Statesmen, Scoundrels, and Eccentrics: A Gallery of Amazing Arkansans

Nelson Hacket

Nelson Hacket An Arkansas runaway slave named Nelson Hacket fled Washington County in , an odyssey that ultimately failed, but not before making an international impact. Hacket fled by way of Michigan to freedom in Canada, only to be extradited to Arkansas and the shackles of slavery again. The Hacket case resulted in an international incident, and ultimately the case galvanized the British abolitionists into successfully demanding that the British government refuse to extradite runaway slaves. Nelson Hacket was about thirty years old when he became the possession of Alfred Wallace in June . Wallace, a prosperous farmer and merchant in the Fayetteville area,owned four other slaves.Serving as a valet and butler,Hacket was a highly trusted and valued “servant,” as polite society put it. This did not keep Hacket from planning a daring escape. In mid-July , while his owner was in central Arkansas, Hacket made his move.He took a “fine beaver coat,” a gold watch,and a comfortable saddle. Most important, he stole Wallace’s fine race horse to carry him northward. Roads were primitive in , especially on the western frontier, but Hacket was smart enough to rest during the day and travel at night. He apparently had little to eat other than berries and other wild foods. At the Mississippi River, he had the good fortune to happen upon a ferry tended by a sympathetic African American. He received food, valuable information, and a ride across the swirling river. Eventually, he made his way across the Ohio River into Illinois. Illinois was a free state, and Hacket was able to travel during the day.He received assistance from several sources as he journeyed across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and through Michigan to Detroit. After six weeks of hard riding,Hacket strode aboard the ferry across the Detroit River and then to a runaway settlement near Sandwich,Canada,about fifty miles from the American border. He thought himself free. Alfred Wallace had other plans. Indeed, Wallace set out looking  for Hacket within days of his flight. A Washington County official, probably a deputy sheriff, pursued Hacket to Ohio, where he learned of the runaway’s destination.Wallace arrived in Windsor,Canada,only a week after Hacket. Wallace immediately filed an affidavit describing Hacket’s thefts of his owner’s horse, coat, and other items. The next day,Wallace and the deputy located Hacket,whom they beat “with the butt of a whip, and a large stick.” The runaway was arrested and thrown into the local jail.Wallace then convinced Michigan authorities to request the extradition of Hacket as a fugitive criminal. The local Canadian attorney general refused to honor the extradition, pointing out that Hacket had never been tried by a court of law. The scene now shifted back to Arkansas, where Wallace initiated criminal charges, and a Washington County grand jury indicted Hacket for grand larceny. Four days later,Arkansas Gov.ArchibaldYell formally requested Canadian authorities to extradite Hacket for trial in Arkansas. Canadian authorities then capitulated, and Hacket was ordered returned to Arkansas for trial. Despite protests by black residents, Hacket was secretly taken to Detroit,where he was jailed.Free blacks in the Detroit area rallied to his aid,and legal maneuvers kept the runaway in Michigan through the winter . In the spring of  Hacket was shackled and secretly sent back to Arkansas,though at one point he made an escape,only to be recaptured after two days.On May ,,Nelson Hacket was restored to the ownership of AlfredWallace,the first instance in which criminal extradition had been used to retrieve a runaway slave from Canada. Hacket was returned to slavery, but he was in the process of making international history. Abolitionists in the United States, as well as Canada and Britain, were incensed that “nefarious proceedings” had returned a runaway to slavery. In June , the leadership of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society considered the Hacket case and then called it to the attention of the British Foreign Secretary,Lord Aberdeen. Then, abolitionists in Britain and Canada took their case to legislative bodies, with one British parliamentarian saying that the Hacket case resulted in making “ourselves runaway slave-catchers for the United States.” Ultimately, British authorities bowed to the abolitionists, and instructions were issued to provincial governors to enforce extradition  THE LAW carefully.A test case in the Bahamas resulted in the refusal to surrender escaped slaves. As historian Roman Zorn...