Lewis Hayden
Lewis Hayden (December 2, 1811 – April 7, 1889) was an African American leader, ex-slave, abolitionist, businessman, Republican Party worker and a representative from Boston to the Massachusetts state legislature in 1873.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
When he was 13, the American Revolutionary War soldier, Marquis de Lafayette tipped his hat to Hayden in the slave state of Kentucky, which helped inspire Hayden to believe he was worthy of respect and become an abolitionist in adult life.[1]. As a young man, Hayden was married to a female slave in Lexington, with whom he had a child. They were owned by Henry Clay, who sold them into the Deep South, and Hayden never heard from them again.[1]
[edit] Escape and freedom
By the early 1840's, Hayden's owners were leasing his services to a hotel in Lexington, where he was able to earn money doing odd jobs on the side. By 1844, he had earned enough to finance his own escape, which he did together with his second wife, Harriet, and son. He was aided Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster. (Webster served two months of a two-year prison sentence for helping the Haydens, but Fairbank, sentenced to 15 years, served four years until Hayden, in effect, ransomed him.)
[edit] Anti-slavery efforts
The Haydens first escaped to Canada, then moved for a short time to Detroit. Within a few years, the Haydens moved to Massachusetts, where he began work as an agent, or travelling speaker and organizer, for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Hayden appeared as a lecturer for the Society in Massachusetts and western New York in 1846 – 1848. Reports of his appearances appear in The Liberator and the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
In 1847 Lewis and Harriet Hayden began a journey to Vermont that involved traveling on the railroad. When the conductor refused to honor their first class tickets because of their race, the Haydens protested and forced the railroad into compliance. Rather than admit them to the all-white seating area, however, the railroad ordered a special first-class car only for them.
He toured western New York with abolitionist Erasmus Darwin Hudson. In February 1848, he responded to a letter from the society informing him of "his agency being stopped]." Nevertheless, the Boston City Directory for 1849-50 lists him as a lecturer.
After Hayden returned to Boston in 1849, he began to work for Fairbank's release. In 1849 payment was arranged for compensation "to the parties claiming redress for the loss of their slaves. Benjamin Howard, Francis Jackson, and Ellis Gray Loring, were parties on each side to pay and receive a stipulated sum -- six hundred dollars. . ." when Fairbank was released.
[edit] Merchant activities
By 1850, Hayden opened a clothing store on Cambridge Street. He remained in this business until 1858, despite the financial crisis of 1857, which forced him to continue his business from his home. The Boston Globe suggests that Hayden first moved to a smaller store, was burned out, and later "took to peddling jewelry" during the panic of 1857-58. (The bankruptcy papers for Hayden's business failure can be found in the archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.) These businesses helped to finance Hayden's work for the Boston Vigilance Committee, and his and Harriet's house was a well-known "station" on the Underground Railroad[2].
[edit] Vigilance Committee
Hayden moved away from the non-violent philosophy of the Garrisonians in the Anti-Slavery Society and worked both independently and as an agent of the Vigilance Committee as an organizer within the African American community to protect escaped slaves, as well as to provide welfare for those who were having money problems. He took up arms resisting legal authorities in the cases of Shadrach Minkins, Thomas Sims, Anthony Burns and William and Ellen Craft. Hayden was arrested and tried in the Minkins case, but the trial resulted in a hung jury.
[edit] Political activities
Hayden was a longtime supporter of John A. Andrew who became governor in 1861. Hayden received a position a messenger in the Secretary of State's office, which he held until retirement. During and after the Civil War, Hayden recruited African American men for the United States Colored Troops, and travelled throughout the South working with new African American Masonic lodges ( Prince Hall Freemasonry). His only known son enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was killed during the war.
In 1873 Hayden served one term as a representative from Boston to the Massachusetts legislature. He was involved in the movement to erect a statue in honor of Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston Massacre. Hayden died in 1889 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.
[edit] References
- ^ Runyon, Randolph Paul. Delia Webster and the Underground Railroad, University Press of Kentucky, (1999). ISBN 978-0813109749
- ^ Boston African American National Historic Site: Lewis and Harriet Hayden House
- Collison, Gary, Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press (1998 paperback reprint). ISBN 0-674-80299-3
- Strangis, Joel, Lewis Hayden and the War Against Slavery, North Haven, Connecticut: Linnet Books, (1999). ISBN 0208024352
