A good assortment of MEN’S and BOY’S CLOTHING of superior quality.”
– Ad in The Liberator for Hayden’s clothing store
”Like all Bostonians Lewis Hayden needed to make a living. He chose work that forwarded the cause of freedom and equality
Along with bills from creditors there are unpaid loans to abolitionist Wendell Phillips. At one point Phillips had fired Hayden as a speaker for Garrison’s New England Anti-Slavery Society. Later Hayden served as a pallbearer at Phillips’s funeral.
- Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives
Hayden’s Clothing Store
For several years Hayden operated a clothing store on Cambridge Street. Profi ts allowed him to clothe escaped slaves and gave him status as a successful businessman. The Financial Panic of 1857 forced closure of the store and a fi ling for insolvency.
Messenger to the Secretary of State
In 1858 Hayden became a messenger in the Secretary of State’s offi ce at a salary of $800. The appointment was signifi cant, giving Hayden access to prominent abolitionist politicians during the Civil War. Hayden (appointed as a clerk in 1857) is believed to be the fi rst African-American employee of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He remained a messenger for thirty years and was called “the old philosopher” by state house colleagues.
Massachusetts State . . .
- State Library of Massachusetts
An Act Establishing . . .
Lewis Hayden’s salary was determined by this legislation.
- Massachusetts Archives
State Salary Role . . .
Lewis Hayden’s name and title of “messenger” appears at number 112 on this Massachusetts state salary role for July 1, 1859.
- Massachusetts Archives