Hardcover, ISBN: 0-9653308-1-8, 24 Illustrations, Appendix, Bibliography, Index, p. i-xiv, 338, US $29.95.
THE RHETORIC OF REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE used by so many 19th century African leaders in the United States and the willingness of Africans to resort to force to gain basic rights is an indication of the alienation blacks felt in a nation which showed its hostility so openly towards them, a nation unwilling to protect them from white violence, a nation whose very laws promoted their disenfranchisement. Nowhere was this worldview exhibited more forcibly than in the little-known, but nevertheless significant, 1851 Christiana, Pennsylvania Resistance, led by William Parker who asserted that Africans in the United States actually "had no country" because they were not protected by the laws and statutes of this republic.
In taking their stand, William Parker and the other Christiana Resisters tested the basic tenets of American democracy and law, especially the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. They exposed the contradiction between the theory of the American creed which contends that all men are created equal and have unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the reality of the practice of the enslavement and oppression of Africans. Ultimately, the Christiana Resistance was a contest of wills between Parker and his self-defense organization, with natural law on their side, and Edward Gorsuch and other white slaveowners, armed, literally, with civil law. Their struggle encapsulized a much more immense battle—a battle about how to incorporate the institution of slavery in a so-called free society—which was waging in places much larger and more important than southeastern Pennsylvania. It was a clash that Parker and the other valiant warriors won.
This text relies heavily on William Parker's own narrative of his life and the incident, "The Freedman's Story," the only written and published account by a participant (reprinted in the appendix). It is through his version of events that we see the axiological and cosmological position which compelled the resisters to take such drastic measures in the face of overwhelming odds. Armed with weapons and a sense of justice, Parker and his band defended their manhood, honor and their right to be free in a fearless demonstration of tactics, resolve, and the use of their "own right arms."
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements.....x
Preface.....xi
Chapter 1. Trouble Before Peace: Introduction.....1
Chapter 2. Armed and Ready: The Incident.....9
Chapter 3. One of Nature’s Noblemen: William Parker.....27
Chapter 4. Black Agents and White Criminals: Other Actors.....51
Chapter 5. Clothed in Legal Authority: The Fugitive Slave Law.....99
Chapter 6. This Law Outlaws Us: African Reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law.....109
Chapter 7. Death To Tyrants: Black Manhood, Redemptive Violence and Christiana.....133
Chapter 8. The Supremacy of the Law Must Be Sustained: White Response to Christiana.....147
Chapter 9. But We Have No Country: Alien Nation Within a Nation.....171
Chapter 10. Barbarous Frenzies: White Lawlessness, Public Opinion and Public Policy.....187
Chapter 11. This Country Bids Us Begone: The Emigration Movement.....203
Chapter 12. None to Molest Me or Make Me Afraid: The Haven of Canada.....213
Chapter 13. Manhood Realized: Black Self-Reliance in Canada.....227
Chapter 14. Protect Him and Remember Him: Conclusion.....243
Appendix: Text of “The Freedman’s Story”.....273
Bibliography.....319
Index.....331
ILLUSTRATIONS
William Parker house, south and north views, ca. 1896. .....10, 11
The escape route from Christiana to Canada of William Parker, Abraham Johnson [Johnston], and Alexander Pinckney. .....20
David Brogden’s 1844 broadside advertising for return of fugitives. .....30
Cynthia Parker Chase and family; Alfred Parker and his family. .....47
Gwendolyn Robinson and Garfield Parker; Frank “Bud” Parker and son. .....49
Lola and Robin Johnston; Clarissa Briscoe Johnston; Johnston concession marker, Buxton, Ontario, Canada. .....54
Peter Wood and his family, September 1911. .....71
Samuel Hopkins, wielding machete, and Peter Wood, ca. 1896. ....74
Obelisk erected 1911 in Christiana, Pennsylvania by the Lancaster County Historical Society (three views). .....160-161
Mary Ann Shadd Cary; Buxton Settlement Sign, Ontario, Canada. .....240
Gorsuch Tavern marker, Hereford, Maryland. .....251
Horace Mann Bond, Lincoln University president, and descendants of the Christiana Resistance participants at the 1951 commemoration. .....260
William Parker house ruins, ca. 1896; Marker erected April 25, 1998 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. .....267
Marker erected August 1951 in Christiana by historian Walter Miller. .....269
Barbara Carter, Josiah Henson’s great, great granddaughter. .....271
Read a review by Dr. Wilbert L. Jenkins, Department of History, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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