The Players
Daniel Webster
As United States secretary of state, Daniel Webster negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.
Lewis Tappan
Lewis Tappan led the American abolitionist effort to amend the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
Follow Hackett's Flight
A primary problem in trying to reconstruct Hackett’s flight is that there are few records of his words and thoughts. This problem is rooted in the racism that undergirded chattel slavery and created most of its archival record. Hackett’s flight is therefore reconstructed using other voices, including abolitionists (both white and black), journalists, colonial and elected officials, and slave owners and their apologists.
The Documents
Clipping from the Montreal Gazette, June 18, 1842, reprinted in Western Herald, June 30, 1842, p. 3
From a New York paper, we learn that a negro against whom eight indictments were found in Arkansas in July last, and who escaped to Canada, was brought to St. Louis on the 26 ultimo. By the steamer Mermaid, from Peoria, and lodged in jail until he can be removed to...
“Colonial Intelligence,” Anti-Slavery Reporter, February 22, 1843, pp. 31-32.
CANADA.—Nelson Hacket—Proceedings of the Canadian Legislature, Oct. 8, 1842.—Dr. Dunlop moved for all the papers relation to the case of Nelson Hacket. He said it was not the case of one man only, but of thousands, and a great principle was involved of...
Correspondence between the Hon. Sir Allen Macnab and certain Colored Inhabitants of Upper Canada
“Correspondence between the Hon. Sir Allen Macnab and certain Colored Inhabitants of Upper Canada,” Liberator, October 21, 1842. To the Hon. Sir A. Macnab: Sir,---We, the colored inhabitants of Hamilton and Vicinity, bearing a continual remembrance of your...