Prologue Norfolk "Han't Got No Self" "Horses and Men, Cattle and Women, Pigs and Children" "The Silver Trump of Freedom" Boston "Cradle of Liberty"? "A New Reign of Terror" "Much Excitement Prevails" "A Thing...or a Man?" "Plucked as a Brand from the Burning" "Never Was a Darker Day" North Star Montreal "Please to Remember Me Kindly" A Home Far Away "Free at Last! Free at Last!" Epilogue Militia Petition by Black Residents of Montreal Notes Acknowledgments Index Illustrations Hampton Roads, Virginia (Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Virginia) Market Square, Norfolk (author's collection) Newspaper advertisement of sale of Shadrach Minkins (Library of Congress) Daniel Webster (Massachusetts Historical Society) Boston's West End (Sixth Ward) neighborhood (Massachusetts Historical Society) The Joy Building, Boston (The Bostonian Society/Old State House) Lewis Hayden (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Joshua B. Smith (Massachusetts Historical Society) William and Ellen Craft (William Still, The Underground Railroad, 1872) The Boston Court House and Court Square (The Bostonian Society/Old State House) Route of Shadrach Minkins' rescue party (author's collection) Boston Daily Times article (Boston Athenaeum) Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site) House of Francis E. and Ann Bigelow (Concord Free Public Library) Ann Bigelow in old age (Concord Free Public Library) View of Montreal (Collection: McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal) Notice of the Real Ethiopian Serenaders' benefit concert (National Archives of Canada, Ottawa) Detail of map of Montreal (Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, McLennan Library, McGill University) George E. Jones (Courtesy of Robert "Bud" Jones)
From the scantiest of records, Gary Collison has imagined the life of Shadrach Minkins. He has painted a richly textured portrait of the African-American communities in each of the three cities in which Minkins lived...A first-class adventure story. -- William S. McFeely, author of Frederick Douglass Minkins was a man who, acting initially on his own, was swept up in events not of his own making. A pawn, in some sense, of the white abolitionists among whom he enjoyed some celebrity, a member of Boston's black fugitive underground, and a participant in the refugee culture of Montreal, where he learned the lessons of free agency, Shadrach moved into the semiprofessional class, married, had a family, and lived out his days without notable incident and died without returning to the country of his birth. Finally, after more than a century of obscurity, the story of Shadrach will gain some of the attention it deserves. -- Barbara L. Bellows, author of Benevolence among Slaveholders: Assisting the Poor in Charleston, 1670-1860 This book will rescue Shadrach Minkins once again from obscurity. Different readers will find varying ways to connect with this book. Some will value the research above all else; it is a remarkable piece of historical detective work. Some will find the whole story of fugitive slaves and abolitionism demystified and recreated. Some may find even further stimulus to the study of black identity formation in the nineteenth century. Finally, some may simply find a good read, especially about the drama of the rescue and escape to Canada. Collison has found and reimagined Shadrach. -- David Blight, author of Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee
Gary Collison is the author of Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen. He was Professor Emeritus of American Studies and English at Penn State York.
Collison (English, Pennsylvania State Univ.) offers an interesting account of the life of a slave who ran away to Boston in search of freedom and was then entrapped by the Compromise of 1850. The author provides insight into the day-to-day life of a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, as a fugitive in Boston, and, finally, as a citizen in Montreal, Canada. While Minkins himself left no account, Collison bases his work on records relating to his subject and his movements. The author conveys the political ramifications of the Fugitive Slave Law and the reactions of the black community of Boston, the abolitionists of New England, and individual slaves to the problems of returning runaway slaves to the South. Collison's work should be required reading for anyone interested in African American history, especially during Black History month.‘W. Walter Wicker, Louisiana Technological Univ., Ruston
Through obsessive sleuthing, the author...has brilliantly brought
Minkins back to life. Collison began with little more than the
records of the case and contemporary newspaper accounts. He
mastered the literature of slavery and the histories of the three
cities in which Minkins lived... [A] full-blown biography of an
ordinary African American man or woman is a rarity. Only an
exceptional author would dare take on such a daunting task, and
Shadrach Minkins has been well served by his biographer. -- Stuart
Seely Sprague * Washington Post *
Shadrach Minkins was the first runaway slave to be arrested under
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Gary Collison traces the life of
this rather ordinary individual-who was rescued from the courthouse
by a band of Boston black men shortly after his arrest and then
disappeared-from this early years as a slave in Virginia to his
career as a free man in Montreal. Part history, part detective
story, this outstanding portrait of black life in 19th-century
America is now available in paperback form; it would be a bargain
at any price. * Dallas Morning News *
[Collison's book] is a story told wonderfully well...[and] a
triumph of research and persistence. -- Abdulrazak Gurnah * Times
Literary Supplement *
Gary Collison must have spent a lot of time digging into the
historical records to reconstruct the life of Shadrach Minkins, an
obscure figure but an important one in the tormented middle years
of the American 19th century... [It] is a careful, workmanlike
piece of historical rescue, one that brings to light the facts of a
fascinating American life. Mr. Collison's...book does not read like
the usual academic tome. He concentrates not on theory or
interpretation but on the remarkable story he has to tell. Along
the way, he draws an illuminating portrait of black life in three
cities... He describes the activities of fugitives and would-be
fugitives, their encounters with racism and with the kindness of
antislavery strangers as well as with slave-catchers, abolitionist
lawyers and politicians. Not least, he charts a subtle map of race
relations, of the various ways that blacks were perceived and
received by the different white communities they encountered. --
Richard Bernstein * New York Times *
Gary Collison...has combed archives and old newspaper clippings for
details of [this] little-known incident. His story sweeps in such
familiar characters as Daniel Webster and Frederick Douglass, along
with the forgotten or anonymous black Bostonians who saved Shadrach
Minkins, all of them caught in the swirling currents of Boston's
anti-slavery movement... [I]t is hard not to get caught up in this
improbable saga. -- Wil Haygood * Boston Sunday Globe *
Because of [Collison's] painstaking work, a life has been rescued
from obscurity, and a small piece of American as well as
African-American history has been resurrected. -- Paula Barnes *
Daily Press [Newport News, VA] *
[A] terrific new book... This obscure story of the first slave
arrested in Boston after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
crackles with historical parallels. -- J. Peder Zane * News &
Observer [Raleigh, NC] *
[T]his is a first-rate historical detective story and a rich
portrait of black life in three cities. What Collison was able to
learn about Shadrach Minkins is impressive... In the course of
following Minkins' shadow through wills, census and tax records,
legal documents, newspapers, memoirs, and even oral tradition,
Collison relates much about slave life in antebellum Norfolk, the
operation of the so-called Underground Railroad, the politics
surrounding the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and its varied reception in
the North, the black abolitionists of Boston, and the community of
African-American emigres in Montreal. -- John M. Coski * Richmond
Times-Dispatch *
In telling Minkins' story, Collison has drawn on little known
sources of Norfolk and national African-American history. As a
consequence, a careful reading of his text and particularly the
copious notes that he has appended to each chapter will provide any
serious student of American history with fascinating offbeat
insights that have formerly been unavailable. -- George Holbert
Tucker * Virginian-Pilot [Norfolk, VA] *
Collison [is a] diligent historian and resourceful storyteller, and
from a few archival threads...has embroidered an elaborate
contextual cloth... Though driven by the biographical impulse,
Shadrach Minkins [is]...best judged as [an] archival slice
of American life during a most troubled time. -- Leonard Cassuto *
American Literature *
[Shadrach Minkins is] packed with detail about life in 19th
century America. Statistics dominate, with a multitude of facts and
figures supplied in the course of the book... The enthusiasm of the
author and his clear writing style ensure this is an easily
readable and engrossing story. Collison moves skillfully between
close detail of Minkins's escape and the broader picture of African
American life in America and Canada and as he does so the reader is
infected with Collison's enthusiasm and interest. -- Janice Burrow
* American Studies in Europe [UK] *
[Collison] has painted for us a fascinating portrait of African
American life in slavery and freedom at the time of the Fugitive
Slave Law... This book will be useful not only to the average
reader interested in fugitive slave accounts but also to
researchers seeking new avenues of information for African American
and African Canadian history. It is entertaining and well written,
demonstrating how thorough research, coupled with an author's deep
personal interest in the subject, can combine to make a scholarly
history book that is also a good read. -- Karolyn Smardz Frost *
Canadian Historical Review *
This is a remarkable book. To write a biography of an illiterate
man, born in slavery, who successfully escaped and left virtually
no paper trail of his life is no mean task. Yet Gary Collison did
exactly that. The author's scholarly training in literary criticism
enabled him to fill in the blanks without distorting the subject
matter. Indeed, the book is more than a biography. It is a
carefully researched account of the environment and experiences of
those fugitive slaves who found their way to Canada. It is based on
large amounts of original material, including census reports,
newspaper accounts, county records and manuscripts, as well as
scholarly secondary sources... Collison has succeeded in telling a
story that is both fascinating and authentic. By avoiding myths and
unverifiable stories he contributes a plausible addition to the
historical picture while telling the story of Shadrach Minkins. --
Larry Gara * Georgia Historical Quarterly *
What Gary Collison has done is to rescue Shadrach Minkins anew, to
transform him from a historical footnote to an individual with a
story worth telling... Shadrach Minkins is a remarkable
book. Collison has mined the sources available to him in the United
States and Canada to write a compelling biography of an ordinary
man caught up in extraordinary events. -- Julia Winch * New England
Quarterly *
An absorbing account of one man's escape from slavery in Virginia,
his precarious freedom in Boston, his recapture by slave catchers
and his extraordinary rescue and flight to Montreal. This is
historical detective work at its best, gripping and dramatic. This
masterly study by an English professor pieces together the
splinters of Shadrach Minkins' life, crafting an intensely human
portrait of one man's efforts to claim his freedom and himself.
This powerful story...is a signifier of an entire people's travail
in this nation, their challenges to end an oppressive social
system, and their uncertain place in the land of their birth...
Collison's compelling narrative situates Minkins' odyssey within
the context of the abolitionist movement and the larger political
currents in the nation... The result is a major contribution to the
history of black resistance, unembroidered and free of romantic
condescension. -- Colin A. Palmer * Reviews in American History
*
[Collison] has pieced together scattered fragments of evidence to
add depth to our understanding of Minkins himself and the black
(and white) communities he lived in, first in Norfolk, Virginia,
then Boston, and finally Montreal. Minkins' escape was more than a
challenge to the Southerner who 'owned' him; it threatened leaders
like presidential aspirant Daniel Webster, whose carefully
constructed Compromise of 1850 held the Union together by
conceding-and providing federal government support
for-slaveholders' 'property' rights. Shadrach Minkins is a
vivid re-creation of a little-known 1851 incident that sheds light
on larger issues. * Booklist *
A lively and engaging account of a fugitive slave that also offers
a glimpse into the painstaking process of historical inquiry...
Atmospheric, highly readable, and instructive; this is first-rate
history. * Kirkus Reviews *
The author conveys the political ramifications of the Fugitive
Slave Law and the reactions of the black community of Boston, the
abolitionists of New England, and individual slaves to the problems
of returning runaway slaves to the South. Collison's work should be
required reading for anyone interested in African American history.
* Library Journal *
Minkins was a man who, acting initially on his own, was swept up in
events not of his own making. A pawn, in some sense, of the white
abolitionists among whom he enjoyed some celebrity, a member of
Boston's black fugitive underground, and a participant in the
refugee culture of Montreal, where he learned the lessons of free
agency, Shadrach moved into the semiprofessional class, married,
had a family, and lived out his days without notable incident and
died without returning to the country of his birth. Finally, after
more than a century of obscurity, the story of Shadrach will gain
some of the attention it deserves. -- Barbara L. Bellows, author of
Benevolence among Slaveholders: Assisting the Poor in
Charleston, 1670-1860
This book will rescue Shadrach Minkins once again from obscurity.
Different readers will find varying ways to connect with this book.
Some will value the research above all else; it is a remarkable
piece of historical detective work. Some will find the whole story
of fugitive slaves and abolitionism demystified and recreated. Some
may find even further stimulus to the study of black identity
formation in the nineteenth century. Finally, some may simply find
a good read, especially about the drama of the rescue and escape to
Canada. Collison has found and reimagined Shadrach. -- David
Blight, author of Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith
in Jubilee
From the scantiest of records, Gary Collison has imagined the life
of Shadrach Minkins. He has painted a richly textured portrait of
the African-American communities in each of the three cities in
which Minkins lived... A first-class adventure story. -- William S.
McFeely, author of Frederick Douglass
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