September 11 - The Christiana Riot

Labor History in 2:00 · Sep 11, 2026 · 1m

On this day in Labor History the year was 1851. That was the day that a Maryland planter named Edward Gorsuch was killed in Christiana, Pennsylvania. Gorsuch had come to Pennsylvania to try and recapture three black men that had escaped from slavery on his farm outside of Baltimore two years earlier. A year after the men escaped, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This penalized helping those who had escaped slavery, with a $1,000 fine and up to six months’ jail time. Emboldened by the law, slave catchers chased those who had made the journey to freedom in the north. Gorsuch received…