A Midnight Stop on the Underground Railroad:
Shadrach Minkin’s Flight to Freedom Led Through Concord
I
It had rained that day in Boston, and now, even though the moon was full, there was little light in the sky as three men left Cambridge and headed for Concord. No, it wasn’t the midnight ride of Paul Revere, but another of unusual significance. For riding in a dark wagon was a fugitive from justice and two rescuers, unwilling to let another human being be returned to slavery. It was Saturday, Feb. 15, 1851. The morning had started out as any other. Shadrach Minkins, a waiter at the Cornhill Coffee Shop in Boston, had put on his apron and started work. What he didn’t know was that he would soon become a test case for the Fugitive Slave Act, a law enacted by Congress to keep Southern states from bolting. Born into slavery in the port city of Norfolk, Virginia, Minkins had worked for various masters, having been sold three times. In the spring of 1850, around 30 years of age, he disappeared, escaping most likely as a stowaway on a merchant ship headed north. Arriving in Boston, he joined a community of some 2,500 free blacks and formerly enslaved people. Considered a haven for those seeking their own emancipation, Boston would soon become the focus of federal agents and bounty hunters. Mandating the return of all formerly enslaved people to their owners, the Fugitive Slave Act imposed stiff penalties of imprisonment and fines on anyone sheltering 34
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BY BEN JACQUES fugitive slaves. Further, state governments, local law officers, and even citizens were called on to aid in its enforcement. If Minkins could be arrested in Boston, the hub of the abolitionist movement in the North, and returned to his owner, Southern states would see that Washington was protecting their interests, muting talk of secession. According to Gary Collison, who chronicles the fugitive’s story in Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen, President Millard Fillmore and Secretary of State Daniel Webster had, themselves, approved Minkins’ capture. Enacted in September of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act divided families, towns, political parties, and churches. As most governors, legislators, and clergy fell in line with the law, New England abolitionists voiced their opposition. In Boston, the Vigilance Committee, made up of Black and white abolitionists, warned of arrests and planned countermeasures. Now, as Minkins waited tables in the restaurant, a federal marshal and eight officers took up positions outside the restaurant. After a considerable delay, waiting for the man who would identify their suspect, the marshal and one of his men entered the restaurant and ordered coffee. They were served by a “stout, coppercolored man,” no other than the fugitive they sought, writes Collison.
When Minkins took the marshal’s payment to get change, two officers grabbed him under the arms, rushed out a back door, and dragged him into the courthouse a block away. They had been seen, however, and word quickly spread. Within minutes a crowd of abolitionists and onlookers filled Court Square. One of them was a formerly enslaved person from Kentucky, Lewis Hayden, now a clothing merchant and owner of a boarding house on Beacon Hill. For several years, Hayden had been enslaved by Henry Clay, the senator and future architect of the Fugitive Slave Act. After seeing his siblings, then his wife and child sold, Hayden had fled with his second wife and her son to Philadelphia, then on to Canada. In 1846, Hayden brought his family to Boston. Lewis and Harriet Hayden became leaders in the abolitionist community, and their home on Southac Street, a station on the Underground Railroad. As Shadrach Minkins awaited arraignment, abolitionists packed into the stairway and hallway outside the upstairs courtroom. After the judge arrived, federal officers presented evidence that the suspect was, in fact, a fugitive from Virginia and the property of a Norfolk businessman. Meanwhile, the crowd inside and out became more agitated. Defense attorneys, including Richard Henry Dana, Jr., presented petitions for Minkins’ release. When they
Courtesy of Concord Free Public Library
Alfred Winslow Hosmer. Photograph from glass plate negative of home of Francis Edwin and Ann Bigelow (now 19 Sudbury Road), Concord.