{"id":111,"date":"2017-11-04T16:36:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T16:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/?p=111"},"modified":"2018-10-09T12:20:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T12:20:02","slug":"william-parker-runaway-slave-and-abolitionist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/2017\/11\/04\/william-parker-runaway-slave-and-abolitionist\/","title":{"rendered":"William Parker: Runaway Slave and Abolitionist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1ZAPOwo4EO4xtM-Vd6YTScGlnTRg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>William Parker was born a slave, lived an abolitionist, and died a free man.\u00a0 He became well-known after his leadership role in the Christiana Resistance, or Riot, of 1851, an incident in which Parker and his band of runaway slaves and abolitionists beat off slaveholder Edward Gorsuch, a federal marshal, and others seeking to reclaim four of Gorsuch\u2019s slaves.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Published in 1866, one year after the Civil War, Parker\u2019s autobiography is similar to many other slave narratives, as it seems to have been written to \u201cenlighten white readers about slavery\u201d and to showcase \u201cthe humanity of black people.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The reality of slavery can be demonstrated by his detailing of his deep fear of being sold, and it is nearly impossible to deny the humanity and agency of Parker, who claimed to have earned his \u201crights as a freeman\u201d with his \u201cown right arm,\u201d an expression meaning that he had to fight for his freedom.<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Born in 1822 at Roedown Plantation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, William Parker was the property of Major William Brogdon.<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Brogdon died when Parker was very young, so his son, David, received ownership of Parker and moved him to Nearo.<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Though Parker states that his masters \u2013 David and his brother, William \u2013 didn\u2019t have their \u201chands beaten or abused,\u201d he does note that they sold slaves, sometimes \u201csix or seven at a time,\u201d every year.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Parker recounts the story of one sale in particular that stuck out to him.\u00a0 When he was ten or eleven, he recalls seeing \u201cnegro-traders\u201d one morning and running away to some nearby woods with Levi Storax, \u201ca boy of about [his] own age,\u201d to avoid being sold.\u00a0 When in the woods, he told Storax that they should \u201c\u2019run away to the Free States\u2019\u201d to ensure that they would never be sold, but Storax reasoned that they would likely be caught.\u00a0 Though they didn\u2019t run that day, Parker\u2019s instinct to flee shows remarkable initiative for a preteen and foreshadows his later decision to escape. To Parker, slave sales in general were as \u201csolemn as a funeral,\u201d but he feared sale to the Deep South above all, reasoning that slave owners there committed even worse &#8220;atrocities\u201d than the more \u201cmild\u201d and \u201chumane\u201d masters of the \u201cNorthern Slave States.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Parker\u2019s terms of and reasoning for escape were relatively common.\u00a0 He ran away at roughly seventeen with his brother, Charlie.\u00a0 Many runaway slaves were young men as they often had fewer reasons to stay than parents, with Parker himself noting that he had \u201cno attachments.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Furthermore, runaways were safest \u201calone or in pairs,\u201d as it was easier for them to avoid suspicion or detection.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a>\u00a0 In regards to his desire to run away, he did not want to be sold, and he generally \u201clonged to cast off the chains of servitude.\u201d\u00a0 However, he felt the need to wait until he and his master had a specific \u201cdifficulty\u201d or conflict, which eventually arose when Parker refused to work one day, and Master David attempted to whip him.<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a>\u00a0 This general desire and need for an actual incident to occur fits well with Peter Kolchin\u2019s argument that runaways typically felt \u201ca general hatred for slavery\u201d but did not run away until confrontation \u201ctriggered the determination to act.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Parker and his brother stopped in Baltimore, blending in with its high population of free-blacks, before eventually settling in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Parker found work in Lancaster, and while working for and living with a man named Dr. Dengy, he met a \u201ctrue friend of the slave,\u201d William Lloyd Garrison, and reunited with Frederick Douglass, who he had known as \u201ca slave in Maryland.\u201d\u00a0 He seems to have been greatly affected by Garrison and Douglass, who impressed Parker with his \u201cstrong speech\u201d and whose \u201cdoctrine\u201d was \u201cso pure, so unworldly.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Parker\u2019s description of Garrison and his feeling that \u201cGarrisonian Abolitionists\u201d were \u201cthe poor slave\u2019s friend\u201d is rather ironic.\u00a0 Garrison was in charge of the anti-slavery newspaper, <em>The Liberator, <\/em>and for a time was the \u201cmajor force voice of radical abolitionism.\u201d\u00a0 Notably, he \u201crejected all use of force,\u201d but William Parker definitely did not, as he resorted to violence to prevent slave catchers from capturing runaway slaves or kidnapping free blacks.\u00a0 As such, Parker\u2019s philosophy of securing freedom by any means necessary is more reflective of David Ruggles, founder of the New York Vigilance Committee, who believed that runaways and their allies should \u201cresist even unto death.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Regardless, it is highly likely that Parker was inspired by Garrison and Douglass to lead a life of abolition<\/p>\n<p>In 1841, Parker and others founded \u201can organization for mutual protection against slaveholders and kidnappers,\u201d that would resist any attempt to kidnap and enslave their \u201cbrethren\u201d at \u201cthe risk of [their] own lives.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a>\u00a0 Parker and his organization were more than willing to use violence to \u201cprotect their very tenuous liberty.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn16\" name=\"_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a>\u00a0 In the ten years between the organization\u2019s founding and the Christiana Resistance, Parker details numerous instances of he and his followers protecting blacks, some runaways and others likely not, from recapture or kidnapping.\u00a0 For instance when slave catchers snatched a \u201ccolored maid,\u201d Parker\u2019s group followed them to Gap Hill, and they killed three of them during the ensuing confrontation.\u00a0 On another occasion, they tracked kidnappers to a tavern, and when the owner refused to let them inside, Parker beat the door in.\u00a0 Parker\u2019s group exchanged fire with the slave catchers and \u201cpeople from the neighboring houses.\u201d\u00a0 Parker was hit, but they still rescued the captive man.<a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a>\u00a0 By the time of the famous Christiana Resistance,\u00a0 William Parker and his cohorts were well versed in fighting slave catchers.<\/p>\n<p>Before 1850, the act of recapturing a runaway slave laid with the runaway\u2019s owner, but the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 \u201crequired citizens to assist in the capture of fugitives and overrode local laws\u201d that would hinder \u201ctheir return,\u201d making rendition a federal issue.<a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a>\u00a0 The fugitive slave law angered abolitionists, but it made slave owners more confident that their property would be returned.\u00a0 However, the act was rarely enforced, as evidenced by the Christiana Resistance.<\/p>\n<p>The fateful day of the riot occurred early in the morning of September 11<sup>th<\/sup>, 1851 when Joshua Kite, one of four men who had slept at Parker\u2019s home the previous night, came running inside yelling \u201ckidnappers!\u201d\u00a0 Kite and the others must have known that they were coming though because they had been warned by the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia.<a href=\"#_ftn19\" name=\"_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a>\u00a0 Kite was explaining what had happened outside when they burst in the door.\u00a0 Parker \u201cmet them at the landing,\u201d and when a man told him he was a United States marshal, Parker responded that if he took \u201canother step,\u201d he \u201cwould break his neck,\u201d exemplifying his willingness to do whatever it took to protect his friends \u2013 some of the men at Parker\u2019s house belonged to the leader of the kidnapping party, Edward Gorsuch.<a href=\"#_ftn20\" name=\"_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The two groups engaged in a lengthy standoff with neither one willing to make a move.\u00a0 During this time, Parker\u2019s wife \u201cblew a horn\u201d which notified Parker\u2019s organization and sympathizers that kidnappers had arrived and signaled that they may need help.\u00a0 While trying to convince each other to give up, Parker and Gorsuch \u201cengaged in biblical debate,\u201d with each reasoning that the Bible was on their side.<a href=\"#_ftn21\" name=\"_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a>\u00a0 According to Parker\u2019s recollection, the fighting began when Gorsuch\u2019s son asked if he would \u201ctake all this from a nigger.\u201d\u00a0 Parker responded that if Gorsuch\u2019s son said that again, he would \u201cknock his teeth down his throat.\u201d\u00a0 Then, Gorsuch\u2019s group \u201cfired upon\u201d Parker.<a href=\"#_ftn22\" name=\"_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The fighting would end with Gorsuch dead, and the slaves still free.\u00a0 Parker\u2019s men were victorious in defying a federal law.\u00a0 Over 35 people in total, including Parker, his family, and others \u201cwho did not actually participate in the resistance\u201d were charged with treason for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.<a href=\"#_ftn23\" name=\"_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a>\u00a0 Parker safely escaped to Canada, and everyone else was acquitted, meaning &#8220;no one was found guilty in the \u201cmurder of Edward Gorsuch.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn24\" name=\"_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This result was celebrated by abolitionists and lambasted by slave owners.\u00a0 A white man that Parker met on his journey to Canada called Parker \u201ca brave man\u201d and argued that \u201cany good citizen\u201d would have done what he did.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, this man had no idea that he was actually travelling with William Parker himself.<a href=\"#_ftn25\" name=\"_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a>\u00a0 Frederick Douglass, who helped \u201cParker and two others\u201d flee to Canada, called them \u201cheroic.\u201d\u00a0 However, Southerners saw the Christiana Resistance as a riot, and viewed the whole situation as \u201can attack on property rights,\u201d demonstrating the intense sectionalism of the era.<a href=\"#_ftn26\" name=\"_ftnref26\">[26]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>William Parker would continue his anti-slavery in Canada, becoming the \u201cCanadian correspondent for Douglass\u2019 newspaper, the <em>North Star.<\/em>\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn27\" name=\"_ftnref27\">[27]<\/a><em>\u00a0 <\/em>Parker and the Christiana Resistance are largely forgotten today, but Parker shows that some abolitionists would fight to the death before allowing themselves or their friends to be recaptured.\u00a0 The Christiana Resistance was hugely controversial, and it dealt a sizable blow to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.\u00a0 William Parker was a key figure in the abolitionist movement, despite his lack of name recognition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> John Anderson, \u201cChristiana Riot of 1851,\u201d <em>Black Past, <\/em>last accessed November 5, 2017. http:\/\/www.blackpast.org\/aah\/christiana-riot-1851<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> William L Andrews, \u201cAn Introduction to the Slave Narrative,\u201d <em>Documenting the American South, <\/em>last accessed November 5, 2017. http:\/\/docsouth.unc.edu\/neh\/intro.html<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> \u201cWilliam Parker, fl. 1851, The Freedman\u2019s Story: In Two Parts,\u201d <em>The Atlantic Monthly, <\/em>vol. XVII, (Feb 1886), 154.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> John Gartell, \u201cRoedown Plantation and the Christiana Resistance,\u201d <em>Legacy of Slavery in Maryland, <\/em>last accessed November 5, 2017.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Parker, 154.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> Parker, 154.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Parker, 154-155.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> Parker, 155.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Peter Kolchin, <em>American Slavery: 1619-1877, <\/em>(New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 161.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> Parker, 157-158.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Kolchin. 163.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> Kolchin, 84 and Parker, 158.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> Parker, 160-161.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn14\">[14]<\/a> Eric Foner, <em>Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, <\/em>(New York: W.W. Norton &amp; Company, 2015), 63 and 74-75.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> Parker, 161.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" name=\"_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> Ella Forbes, &#8220;\u2019By My Own Right Arm\u2019: Redemptive Violence and the 1851 Christiana, Pennsylvania Resistance,&#8221;\u00a0<em>The Journal of Negro History<\/em>\u00a083, no. 3 (1998): 164.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> Parker,161-164 and Roderick W. Nash, &#8220;William Parker and the Christiana Riot,&#8221;\u00a0<em>The Journal of Negro History<\/em>\u00a046, no. 1 (1961): 4.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> Foner, 18 and 25.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" name=\"_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> Forbes, 164.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref20\" name=\"_ftn20\">[20]<\/a> Parker, 283<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref21\" name=\"_ftn21\">[21]<\/a> Forbes, 164-166.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref22\" name=\"_ftn22\">[22]<\/a> Parker, 286-287.\u00a0 For Parker\u2019s full story of the battle and its immediate aftermath, see Parker, 283-288.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref23\" name=\"_ftn23\">[23]<\/a> Forbes, 164.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref24\" name=\"_ftn24\">[24]<\/a> Nash, 29-30.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref25\" name=\"_ftn25\">[25]<\/a> Parker, 289-290.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref26\" name=\"_ftn26\">[26]<\/a> Nash, 29-31.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref27\" name=\"_ftn27\">[27]<\/a> Colin McBride, \u201cWilliam Parker,\u201d <em>Black Past, <\/em>last accessed November 5, 2017. http:\/\/www.blackpast.org\/aah\/william-parker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; William Parker was born a slave, lived an abolitionist, and died a free man.\u00a0 He became well-known after his leadership role in the Christiana Resistance, or Riot, of 1851, an incident in which Parker and his band of runaway &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/2017\/11\/04\/william-parker-runaway-slave-and-abolitionist\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-311pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}