Last updated: November 10, 2026
Article
"Rescued from the Fangs of the Slave Hunter": The Case of Shadrach Minkins
Long Road to Justice
Boston served as a destination for many people escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad. Freedom seekers arriving in the city found that Boston's tightly knit free Black community provided support and a welcome sanctuary as they began their new lives. This article highlights the journey of a freedom seeker, Shadrach Minkins, who escaped to Boston. To explore additional stories, visit Boston: An Underground Railroad Hub.
Born enslaved in Norfolk, Virginia, Shadrach Minkins escaped to Boston in the spring of 1850. Nine months later, slave catchers, empowered by the Fugitive Slave Law, arrested Minkins with plans to return him to his owner in Virginia. While held at the courthouse, Black Bostonians staged a daring rescue and successfully escorted Minkins out of the city to safety. Follow his inspiring journey from slavery to freedom in Canada in this interactive map.
Explore the map below to learn about Shadrach Minkins' journey to freedom.
Stop 1— c. 1814-1849: Market Square, Norfolk, Virginia Show Stop 1 on map
"Historical collections of Virginia," Henry Howe, 1845
Born enslaved, likely in 1814, Shadrach Minkins lived and worked in Norfolk, Virginia, until his escape in 1849. Thomas Glenn, the slaveholder who owned Minkins and his parents, ran the Eagle Tavern and Hotel near Market Square. Minkins worked at the Eagle Tavern until Glenn hired him out to Martha Hutchings to work at her store and warehouse, also near Market Square.
Hutchings soon purchased Minkins. However, when her business failed, she auctioned him and several other enslaved people to help settle her debts. John A. Higgins bought Minkins and then later sold him to his father-in-law, John DeBree.[1]
Stop 2— May 1850: Norfolk Harbor, Norfolk, Virginia Show Stop 2 on map
Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1861
In early May 1850, Minkins escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. Many northern bound ships departed from Norfolk to port cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Many freedom seekers, particularly from places along the coast, used ships as their primary means of escape whether hiding as stowaways or with the help of sympathetic, or compensated, captains or crew.[2]
Stop 3— May 1850-February 15, 1851: Cornhill Coffee House and Tavern, Boston, Massachusetts Show Stop 3 on map
"Map of the city of Boston, Massts., 1852," selection, Boston Public Library
Though we do not know Minkins’ exact route to Massachusetts, he set foot in Boston in May 1850. He soon found steady work as a waiter in the Cornhill Coffee House and Tavern, in the commercial heart of the city. He may have lived there for a time as well.
February 15, 1851: Cornhill Coffee House and Tavern, Boston, Massachusetts
Nine months later, John Caphart, a constable from Norfolk, acting on behalf of Shadrach’s owner, John DeBree, enlisted the help of the U.S. Commissioner and federal marshals in Boston to execute the Fugitive Slave Law, arrest Shadrach, and transport him back to Virginia.
On the morning of February 15, 1851, Assistant Deputy Marshall Patrick Riley and other agents arrested Shadrach at the Cornhill Coffee House, minutes after he served them coffee.
With his arrest, Minkins became the first fugitive slave to be seized in New England under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. [3]
Stop 4— February 15, 1851: The Courthouse, Court Square, Boston, Massachusetts Show Stop 4 on map
Boston Public Library
Following Minkins' arrest, Riley and his deputies brought him directly to the courthouse nearby to await his hearing. Crowds soon gathered in and around the courthouse demanding answers.
As tensions mounted, a group of Black men, led by Lewis Hayden, rushed the courtroom, overwhelmed the guards, and seized Shadrach Minkins. The rescue party hustled Minkins out of the courthouse and into the streets heading for the Black community on Beacon Hill.
Shocked and defeated, the authorities did not pursue Minkins and his rescuers.
Dr. Henry Bowditch, a prominent member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, wrote, "Today will ever be a holy day in my calendar, for another slave has been rescued from the fangs of the slave hunter." Reverend Theodore Parker considered this rescue to be "the most noble deed done in Boston since the destruction of the tea in 1773." [4]
Stop 5— February 15, 1851: Mrs. Riley's Attic, Southac Place, Boston, Massachusetts Show Stop 5 on map
Boston Public Library (map), State Library of Massachusetts (Hayden)
According to Lewis Hayden, when the rescue party made it to Beacon Hill, he and Robert Morris, a Black attorney, "'escorted Shadrach away from the crowd' and 'safely lodged him in the attic of a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Riley, one of our race, whose fidelity and humanity we all fully confided in.'" Riley lived on Southac Place, not far from Hayden's own home and safe house on Southac Street.[5]
Stop 6— February 15, 1851: Joseph C. Lovejoy's Residence, Cambridge, Massachusetts Show Stop 6 on map
"A tract for the times. Prohibition ground to powder!!!" By Joseph C. Lovejoy, c. 1869.
Based on his account, Lewis Hayden soon took Minkins from Mrs. Riley's house to nearby Watertown by horse and chaise to get him out of the city.
After spending the afternoon there, they headed to the Cambridge home of Reverend Joseph C. Lovejoy, brother of the martyred abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy. [6]
According to city directories from the 1850s, lived on the corner of Walnut and Charles streets. Today, this corner may be at the intersection of Putnam and Waverley Streets in Cambridge.
Stop 7— February 16, 1851: The Bigelow House, 19 Sudbury Road (now), Concord, Massachusetts Show Stop 7 on map
Concord Library
Later that night, Hayden and John J. Smith, another Black leader from Boston, drove Minkins to Concord where they left him in the care of Ann and Francis Bigelow.
Mrs. Bigelow later recalled that Hayden, Smith, and Shadrach "arrived at Concord at three o’clock Sunday morning…Mr. Bigelow, hearing the carriage, opened his door, and let in the poor fugitive…The blinds of the house were at once shut, and the windows darkened, to evade the notice of any passers-by…"
She cooked Minkins breakfast but described him as "so fatigued with loss of sleep, and anxiety, that he could hardly keep awake while eating."[7]
Stop 8— February 16, 1851: The Drake House, 21 Franklin Street, Leominster, MassachusettsShow Stop 8 on map
Leominster Historical Society
According to Ann Bigelow, after Shadrach Minkins' brief respite in Concord, her husband took him by horse and carriage to the home of Frances and Jonathan Drake in Leominster.
A staunch abolitionist, Mrs. Drake later proudly proclaimed that she "had the honor of sheltering Shadrach when his pursuers were searching for him." Minkins likely spent the remainder of the day with the Drakes before heading further north.[8]
Stop 9— c. February 17-21, 1851: La Praire, Quebec, CanadaShow Stop 9 on map
"Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning's rail road map of the Eastern States," selection, Library of Congress
Tracing Minkins' journey from Leominster becomes more problematic as there are no verifiable accounts of the route he took.
His biographer, Gary Collision, suggests that Shadrach Minkins may have crossed into New Hampshire on February 17 or 18. He likely stuck close to the railroad heading north through Keene, New Hampshire, or crossed overland west to Brattleboro, Vermont, then followed the railway line north from there.
Given the speed in which he reached Canada, it is likely that Minkins traveled both by foot and train as he made his way through either Burlington or St. Albans, in the northwest corner of Vermont, by midweek. In all likelihood, he crossed into Canada heading towards La Praire by Thursday or early Friday morning, then crossed the frozen Saint Lawrence River into Montreal.[9]
Stop 10— 1851-c.1860: Old Montreal, Quebec, CanadaShow Stop 10 on map
Musee McCord Museum
Within a week of arriving in Montreal, Shadrach Minkins sent the following letter to an unknown recipient to let him know of his whereabouts. He signed it “Frederick Minkins,” the name he adopted in Boston to conceal his identity when he first ran away.
“Dear Sir:
I feel it my duty to forward you the account of my arrival in this city. I reached here last Friday evening, a journey of four days. The weather was very severe during this time, and we had to cross the ice twice; once the distance was nine miles. My health is not so good as when I left, but I hope a few days will restore me. I am at a loss for words to express the gratitude I feel to those kind and dear friends in Boston, and believe me I shall always consider it my duty to pray for their health and happiness. Please to remember me kindly here – and to the ladies. And in conclusion, permit me to subscribe myself
Your grateful servant,
Frederick Minkins”[10]
To support himself, Minkins initially worked as a waiter in the Montreal House Hotel near Custom House Square in the section of the city known as Old Montreal. By late March, he opened a barbershop there. By the end of summer, he closed his barbershop and opened the West End Lunch at 172 ½ Notre Dame Street.
One of Minkins' visitors wrote, "he is in excellent spirits, and feels what he never felt previous to his residence in Canada, that he owns himself, and is perfectly safe from the impious clutch of the manhunter…"
By 1853, he met and married his wife Mary and soon began to start a family. Throughout the rest of the 1850s, he owned and operated several barbershops, inns, and restaurants in Old Montreal. He named one of them Uncle Tom's Cabin, after Harriet Beecher Stowe's bestselling novel, in an obvious nod to his stature as a fugitive from American slavery. [11]
Stop 11— c.1860-1875: St. Antoine Ward, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Show Stop 11 on map
Images Montreal
By 1860, Shadrach Minkins and his family moved from Old Montreal to the St. Antoine Ward, the emerging industrial center of the city. He opened a new barbershop on St. Antoine Street and moved his growing family to a home at 83 Montagne (now Mountain) Street.
He also involved himself in civic life. In 1860, he joined nearly forty other Black petitioners as they called for the creation of a Black Militia. Minkins and the other petitioners declared themselves "loyal and dutiful subjects of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria…desirous of proving their attachment to the British Crown under which they hold their rights and privileges as Free Citizens, in common with their brethren of European origin." [12]
Stop 12— December 13, 1875: Mount Royal Cemetery, Outremont, Quebec, Canada Show Stop 12 on map
Musee McCord Museum
Shadrach Minkins died a "Free Citizen" of Canada on December 13, 1875 of "disease of the stomach."
His remains are buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Royal Cemetery.
Minkins' journey on the underground railroad, though fraught at times, led to a new life of family, opportunity, and freedom in his adopted home of Canada. [13]
Footnotes
[1] Gary Collison, Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 10.
Image (previous slide): Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia, 1845. Accessed November 2026, Archive.org-Norfolk Market Square.
[2] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 54.
Image: "The Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia," Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1861.
[3] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 2.
Image: J. Slatter, B. Callan, Matthew Dripps, Lemuel Nichols Ide, and Ferd, Mayer & Co., "Map of the city of Boston, Massts., 1852." (New York/Boston, M. Dripps/L.N. Ide 1852), Map. Digital Commonwealth, Digital Commonwealth-Boston Map.
[4] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 134.
Image: "View of the new court house, Court Street, Boston," Boston Public Library, 1836, Digital Commonwealth-Court House.
[5] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 130.
Image: J. Slatter, B. Callan, Matthew Dripps, Lemuel Nichols Ide, and Ferd, Mayer & Co., "Map of the city of Boston, Massts., 1852." (New York/Boston, M. Dripps/L.N. Ide 1852), Map. Digital Commonwealth, Digital Commonwealth-Boston Map; African Americans in the Massachusetts Legislature, State Library of Massachusetts, accessed November 2026 Digital Commonwealth-Boston Map
[6] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 132.
Image: "Joseph C. Lovejoy," A tract for the times. Prohibition ground to powder!!! By Joseph C. Lovejoy, with forty witnesses. (c. 1869). Hathitrust-Lovejoy.
[7] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 154.
Image: "Ann Bigelow House," Concord Library, 2006.
[8] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 159.
Image: "The Drake House," 2003, Photo courtesy of Leominster Historical Society.
[9] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 164.
Image: Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning. Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning's rail road map of the Eastern States. New York, 1856. Map. Library of Congress-Map.
[10] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 174.
Image: Shadrach Minkins, "Letter from Frederick (Shadrach) Minkins," The North Star, 1851.
[11] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 188, 201.
Image: William Notman, "Notre Dame Street, Montreal, QC," 1866. The McCord Museum. McCord Stewart Museum-Notre Dame Street.
[12] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 213.
Image: "Atlas Montreal plaque 13," BANQ, 1890. Accessed September 2020, Images Montreal.
[13] Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 222.
Image: William Notman, "Entrance to Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal," 1866. The McCord Museum. Accessed September 2020, McCord Stewart Museum-Mount Royal Cemetery.