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The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker : A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America
Overview
For fans of Master Slave Husband Wife and Django Unchained comes the extraordinary forgotten story of an event known in its day as "the first shots of the Civil War," from the New York Times bestselling author of Dr. M tter's Marvels. The year, 1851. The place, a Quaker farming community turned Underground Railroad stronghold, where a Maryland enslaver had journeyed in pursuit of four men who'd fled his plantation years before. In a few hours, he'd be dead...and twenty-seven men from the village of Christiana would be rounded up and put on trial. Not for his murder, but for treason--for waging war against the United States, at a time when it was a crime against the government to obstruct an enslaver looking to reclaim his "property." This is story of what happened in Christiana that September morning--and in the ensuing "trial of the century," which saw the president himself advise the prosecution on strategy and a sitting congressman serve as lead attorney for the defense. But The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker is also a much larger tale, one spanning decades, following a whole startlingly diverse community of abolitionists in their fight to convince their fellow Americans of the subversive idea that now found itself on trial: that the nation ought to live up the ideals it was founded on, and respect all men as equals. It's a story that whisks readers from the quiet farmlands of Lancaster County--where a self-emancipated man named William Parker, whom legend had it bullets could not kill, rallied his neighbors to ride out each night to battle the slavecatchers who stalked their countryside--to Philadelphia's genteel Society Hill, where socialite Harriet Forten Purvis had the ear of the mayor (and a cellar filled with fugitives). It's stylish, propulsive, intimately human tale of bravery, ingenuity, and hope--and of ordinary people with little in common who came together to stand against injustice...and won.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781668035931
- ISBN-10: 1668035936
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publish Date: September 2026
- Dimensions: 9.25 x 6.31 x 1.23 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.33 pounds
- Page Count: 448
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With its vibrant cast of characters and nail-biting suspense, the 1851 Christiana Rebellion would make for a blockbuster movie. What? You’ve never heard of the Christiana Rebellion? Well, you’re not alone. But Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz shows in her engrossing The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America that the event’s obscurity doesn’t diminish its significance. William Parker, a teenager and forced prizefighter, fled enslavement in Maryland for the relative safety of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. But his security was shattered with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, which placed all Black people—free and self-emancipated alike—in danger of being kidnapped and forced into servitude. Thousands fled to Canada. Parker chose a different path: He and his neighbors formed an armed mutual defense organization to confront “slave catchers” and their accomplices before the latter could raid their towns. “Parker learned that absolute resistance—backed with physical force if necessary—was the weapon his community needed to wield against this army of kidnappers, lawful and lawless alike,” writes Aptowicz. When enslaver Edward Gorsuch and his posse showed up in Parker’s home of Christiana to claim four people who fled his plantation, he was met by a small group of armed men and women, led by Parker, ready to defend their neighbors. Aptowicz describes the early-morning battle in bold, cinematic strokes. Short chapters with cliff-hanger endings create a driving pace, while allowing the reader to experience the clash from different points of view. We witness the heroism of the defenders, the confusion of the battlefield, the posse’s blinding arrogance and the disastrous results of Gorsuch’s obstinacy. The Christiana Rebellion was years in the making and its effects far-reaching. Aptowicz charts the paths of Black abolitionists like Harriet and Robert Purvis from assimilation to activism. White Quaker abolitionists, like Lucretia Mott, struggled with their belief in nonviolence and a growing awareness that nonviolent resistance alone could not protect people from enslavement. Despite their differences, Mott and the Purvises all supported the defendants in surprising ways. There is so much courage in this book: Lucretia Mott’s unconquerable integrity. Harriet Purvis’ persistent dedication to the fight for equal rights even after a mob burned her home. Eliza Parker’s fierce determination to battle for freedom alongside her friends. And most of all, there is William Parker, whose audacious will, moral clarity and love of liberty should inspire us all.
With its vibrant cast of characters and nail-biting suspense, the 1851 Christiana Rebellion would make for a blockbuster movie. What? You’ve never heard of the Christiana Rebellion? Well, you’re not alone. But Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz shows in her engrossing The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America that the event’s obscurity doesn’t diminish its significance. William Parker, a teenager and forced prizefighter, fled enslavement in Maryland for the relative safety of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. But his security was shattered with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, which placed all Black people—free and self-emancipated alike—in danger of being kidnapped and forced into servitude. Thousands fled to Canada. Parker chose a different path: He and his neighbors formed an armed mutual defense organization to confront “slave catchers” and their accomplices before the latter could raid their towns. “Parker learned that absolute resistance—backed with physical force if necessary—was the weapon his community needed to wield against this army of kidnappers, lawful and lawless alike,” writes Aptowicz. When enslaver Edward Gorsuch and his posse showed up in Parker’s home of Christiana to claim four people who fled his plantation, he was met by a small group of armed men and women, led by Parker, ready to defend their neighbors. Aptowicz describes the early-morning battle in bold, cinematic strokes. Short chapters with cliff-hanger endings create a driving pace, while allowing the reader to experience the clash from different points of view. We witness the heroism of the defenders, the confusion of the battlefield, the posse’s blinding arrogance and the disastrous results of Gorsuch’s obstinacy. The Christiana Rebellion was years in the making and its effects far-reaching. Aptowicz charts the paths of Black abolitionists like Harriet and Robert Purvis from assimilation to activism. White Quaker abolitionists, like Lucretia Mott, struggled with their belief in nonviolence and a growing awareness that nonviolent resistance alone could not protect people from enslavement. Despite their differences, Mott and the Purvises all supported the defendants in surprising ways. There is so much courage in this book: Lucretia Mott’s unconquerable integrity. Harriet Purvis’ persistent dedication to the fight for equal rights even after a mob burned her home. Eliza Parker’s fierce determination to battle for freedom alongside her friends. And most of all, there is William Parker, whose audacious will, moral clarity and love of liberty should inspire us all.