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| Minkins, is apparently pictured in this image from a wanted poster |
Minkins, an escaped slave, was waiting tables at the Cornhill Coffee House near Bunker Hill in Boston on Feb. 15, 1851 when taken in by Deputy Marshal Patrick Riley, on orders of Commissioner G.T. Curtis, who had a close relationship with slavery-defender Daniel Webster.
Cops arrested him on a complaint from John Kupper, attorney for John De Bree, a naval purser in Norfolk Virginia.
De Bree claimed that Shadrach was his slave and had escaped on May 3 1850.
Minkins, of course, was of African heritage.
A hearing was scheduled to rule on his status and his lawyers S.E. Sewall and E.G. Lorin had the hearing delayed several days.
Massachusetts law prohibited the jailing of slave so Minkins was kept in the courtroom during that time.
Commander Downs rejected a request to house him in the Navy Yard for the four days before his hearing.
When the hearing began in Boston court on a Tuesday, many African-Americans waited in the hallways anxious to attend the case.
Deputy Marshal Riley, a rosy man described by a detractor as a "glorified pumpkin" offered to buy Shadrach Minkins for $25.
Deputy Marshall ordered everybody out of the hearing but nobody was in a rush to leave.
Suddenly outside the courtroom a sound of Hurray rang out as a group of people rushed towards the room.
Riley and friends attempted to keep the door shut.
Shadrach Minkins walked towards one exit but Officer Edward J. Jones tried to block him and Minkins then headed towards an unguarded door.
Riley called out "shoot him! shoot him!"
Jones then grabbed a symbolic sword of justice but realized it wasn't a real weapon. So he called for help out the window.
At that moment the door burst open and a stream of men rushed in.
Riley hid behind the door as the group ushered Minkins out.
Those inside the room looked "thoroughly sick and ashamed of their business," according to an account.
Minkins, a Methodist, was brought to a home in the countryside where he knelt down at breakfast and thanked God, saying he would sooner die than return to the south.
He dressed as a woman to attend an anti-slavery meeting that Sunday and soon after headed to Montreal.
Several people involved in the break-out faced charges but Minkins was already long gone.
Boston Mayor Hood was an avid anti-slavery advocate and newspapers were abuzz with the story as copies sold out fast across the country.
The reports inflamed tensions that eventually brought the slavery question to a head in a manner that resulted in civil war.
Various parties sued each other for libel concerning their parts in the affair, indeed a Colonel Gugy won a $100 lawsuit against the Montreal Gazette.
Once in Montreal Minkins first worked at the Montreal House Hotel (now 360 Place Royal, near the old port) and lived across from what's now the courthouse on Notre Dame.
Minkins spoke at a fundraiser for his cause as well as others in a similar circumstance (Charles Williams, Henry Johnson, Stephen Tidball, aka Tybold and James Scott) at the Theatre Royal on March 13 1851.
The beneficiaries complained that they didn't get the money promised them. The organizer Butler shot back blaming Scott of failing to share the $7.50 he had given him.
Minkins reportedly had a restaurant in Montreal called Uncle Tom's Cabin but no records of that can be found.
Minkins went on to have his own barber shop on Mountain, west side, just south of St. James.
He fathered two children with an Irish-Montrealer and died in 1875. Their unmarked graves are at the Mount Royal Cemetery.