STORIES OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVES.
II.
SHADRACH.
By Nina Moore Tiffany.
IN
a certain collection
of "Slave Law Cases,"
which may be found
in Boston at the Public
Library or at the
Athenæum, is a
pamphlet entitled Report
of the Proceedings
against Charles G.
Davis, on the Charge of aiding and abetting
in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave. It
contains a most vivid picture of the entrapping
and seizure of one of the many escaped
slaves seeking refuge in Boston in the years
1850 and 1851; a picture which has to be
built piece by piece from the testimony of
the chief actors in the affair, but one whose
details stand out with extreme clearness
and startle the beholder into realizing the
entire change of base brought about in this
country by the last quarter of a century.
The slave in question was one Fred.
Wilkins, who, in the month of May, 1850,
ran away from his master and succeeded
in reaching Boston, where, after we know
not what vicissitudes, he rested a while
under the alias Shadrach, a name full of
suggestive significance to those mindful of
the fervently religious nature of his race.
He found employment in that well-known
restaurant, or, to use the old-time word,
restorator, the Cornhill Coffee-House, where
steaks and coffee were served to men
chilled by long, snowy drives from the
suburbs, or to casual droppers-in.
His former master, however, John de
Bere of Norfolk, Virginia, a purser in the
navy, did not intend to let his "boy" slip
through his fingers quite so easily. The
Fugitive Slave Law was made to cover just
such cases as his, and he determined to
profit by it. Accordingly, in February,
1851, one John Caphart arrived in Boston,
announcing that he had come in behalf of
John de Bere, and took out a warrant
against Frederic Wilkins, alias Shadrach,
as a fugitive from labor.
Caphart did not know Shadrach by sight;
neither did Patrick Riley, United States
deputy marshal, who was to see the warrant
served. They knew that he was employed
in the coffee-house, and therefore engaged
a person who could point him out to them
to meet Riley and others there, and assist
in the arrest. Read Riley's account:
"I, Patrick Riley, having been duly sworn,
depose and say that on Saturday morning,
o'clock, A.M., I was called upon at my residence
Feb. 15, 1851, about twenty minutes before eight
by Frederick Warren, who informed me that
there was a negro man, an alleged fugitive, to be
arrested at eight o'clock, who was supposed to be
at Taft's Cornhill Coffee-House . . . The negro
was unknown to any one of the marshal's deputies
or assistants . . . Mr. Sawin had gone to find the
man who . . . was to point out the negro. . . .
At two minutes before eleven [Warren] returned
and said that the parties were about Taft's Coffee-House.
I went with Mr. Warren, Mr. John
H. Riley, and other deputies to the coffee-house,
and there found all our men, nine in number,
stationed in and about the place, that there were
several negroes in and about the place, and I
inquired for the man who was to point out the
alleged fugitive, and was informed that he had not
arrived; that Mr. Warren and myself went
immediately into the dining-hall at the coffee-house,
and, to avoid suspicion, ordered some coffee."
Shadrach could hardly have been ignorant
of the official character of these men;
yet Riley goes on to say: "We were waited
on by a waiter who subsequently proved to
be the alleged fugitive" — Shadrach
himself. Possibly Shadrach thought the boldest
course the safest, and feared to hasten
discovery by avoiding them. It may be,
also, that he was quite accustomed to serving
deputy marshals and to wondering with
the sang froid of an old campaigner where
the cannon-ball would strike next. He
must have heard all about William and
Ellen Craft, in their adventures of the
previous October, and perhaps had become
emboldened by the success of efforts in
their behalf. At all events, he fetched the
coffee. Riley continues:
"Not hearing anything from our associates,
we took our coffee and rose to go out and learn
why we had not heard from them, . . . the negro
went before us to the bar-room with the money to
pay for the coffee, and in the passage between the
bar-room and the hall Mr. Sawin and Mr. Byrne
came up, and each took the negro by an arm and
walked him out of the back passageway, through
a building between the coffee-house and the square
beside the court-house, to the court-room."
Shadrach, bareheaded and still in his
waiter's dress, resisted them frantically, as
they hurried him along, and when they
reached the court-room, turned wildly to
Clark, one of the constables there, with,
"Who claims me?"
"I referred him to Mr. Sawin," says
Clark. "Mr. Sawin named one person to
him, and he said he did not know him.
Mr. Sawin named another person to him,
and he said he did not know him."
"I am Shadrach," he insisted; and went
on pouring out explanations and confused
accounts of himself and his running away,
until stopped by the friendly Clark, who
testifies: "I advised him not to speak to
me about it, as I might be made a witness
against him. I told him not to tell any
one but his counsel, and Mr. List, his
counsel, told him the same; and he
stopped talking to the officers and others."
Mr. List was a lawyer, a young German,
who entered heartily into the feelings
of the Abolitionists. Chancing to pass the
court-house just as Shadrach was being
carried in, he followed, and offered his
services. Charles G. Davis was also sent
for, to assist in the case; and Samuel E.
Sewall and Ellis Gray Loring, hearing of
it, came as well.
The friends of the Abolition movement
had arranged a system of communication
by means of which they were speedily
informed of the taking out of any warrant
against a fugitive. Such news, indeed,
spread quickly of itself; it was not long
before the court-room was filled with
spectators, both white and colored, anxiously
awaiting the result.
The commissioner, George T. Curtis,
came in. He asked Shadrach, proceeding
in the usual manner, if he wished counsel.
Shadrach replied that he did. The counsel
immediately asked for a delay. This,
after a short discussion of the question,
was granted; the trial was postponed to
the following Tuesday, and the court
adjourned. The spectators, finding that
there was to be no trial that day, dispersed;
the commissioner took his leave; and no one
was left in the court-room but the prisoner,
his counsel, who had permission to consult
with him there, his keeper, Riley, and a
few officers who guarded the inside door.
Shadrach was detained in the court-room
because no one knew what else to
do with him. Since the days of Latimer,
in 1842, no fugitive slave had been placed,
as such, in a Massachusetts jail.1 Latimer
was a fugitive, arrested on a false charge
of theft, and brought before Judge Shaw
and the full bench of the Supreme Court.
"Judge Shaw," to quote the Liberator of
November 4, 1842, "said the case was to be
decided by the Constitution of the United
States. By the Constitution, the duty of
returning runaway slaves was made
imperative on the free states." The judge,
therefore, bound Latimer over to appear
before Judge Story on November 5. "As
soon as he was ordered to be bound over,"
says Samuel E. Sewall, as reported in the
Liberator of October 30, "several gentlemen
offered bail. But instead of bailing
him, the charge of larceny was abandoned";
the court declared Latimer to be legally in
the custody of Mr. Stratton, who acted for
Gray, the master, "and solely on the
authority of his master he was carried back
to jail. Neither the sheriff nor the jailer
had any right to receive him there."
Money was then raised to purchase Latimer.
Meanwhile, Samuel E. Sewall, three
Bowditches, Charles Sumner, Francis
Jackson, Wendell Phillips, and others,
signed a petition to Sheriff Evelyth,
demanding the immediate release of Latimer,
as he was illegally detained; and the
persons acting for Mr. Gray, seeing that they
were helpless, gladly took a small sum, and
made no opposition to Latimer's walking
out of jail a free man.
1
See Mass. Laws, chap. 69, sec. 2, "No sheriff
shall hereafter arrest or detain . . . in any
jail or other building belonging to this Commonwealth. . .
any person for the reason that he is
claimed as a fugitive slave."
|
So Shadrach could not be shut up in
jail unless accused of some crime against
the state; neither would the right-minded
Commodore Downes receive him as a
prisoner in the navy-yard, though Riley
sent to request it. The court-room was
the only place where a fugitive slave could
be confined.
As the number of people within the
court-room lessened, the crowd outside
the door increased. There was a passage
leading from the outer steps to the courtroom
door, and into this passage an excited
throng of people, most of them negroes,
had pressed. They tried from time to
time to force an entrance, but without
success; for whenever the door was opened
it was as surely closed again, in spite of
the dark, eager fingers clinging to the
slowly closing edge.
At two o'clock Mr. Davis, who lingered
after Mr. Sewall and Mr. Loring had gone,
was ready to go. He approached the door
to pass through. The voices on the outer
side of the door grew louder. Shadrach's
friends were gaining confidence. "Take
him out, boys, go in and take him out!"
they cried.
Very cautiously the officers opened the
door, and Mr. Davis slipped into the
narrow opening. Then was Mr. Davis
rather deliberate in his motion? — the door
would not shut. Feet and shoulders were
inserted from without. The officers pulled
with a will, but this time in vain. A score
of men rushed in. Shadrach leaped up
and darted forward to meet them. They
lifted him high in the air, swept him from
the room, and half passed him, half flung
him, down the steps. He heard a woman
in the crowd shriek "God bless you!
Have they got you?" Then, throwing
himself into a carriage waiting there in
the street for him, he was whirled away.
Mr. Davis was accused of having aided
and abetted in the rescue, but nothing was
proved against him. Richard H. Dana,
in his speech in defence of Davis, says:
"By the courtesy of the marshal, the counsel
were permitted to remain here [in the courtroom]
because the marshal had not yet determined
where to keep his prisoner. . . . When the
business is over they leave. . . . In the meantime
about that door is collected a small number of
persons of the same color with the prisoner at the
bar; very likely, perhaps, to make a rescue; some
advising against it, and some for it, with
considerable excitement. Mr. Davis slides out of that
passageway and goes to his office. Mr. Wright
is prevented from going by the crowd. Not a
blow is struck, not the hair of a man's head is
injured; the prisoner walks off with his friends,
straight out of this court-house, and no more
than twenty or thirty persons have done the deed.
Three men outside the door could have prevented
the rescue; Mr. Riley did not suspect it, Mr.
Wright did not suspect it, nobody suspected it.
The sudden action of a small body of men, unexpected, and only successful because unexpected,
accomplished it. He is out of reach of the officers
in a moment, and there's an end of the whole
business."
It is not quite the end of Shadrach's
story. Mr. James N. Buffum used to tell
with much enjoyment the tale of the evening
of February 16th, when he and Judge
Russell found themselves in Leominster,
engaged to speak at a meeting there. He
said that they had come out from Boston
full of the great news of the day, of the
rescue of Shadrach, the escaped slave,
exulting over it, and intending to make it
the chief theme of their discourses. On
Sunday morning Shadrach himself arrived,
sent by some friends to find shelter under
that same roof. Very much interested,
they tried to make advances, but for a
long time he looked upon them with great
distrust. Before the time for the meeting,
however, he became convinced that he
was among friends, and entering into the
spirit of their plans for him, dressed him-
self as a woman and boldly went to the
meeting to hear his own adventures related
from the platform.
A short account published in the Boston
Evening Transcript, a few years ago, for
the purpose of eliciting further information
concerning Shadrach, brought the following
kind communication from Mr. Charles
W. Flint, of Lawrence:
"LAWRENCE, MASS., February 10, 1886.
"Mr. Samuel Crocker of Lawrence used to say
that he carried Shadrach out from Boston on the
evening of his rescue; that he drove in the direction
of Fitchburg; that as they drove along in the
evening they came to a schoolhouse where a
prayer-meeting was being held; that he stopped and
entered the house, and prayed, and then went on his.
journey again. Mr. Crocker then owned the horse
which he used for this purpose, and said that he
would never part with it. Mr. Crocker was a paper
manufacturer, a deacon of the Baptist Church, a
man of dark complexion."
And a Leominster lady has furnished
this concise summary:
"February 15, 1851, the people of Boston were
excited and aroused over the rescuing of the
famous slave Shadrach, who was taken from the
court-house at noon, while the court was indulging
in the midday repast. The slave was driven to
Watertown to the house of William S. White, a
friend of the anti-slavery cause, who took the
refugee to Concord to the residence of Mrs. Mary
M. Brooks, wife of Lawyer Brooks. Mrs. Brooks
employed the services of a faithful anti-slavery
friend to drive Shadrach to Leominster that night.
They arrived at the home of Mr. Jonathan Drake
early on the morning of the 16th, which was
Sunday. An anti-slavery convention and fair had
been held in Leominster on the 14th and 15th,
and a meeting was to be held on Sunday.
Consequently Judge Thomas Russell, James N. Buffum,
and others, were at Mr. Drake's when Shadrach
reached there.
"The fleeing and frightened black did not dare
to enter the house, the number present exciting
his fears to an almost ungovernable extent. After
he had entered the house, and was seated by the
fire, Judge Russell begged the privilege of offering
Shadrach a piece of bread, knowing that it was in
direct violation of the law. The slave took the
bread, and broke it, and repeating the words of
the communion service, passed it to the friends
assembled. A glass of water was offered him,
which he tasted and passed to the others, as he
had the bread, after which a most fervent and
affecting prayer was offered by the poor fugitive,
who now felt that he had found friends indeed.
This scene was said to be very solemn and impressive.
The friends were very anxious to have
Shadrach attend the meeting to be held that evening,
at which the gentlemen mentioned were to speak.
He demurred at first, but finally consented, and
attended, disguised in the habiliments of a woman.
"He remained in Leominster until Monday
night, when he was sent to Mr. Benjamin Snow in
Fitchburg, and from there was conveyed to Mr.
Alvin Ward in Ashburnham, and was taken thence
to Canada. After his arrival in Montreal Mrs.
Drake received a letter from him, which she now
has in her possession. She has also a work-box
which he gave her on his departure for Canada.
"Mr. Benjamin Snow was in Montreal three or
four years ago, and saw Shadrach, who was keeping
a restaurant there. He has a wife and children,
or had at that time."
