On February 15, 1851, Shadrach Minkins was arrested in Boston under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law which was passed by Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of a compromise allowing California to enter the Union as a free state and ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The act made the federal government responsible for tracking down and apprehending enslaved people who had escaped to the northern states. No statute of limitations applied, so that even those who had been free for many years could be returned. The passage and enforcement of this law enraged many people in the North-even those who were not ardent abolitionists. In May of 1850, Shadrach had made his way from Norfolk, Virginia, where he had been born into slavery, to Boston, Massachusetts. He worked at the Cornhill Coffee House, where he was arrested that Saturday morning and brought across the street to the federal courthouse. A group of about thirty African-American men had gathered in the hallway, and when the door was opened for men leaving, the group rushed the courtroom and grabbed Shadrach. He eventually found his way to safety in Canada.
Bearse, Austin. [Excerpts from “Reminiscences of Fugitive-Slave Law Days in Boston”.] 1880. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l09-007/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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