A Few Bad Breaks (Breaking Bad) Under Insane Beliefs

   "John Beard, Thomas Wilson, Alexander Scott, and Edward Thompson (the names they were known by in Pennsylvania) escaped enslavement of the Gorsuch family of Maryland and took up residence in Lancaster County.  Under provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave law,…

….Edward Gorsuch, a wealthy slaveholder, led a party of slave catchers into Lancaster County.  Hearing that they were on the farm of William Parker, a free African American, they, with the help of US Marshals, attempted to forcefully enact the arrest warrants. When Gorsuch and his men arrived, Eliza, Parker’s wife, blew a horn which summoned sympathetic neighbors.  Armed neighbors including former slaves as well as free black and white abolitionists converged on the Parker farm and confronted the Gorsuch party.  Fighting broke out and the elder Gorsuch was killed and his son wounded.  The US Marshals and the slave catchers retreated.

Later the Marshals returned with three detachments of US Marines.  By that point, William Parker and his wife Eliza were already en route to Canada, helped along the way by Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists.  Thirty-eight other men, however, were arrested including four white Quakers.  They were all charged with treason."