Lewis Hayden Escapes Slavery

People

Lewis Hayden (subject); Harriet Bell Hayden (wife); Jo Hayden (stepson); Esther Hayden (first wife); Calvin Fairbank (abolitionist); Delia Webster (abolitionist); Ellen Craft (fugitive sheltered); William Craft (fugitive sheltered); Anthony Burns (fugitive); Governor John Andrew (official)

Outcome

Lewis Hayden and his family successfully escaped slavery in 1844; Hayden became one of Boston's most prominent Black abolitionists and Underground Railroad operators, later serving in the Massachusetts state legislature and as Grand Master of the Prince Hall Freemasons before his death in 1889

In September or October 1844, Lewis Hayden, his wife Harriet Bell Hayden, and her young son Jo escaped from slavery in Lexington, Kentucky, with the assistance of two white abolitionists, Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster. Fairbank and Webster, posing as travelers, helped the Hayden family cross the Ohio River into free territory. Both were subsequently arrested and imprisoned in Kentucky for their role in the escape. Fairbank would ultimately serve approximately 17 years in Kentucky prisons for aiding enslaved people in their flight to freedom, making him one of the longest-serving white abolitionists imprisoned for such acts. After crossing into Ohio, the Haydens traveled northward through the Underground Railroad, eventually reaching Canada before settling permanently in Boston, Massachusetts. Hayden had previously endured the sale of his first wife Esther and their son, a traumatic separation that deepened his commitment to fighting slavery. In Boston, Hayden became one of the city's most prominent Black abolitionists and a key operator on the Underground Railroad. His home at 66 Phillips Street on Beacon Hill became a well-known station, and he reportedly kept two kegs of gunpowder in his basement, vowing to blow up the house rather than allow any fugitive sheltered there to be captured by slave catchers. He sheltered numerous freedom seekers, including the famous fugitives Ellen and William Craft. Hayden's activism extended well beyond harboring fugitives. He was involved in the attempted rescue of Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave seized in Boston in 1854. During the Civil War, he helped recruit Black soldiers for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first African American units in the Union Army. After the war, Hayden was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1873, becoming one of the earliest Black state legislators in the North. He was also a devoted Prince Hall Freemason, eventually rising to the rank of Grand Master. Lewis Hayden died on April 7, 1889, in Boston, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most consequential Black freedom fighters of the nineteenth century.