Thread, b/c I fell down a research rabbit hole again today. This one's a shout-out to the memory of Nelson Hackett, an enslaved man who had been held by Fayetteville, Arkansas farmer Alfred Wallace. A nasty man. 1/

Hackett self-emancipated in the summer of 1841. Traveling more than 1K miles in 6 weeks through MO, IL, IN, OH, & MI. He crossed the border into Canada in Sep 1841, believing that "the humanity of the British law made him a free man." [Spoiler alert: it did not.] 2/

Wallace accused him of having stolen "a fine racehorse and saddle, a beaver coat, and a gold watch and chain." Hackett insisted that the items belonged to him; Wallace was so determined to retrieve his property—and the fugitive—that he had Hackett followed to Chatham, ON. 3/

He had Canadian authorities arrest Hackett, charged him w/theft, & demanded his extradition to AR for punishment. Abolitionists in the US & Canada demanded that Canada honor its commitment to safe haven for fugitives. 4/

Defenders of slavery & those who feared Canada's offer of sanctuary would lead to a flood of fugitive Black criminals crossing the Canadian border argued that Hackett wasn't truly seeking asylum; he was trying to avoid consequences of theft. 5/

Governor-general Sir Charles Bagot directed that Hackett be extradited: "To refuse to surrender him would be to establish as a principle that no slave escaping to this province should be given up, whatever offense, short perhaps of murder, he might have committed; 6/

a principle which would have been repugnant to the common sense of justice of the civilized world, would have involved us in disputes of the most inconvenient nature with the neighbouring states, and would have converted this province into an asylum for the worst characters." 7/

In short, property mattered more than people, and also more than principle. 8/

Fayetteville's founder, former postmaster, & former state representative, Onesimus Evans, went to Chatham to escort Hackett back to Arkansas. Evans may have been related to Wallace by marriage, as his wife was a former Wallace & the population of Fayetteville was only 450. 9/

(Onesimus Evans is the reason I stumbled on this story, but that's a whole other matter.) When Evans, companion Lewis Davenport, & Hackett passed back through Princeton, Illinois, Hackett self-emancipated again—likely hoping to escape before they arrived in a slave state. 10/

Evans & Davenport had fallen in w/some travelers from NY, who offered to watch Hackett. One of them may have helped him remove the leg irons in which Evans had put him. He went out a second-story window. Unfortunately, 11/

Hackett didn't know the country around Princeton. He wandered through forest & prairie for 2 days before he was retaken, just 7 miles from the inn from which he'd escaped. 12/

According to another man who self-emancipated from Alfred Wallace, after Evans & Davenport returned to Fayetteville, Hackett was publicly & severely whipped, & then "sold off to the interior of Texas." The story doesn't end there. 13/

Hackett's plight drew attention to Canada as a refuge for African Americans who escaped from slavery. On 9 August 1842, the US & Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving border & extradition issues. Formerly enslaved persons were protected from extradition 14/

from Canada thereafter, & our neighbor to the north truly became a safe haven for formerly enslaved people. This is not the end of Nelson Hackett's story, either. He self-emancipated a third time, either from Fayetteville or 15/

on his way to Texas. He was never heard from again.

Godspeed and God bless, Nelson Hackett. I hope you lived long in freedom, wherever you finally went. 16/end

Oh: References. Michael Pierce, "Adventures. Escape of a Slave." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Summer 2020, Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 131-141. And I looked up some stuff about the treaty on Wikipedia.