw down their guns and ran

away.

>> Edward Gorsuch is being beaten up by his

enslaved property. These four men, they

pounce on him, they overtake him.

>> I saw as many as three at a time

fighting with him. Sometimes he was on

his knees, then his back, and again his

feet would be where his head should be.

It doesn't take long. It's maybe 15, 20

minutes before everything stops. The

riot, so-called, was now entirely ended.

The elder Gorsuch was dead, and his son

and nephew were both wounded, and I have

reason to believe others were. How many,

it would be difficult to say.

>> Nobody from Parker's side is killed. And

at first, Parker doesn't want to leave

Lancaster. He thinks maybe he'll just

hide, evade capture like he's always

done.

>> It is his friends and neighbors who say,

"No, dude. You need to get out of here.

We need to get you out."

>> The great trial now was to leave my wife

and family, uncertain as to the result

of the journey. I felt I would rather

die than be separated from them.

It had to be done, however, and we went

forth with heavy hearts, outcasts for

the sake of liberty.

This is national news because a

slaveholder has died and it is really

one of the first times that's public

where it's like, oh, this business of

the fugitive slave law, it could get you

killed.

>> President Filmore calls out the Marines.

They terrorize the entire area along

with hired slave catchers and dozens of

police.

>> They are literally going from door to

door arresting people. Anybody that they

think that was involved by rumor or by

truth.

>> It's like we have to shut this thing

down. We want to scare the Jesus out of

them so that they do not think to do

this again.

Meanwhile, William Parker is headed

north. He meets Frederick Douglas in

Rochester. Douglas is going to help him

secure passage across the border to

Canada. And William Parker says to

Douglas, "Hey, Freddy, I want to give

you a gift for helping us out." And he

gives to him the pistol that fell from

Edward Gorsuch's hand. and he says, "Let

this be a token for the Battle of

Christristiana."

12 days after the Christian Resistance,

William Parker makes it across Lake

Ontario to Toronto. Eliza and their

family will join him soon after.

Back in the US, news of the Christian

Resistance, or riot, depending on who

you ask, is rippling throughout the

country.

It's being viewed right away as a bold

stand against the Fugitive Slave Act.

You know, there's condemnation in some

circles that, oh no, people died. That's

not good. But the majority of the

abolitionist community is like this is

the bold kind of stance that we need.

The Fugitive Slave Act was supposed to

be a tool to plate southern

slaveholders. Instead, it's become a

rallying cry for abolitionists.

And now, a trial is set to begin. 41 men

in Christian, three white, 38 black,

have been charged with treason.

President Filmore wants them convicted

and potentially executed to set an

example. Don't get in the way of the

fugitive slave law again.

The first person to stand trial is one

of the Quakers who refused to help the

US marshal at the scene, Castner Hanway.

Prosecutors try to say that he was one

of the masterminds of this resistance.

There's no way these inferior beings

could have come up with such an

ingenious plan. It had to be this white

man.

>> The federal marshal Henry Klene is a key

witness. But the black defendants that

he supposedly saw at the scene

intentionally wear matching red, white,

and blue scarves to court, and Klein

can't tell them apart. One author calls

it a racist myopia.

In the end, the jury deliberates for

just 15 minutes, and Castner Hanway is

found not guilty.

The rest of the men are never tried.

Southern propaganda said that black

people were inherently docel and

intellectually incapable. And Parker's

stand showed the entire country that

wasn't true. The group was capable,

brave, highly organized, and willing to

use lethal force to defend their

freedom. And the Fugitive Slave Act ends

up pushing the nation closer to civil

war. It makes it so the northerners

can't sit on the sidelines. They have to

confront the question of slavery as

neighbors are being taken from their

homes. Some historians would later argue

that the Christian Revolt was in some

ways the first battle of the Civil War.

There's another impact that happens more

on the individual level. Back in

Maryland, Edward Gorsuch and his family

were close with another family just down

the road, the Booths. Their son Edwin

went on to become one of America's most

famous actors. Their other son was a

less famous actor, but he'd find

notoriety through other means. John

Wuk's Booth was very close to the

Gorsuch family. And when he realizes

that there will be no accountability for

Edward Gorsuch's death, when he realizes

that they they won essentially they

escaped, they were never captured. He

cannot accept that he lives with this

deep vendetta of how can he like get

back at this loss that he feels. Edward

Gorsuch's death radicalizes Lincoln's

assassin, John Wils Booth. At just 13

years old, he becomes obsessed.

When the war does begin, Thomas Sims,

who was arrested in Boston, escapes to

the north again for good this time. And

William Parker and his family settle in

Canada in a town called Buckton. During

the war, he helps ferry escaped slaves

across the Great Lakes region via the

Underground Railroad. While in Canada,

he starts working for Frederick

Douglas's newspaper, The North Star. And

after the war ends, he writes his

autobiographical manuscript. His editor,

James R. Gilmore, notes that Parker

required no editing.

I have now to bring my narrative to a

close and in so doing I would return

thanks to the Almighty God for the many

mercies and favors he has bestowed upon

me and especially for delivering me out

of the hands of slaveholders and placing

me in a land of liberty where I can

worship God under my own vine and fig

tree with none to molest or make me

afraid.

History This Week is a Backpocket

Studios production in partnership with

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If you have any thoughts or questions,

send us an email at

historyweek@history.com.

Special thanks to our guests, Dr. Iris

Lelay Barnes, director of the Hosana

School Museum, Christy Coleman, public

historian and museum executive, and

Kelly Carter Jackson, chair of the

Africana Studies Department at Welssley

College. We would also like to thank

Jamal Wimberly, who provided the voice

of William Parker in this episode. This

episode was produced and soundes by Ben

Dixon. It was also produced by me, Sally

Helm. For Backpocket Studios, our

executive producer is Ben Dixon. From

the History Channel, our executive

producers are Eli Ler and Liv Fidler.

Don't forget to follow, rate, and review

History This Week wherever you get your

podcasts. And we'll see you next week.