The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America

Poet and historian Aptowicz (Dr. Mütter’s Marvels) recaps the rousing tale of a Pennsylvania community that banded together to protect their neighbors from enslavers. In Aptowicz’s novelistic rendition, the 1851 showdown in Christiana, Pa., at the home of fugitive slave William Parker, is a remarkable story of solidarity. But first Aptowicz follows Parker’s trajectory from slavery to freedom in the North, where he worked with like-minded neighbors—both Black and white—to harbor and usher northward other fugitives. Aptowicz also canvases the larger Philadelphia abolitionist scene, profiling figures like Frederick Douglass. But it is Parker—“natural leader, architect of resistance”—who stands out as a man of astounding conviction. He and his allies armed themselves, resisting slave catchers with force; his “mutual defense organization” included a vast network of couriers who spread word of slave catcher movements. The account builds to a crescendo with the 1851 showdown, when slave owner Edward Gorsuch (related to Neil), who had trailed several fugitives to Parker’s home, ended up dead in Parker’s yard while Parker escaped to Canada. The trial that followed centered on a local white man who refused to help the slave catchers, expressing a belief that Black people had a right to defend themselves; for that, he was tried for treason against the United States. Aptowicz draws parallels to today, asking readers what they are willing to risk for their neighbors. This impeccably researched page-turner powerfully evokes the American spirit. (Sept.)