On Friday, February 7, Dr. Keith Shenberger will review Bloody Dawn —the Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North by Thomas P. Slaughter.

Bloody Dawn is a history of the fugitive slave resistance that occurred in 1851 in Christiana, Pennsylvania, near the Maryland border. Four slaves from a Maryland farm escaped and crossed the border into Pennsylvania. The Fugitive Slave Law, passed in 1850, granted the right of Southern slaveholders to recover and have returned to them runaway slaves, even if the slaves had fled into territories in the North that were free of slavery. The owner of these slaves, Edward Gorsuch, was determined to bring these slaves back to Maryland.

Bloody Dawn vividly chronicles the story of their escape, manhunt, and trial. This event was a very important aspect of the increasing division of our nation in the decades leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War. It may be the very first episode of fatal armed conflict inflaming tensions between the North and the South. 

Dr. Shenberger, who was born and raised in southeastern Pennsylvania, completed his medical training in New Hampshire, and he was a physician in the Williamsport region since 1982.

The review begins at 12:15PM in the Lowry Room of the Welch Family Wing of the James V. Brown Library with a Q&A from 12:45-1:00PM. Complimentary snacks and bottled water will be available. Attendees are also welcome to bring their own lunches. Reservations are required due to space considerations. Please call the library at 570-326-0536 or use the library’s online reservation calendar (calendar.jvbrown.edu) before 3:00PM on Wednesday, February 5. Parking is available in the public lot off Market Street, adjacent to the Welch Wing.