The Nelson Hackett Case
© Courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library and the Bentley Historical Library
Nelson Hackett stole a horse, saddle, overcoat, and watch from his owner, Alfred
Wallace, and escaped from Arkansas to settle in Upper Canada. Wallace soon
discovered Hackett’s location and had him arrested and jailed in Sandwich, Ontario
and later Detroit, Michigan. Under the charge of larceny, Hackett was extradited back
to Wallace’s Arkansas plantation, where he was beaten and sold into Texas. The case
upset Canadian and American abolitionists and soon influenced the decision to add
Article 10 to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that limited the extradition on criminals.
1
In the summer of 1841, Nelson Hackett escaped with an overcoat, horse, saddle and
watch from the plantation of Alfred Wallace, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He traveled to
and settled in Chatham, Ontario. A few months later, Alfred Wallace and George C.
Grigg discovered Hackett’s location and had him arrested and jailed for theft in
Sandwich, Ontario. Wallace and Griggs traveled to Michigan and, with the assistance
of Michigan Governor J. Wright Gordon, made a formal request for extradition.
Upper Canada Attorney General William Henry Draper denied the request for
extradition, citing that the indictment must originate in the place of the crime, in this
case the state of Arkansas. Wallace returned to Fayetteville, Arkansas and filed a
formal case against Hackett for grand larceny on November 26, 1841. Arkansas
Governor Archibald Yell formally requested Hackett’s extradition and was approved
by the Governor General of Canada, Sir Charles Bagot (Lancaster).
Aware of Canada’s strict extradition laws, Wallace charged Hackett as a criminal on
a technicality, knowing that the extradition process for a criminal was more lenient
than that of a fugitive slave. Wallace assured Sandwich officials that his intentions
were, “straightforward and not a pretence for merely getting [Hackett] back again as
a Slave” (Abbott-Namphy). On February 7, 1842, Hackett was forcibly and
unknowingly transported to Detroit and housed in a local jail for several months. As
news of his case spread throughout Detroit, the Colored Vigilant Committee sent
Charles H. Stewart, a lawyer and abolitionist, to examine Hackett’s case in an effort
to bolster the anti-slavery cause, but found no discrepancy within the proceedings
(“Meeting of Colored Citizens in Detroit”). Alfred Wallace hired Onesimus Evans and
Lewis Davenport to transport Hackett from Detroit back to Arkansas, but while in
transit Hackett escaped in Illinois. Evans and Davenport found Hackett a few days
later and by June they reached Fayetteville, Arkansas (Lancaster).
American and Canadian abolitionists reacted strongly to the Nelson Hackett case.
Abolitionists feared that Wallace would make an example of Hackett for other slaves
desiring to escape to Canada. One of Wallace’s former slaves testified in Henry
Bibb’s Voice of the Fugitive that upon returning to Fayetteville, Hackett was
repeatedly beaten in front of the slaves and then sold into Texas (Abbott-Namphy).
In reaction to the case, on August 9, 1842, Article 10 was added to the WebsterAshburton Treaty between British Canada and the United States that limited the
extradition of criminals.
2
Work Cited & Further Reading
Abbott-Namphy, Elizabeth. “Hackett, Nelson, fugitive slave; b. c. 1810; fl.
1840-42.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto,
2000. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
Lancaster, Guy. "Nelson Hackett (1810?-?)." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History
& Culture. The Central Arkansas Library System, 27 Nov. 2007. Web. 23 Mar.
2011.
“Meeting of Colored Citizens in Detroit.” Signal of Liberty. 23 January 23 1843. Web.
Smardz Frost, Karolyn. I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground
Railroad. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
“Nelson Hackett.” Signal of Liberty. 27 June 1842.
3