Description
Signed second edition of The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trials of 1851 by William Ulher Hensel, published in 1911.
Quarto, ix, 158pp. Beige cloth, title in black on paper label affixed to spine. Top edge gilt. This is the first revised edition, second released overall, issued in the same year of the 60th anniversary commemorative report of the Christiana Riot. Complete with 17 full-page plates with protective tissue guards, including frontispiece. Includes over 25 additional pages than the first issue, with five more illustrations. Solid text block, faint soiling to boards, front hinge loose. Previous ownership bookplate to front free endpaper. A near fine example. (Blockson 2591)
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Presented to B.Y. Junger by W.U. Hensel 2nd.”
An important piece with references to official trial reports, personal reminiscences, and interviews with the victim’s families.
The Christiana Riot of 1851 occurred when a group of African-Americans and white abolitionists defended four fugitive slaves from a Maryland posse seeking to recapture them. The confrontation resulted in the death of Edward Gorsuch, the slave owner, and injuries to several others. This event further divided pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, already heightened by the restrictions of the recently passed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Following the riot, 38 people were arrested and charged with treason under the Fugitive Slave Act, leading to a highly publicized trial. Castner Hanway, a local white miller, was the first to be tried and was acquitted, setting a precedent that led to the dismissal of charges against the other defendants. The Christiana Riot and trial were pivotal in galvanizing abolitionist sentiment and underscoring the deep divisions that would soon lead to the Civil War.
