Christiana Riot

Date: September 11, 1851 • Location: Christiana, United States

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1851.

In a fight near Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of escaped slaves and free Blacks led by William Parker fought off a federal posse seeking to arrest and return the escapees to slavery.

The Christiana Resistance, also known as Christiana incident, or Christiana riot, was the successful armed resistance by free Black people and escaped slaves to a raid led by a federal marshal to recover four escaped slaves owned by Edward Gorsuch of Maryland. The raid took place in the early morning of September 11, 1851, at the house in Christiana, Pennsylvania, of William Parker, himself an escaped slave. This took place after the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increased penalties for assisting escaped slaves and required state government officials, even in free states such as Pennsylvania, to assist in the recapture of slaves.