Corn Knife from Christiana

On View

Dated1851

DescriptionDuring the Christiana Resistance, ordinary farm tools became instruments of defiance. When Maryland enslavers and federal officials arrived to capture freedom seekers at William and Eliza Parker’s house, local residents rushed to defend them, seizing whatever was at hand—including corn knives used for cutting stalks at harvest. In the chaos, one of these blades was used in the confrontation that left enslaver Edward Gorsuch dead. Preserved as federal evidence, the corn knife became a powerful symbol: a tool of labor transformed into a weapon of resistance, linking everyday life to extraordinary acts of courage in the fight against slavery.