An enslaved man in his 20s escaped his owner in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1841 and made it all the way to Chatham, Canada, only to be found by his owner and, with the help of the governor of Arkansas, extradited back to Fayetteville. But this incredible journey and his story would forever change how Canada responded to the requests of U.S. slave owners for extradition of escaped slaves.

The Escape

My home city of Fayetteville announced last year that the City Council had approved plans to change the name of a local street from Archibald Yell Boulevard to Nelson Hackett Boulevard. It was intriguing to hear that Nelson Hackett was a former slave. But I couldn’t have imagined at the time how amazing Nelson’s story was and the impact that his journey had on the lives of American slaves escaping to Canada.

Nelson was a slave in his 20s owned by Fayetteville resident Alfred Wallace. Wallace’s family story is pretty unsavory without even knowing that he owned slaves, but that’s a story for another day. In July 1841 Nelson fled Arkansas and traveled all the way to Chatham, Canada, about 50 miles east of Detroit, Michigan. His journey took about 6 weeks to complete.

Free in Canada?

Chatham was a community of around 600 people and was already a haven for escaped slaves. Nelson probably would have been able to live there freely since the British Empire (and consequently Canada) had enacted the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. But unfortunately, he had committed a crime before he left Fayetteville.

When Alfred Wallace discovered Nelson’s location in Canada, he asked his friend, none other than slave-owning Arkansas governor Archibald Yell, to petition the Canadian government to immediately extradite him on charges of stealing. While Wallace’s list of stolen goods was exaggerated and his claims also falsely included a rape charge, when Nelson was arrested, he was found to have a stolen horse, saddle, watch, and  coat. Sadly, even though Canada wouldn’t have extradited him for being “owned” by Wallace, they did choose to allow extradition for committing a crime.

Nelson was eventually taken back to Fayetteville, punished by a severe public lashing by Wallace, and eventually sold and taken to Texas where it has been rumored that he was “worked to death.” But that’s just the beginning of the story. Nelson’s journey, capture and extradition would become a pivotal part of a new treaty between the British Empire and the United States that would establish how Canada and other members of the British Empire responded to the international slave trade.

Legacy

In April 1842, while Nelson was still in Detroit awaiting his forced return to Arkansas, U.S. and British diplomats began negotiating this new treaty. Nelson’s story was just one part of what would affect the negotiations. Article 10 of the Webster-Asburton Treaty would be created and determined that escaped slaves were safe from extradition unless there were criminal charges filed in the U.S. The new law would continue to be debated all the way to London’s House of Parliament and Nelson’s case would be mentioned again and again as abolitionists tried to ensure that slave owners couldn’t make claims of criminal charges in order to get their slaves extradited from a country or territory of the British Empire.

In the end, Article 10 remained as written – but would only be applied when it could be determined that the accused would have a fair trial of their peers back in their U.S. location. And we all know that in a southern slave state that simply would be impossible during this time. This provision made it much more likely that escaped slaves were allowed to stay.

Nelson Hackett’s case would have a lasting effect on protecting escaped slaves in Canada.

“Although Hackett’s fate remains unknown, his martyrdom became an effective tool for those fighting not only to protect the rights of fugitives but also to abolish the institution of slavery.” – University of Arkansas | The Nelson Hackett Project

Sources I’m grateful for that are also good links to dive deeper into Nelson Hackett’s Story
University of Arkansas | The Nelson Hackett Project
Fayetteville Flyer story about the street name change

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