.The Christiana Riot was a violent encounter that erupted in September 1851 when a slave owner from Maryland attempted to arrest four fugitive slaves who had been living on a farm in Pennsylvania. In an exchange of gunfire, the slave owner, Edward Gorsuch, was shot dead.
The incident was widely reported in newspapers and escalated tensions over enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act.
A manhunt was launched to find and arrest the fugitive slaves, who had fled northward.
With the help of the Underground Railroad, and ultimately the personal intercession of Frederick Douglass, they made their way to freedom in Canada.
However, others present that morning at the farm near the village of Christiana, Pennsylvania, were hunted down and arrested.
