WhatWouldYouDoFinal1

=Back = = Scenario 4 =  What really happened? As it turns out, violence does ensue at Christiana, resulting in the death of Edward Gorsuch, earning these events the title “Christiana Massacres” by southern papers, “Christiana Riots” by northern papers and “Christiana Resistance,” by modern scholars. (Hint: Think about what each of these different titles means when telling the story)

To send a message to Southern states that the federal government was serious in its attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, part of the compromise of 1850, many involved in the incident at Christiana were put on trial, including Caster Hanway, the man who’s shoes you were walking in moments ago.

//Kline:// In the mean while Mr. Hanway came up on horseback. The old gentleman, Mr. Edward Gorsuch, requested me to go and ask him to assist us. We found that there was a larger force in the house than we calculated. I came out of the house and went to the bars where Mr. Hanway was sitting on a sorrel horse, and went up to him and said, “Good morning, sir,” and he made no reply. I then asked him his name, and he allowed it was none of my business. I then asked him if he lived in the neighborhood, and he made a remark in the same way. I then told him who I was, and showed him my authority. I took my papers out and handed them to him, and he read them. //Question:// Did you hand him these papers? (The warrants.) //Kline:// I did, and he read them not only once, but twice. //Question:// What did you say to him at that time? //Kline:// I told him I was Deputy Marshal, and came to arrest two fugitives belonging to Edward Gorsuch. //Question:// When you told him that, what did he say? //Kline:// He allowed that the colored people had a right to defend themselves. There was some fifteen or twenty standing there, as near as I can tell, with their guns loaded. //Question:// Will you state to the Court again, exactly what Mr. Hanway said at that time? //Kline:// After I got through telling him these things, who I was, and he had refused to assist me, I told him what the Act of Congress was, and urged him to assist me. After I had told him my warrants, he read them and handed them back, and he said the colored people had a right to defend themselves, and he was not going to help me, and I asked if he would keep them away, and he said No,--he would not have anything to do with them. //Ashmead:// Had you any conversation with Mr. Hanway in regard to any law of Congress? //Kline:// I had, sir. //Ashmead:// Be good enough to state to the Court and Jury what it was. //Kline:// After he refused, I told him what the act of Congress was as near as I could tell him. That any person aiding or abetting a fugitive slave, and resisting an officer, the punishment was $1000 damages for the slave, and I think to the best of my knowledge imprisonment for five years. I told him that. He said he did not care for any act of Congress or any other law. That is what he said. **Witness testimony (Elijah Lewis):** //Mr. Brent:// When Hanway said to Kline he would have nothing to do with it, was not that in reply to Kline’s request to assist him? //Lewis:// It was. //Mr. Brent:// When he requested him to assist him, his reply was, he would have nothing to do with it? //Lewis:// Yes. //Question:// What did Mr. Hanway do? //Rogers :// He turned on his critter and he says several times, “don’t shoot, boys.”
 * Read from the transcripts of his trial for treason. After reading, explain what Hanway’s decision was. What was his role at Christiana? Do you think him guilty of treason?**
 * Write your response on your paper.**
 * Witness testimony (Henry H. Kline)**
 * Witness testimony (Isaac Rogers):**

When you are finished, click here to see what really happened.