The great majority of our citizens...in the main approve, and are prepared, in all respects, to sustain” [the Fugitive Slave Law.]
– President Millard Fillmore.
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- Massachusetts Historical Society
Shadrack Minkins
Runaway slave Shadrack Minkins was seized while working at Cornhill Coffee House in 1851. He was held at in the Suffolk County Courthouse. A mob broke into the lightly guarded courtroom and freed Minkins. Several witnesses identifi ed Hayden as a key leader. He helped transport Minkins fi fteen miles to safety in Concord but was arrested on his return.
Escape
Traveling in a carriage with one black and one white horse, Hayden, Minkins, and John J. Smith arrived at the Concord home of Ann Bigelow in the middle of the night. After a hasty breakfast her husband Francis drove Minkins to another stop on the Underground Railroad in Leominster
The Bigelow home . . .
Shadrack Minkins was taken to the Bigelow home in Concord.
- Courtesy Concord Free Public Library
Ann Bigelow . . .
The benign countenance of abolitionist Ann Bigelow in old age.
- Courtesy of Concord Free Public Library
Federal Indictment of Lewis Hayden, April 1, 1851 Hayden and seven others were arrested but the jury deadlocked in Hayden’s trial. Thirty years later it was revealed that one juror – Ann Bigelow’s husband Francis – had assisted in the rescue of Shadrack Minkins.
- National Archives
The Vigilance Committee raised funds to resist the Fugitive Slave Law. This Treasurer’s Account shows that Lewis Hayden and other activists were reimbursed for trial expenses after the Shadrack rescue. Hayden’s name appears frequently in the records for activities assisting fugitive slaves.
- Courtesy of the Bostonian Society