Shadrach Minkins Made for “Sailing to Freedom”, an NEH Landmarks of America Workshop in New Bedford, MA

Many fugitive slaves escaped from southern ports on merchant vessels. As shown on the map, Norfolk, Virginia, was a stop on the seaward Underground Railroad, and two popular destinations were New Bedford and Boston.

“After northern states began abolishing slavery during the Revolutionary era, fugitives from throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina started to escape by ship from the Norfolk waterfront. With luck and determination, many succeeded in enlisting the aid of black crewmen working aboard northward-bound vessels. Two of the South’s most famous Underground Railroad fugitives, George Latimer and Shadrach Minkins, escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. A few ship captains were known by local Railroad agents as being sympathetic to fugitives or at least agreeable to transporting them secretly for a price. Captain William D. Bayliss of the Keziah and Captain Alfred Fountain of the City of Richmond bravely transported runaways from Norfolk during the 1850s when local sentiment against the Underground Railroad was at its highest. The City of Richmond docked at John Higgins’ wharf, east of the Berkley Bridge. Higgins was a former owner of Shadrach Minkins.” The City of Norfolk was placed on the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2004."

Local officials in Norfolk, like the Mayor seen below, used whatever force necessary to try to find runaways on board ships before they left port.

Some used the ferry terminal to arrive in Norfolk.

The wharves provided many hiding places for fugitives until they could find a ship willing to take them north.

Knowing he might be sold further south, Shadrach made plans to go to escape while in the port city.

The ship he was on sailed to both New Bedford and Boston. Historians are not sure where Shadrach disembarked, but he ended up in Boston working as a waiter in a hotel along with other free black men.

Shortly after Shadrach’s arrival in Boston, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was passed making it legal to arrest fugitive slaves in northern states and cities.

Abolitionists in Boston warned fugitive slaves to be wary of slave catchers in Boston. Free blacks and fugitives made their own plans to rescue anyone caught by slave catchers under the new law.

Slave catchers sent by his master in Virginia arrested Shadrach at the hotel and brought him to the courthouse. Free black and fugitives in Boston charged the courthouse and took Shadrach out of the courthouse and hid him in the attic of a black woman who lived nearby.

The next day abolitionists took him to Concord, where he stayed overnight with a local family. Below is a re-enactor at the house where Shadrach stayed.

Next Shadrach went to Leominster, to this house at 21 Franklin St. which was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Abolitionist Frances Drake took Minkins into the house in 1851.,

From Leominster Shadrach, dressed as a women in cloak and bonnet, was taken to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Crocker, seen below. They transported him to the next town, Asburnham.

From there, Shadrach traveled through Vermont to Lake Champlain, and then waited for the ice to freeze hard enough to cross over. From there others helped him get to Montreal, which had a thriving fugitive slave population who were protected by Canadian law.

The following report soon appeared in the Boston Commonwealth: MONTREAL, Feb. 28th, 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 the 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 greatful servant. FREDERICK MINKINS

Shadrach changed his slave name to Frederick, after Frederick Douglass. He married a white woman and became a successful barber, and he lived in Montreal for the rest of his life. He is remembered in Fitchburg in a play called “A Bell for Shadrach” written by members of the Fitchburg Historical Society in 1952, produced then and again recently. He was the first fugitive arrested after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed.