Early life
Lewis Hayden was born into slavery in Lexington, Kentucky in 1811. His mother was white and Native American; His father was a slave "sold off early". Hayden was first owned by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Adam Rankin, who sold off his brothers and sisters in preparation for his move to Pennsylvania; 10 year old Hayden was traded for two carriage horses to a man who traveled the state selling clocks. The travels allowed Hayden to hear varying opinions of slavery, some believing it a crime. When he was 14, the American Revolutionary War soldier, Marquis de Lafayette tipped his hat to Hayden in the slave state of Kentucky, which helped inspire Hayden to believe he was worthy of respect and to hate slavery.In the mid 1830s, Hayden was married to Esther Harvey, and their son were sold to U.S. Senator Henry Clay. They were sold again and Hayden never saw them again. In the 1840s Hayden taught himself to read when owned by a man who whipped him.
Hayden made an offer to two men to purchase him, hire him out to return their investment, and allow Hayden to purchase his freedom. The men who purchased Hayden were Lewis Baxter, an Insurance office clerk, and Thomas Grant, an oil manufacturer and tallow chandler. The men hired Hayden out to work at Lexington's Phoenix Hotel. Hayden received a share of his earning to be used to attain his freedom.
Hayden married Harriet Bell by 1842, and Harriet's son Joseph became Hayden's stepson.[5] His wife and son were owned by Patterson Bain. After his marriage, Hayden began making plans to escape to the north, believing he might be sold.
Escape and freedom
In the fall of 1844, Hayden escaped with his second wife, Harriet, and son, Jo. He was aided Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster. Jo was placed under the seat of the carriage, and the Hayden's faces were covered in flour to make them appear white. They traveled from Lexington, Kentucky for Ripley, Ohio on a cold, rainy night. The Haydens escaped to Canada.Fairbank and Webster returned to Lexington and were arrested. The driver picked up and whipped 50 times, until he confessed the events of the escape. Webster served several months of a two-year prison sentence for helping the Haydens, but Fairbank, sentenced to 15 years, served four years until Hayden, in effect, ransomed him.
From Canada, the Haydens moved to Detroit in 1845 and by January 1846 they moved to Boston. Hayden then owned and ran a clothing store on Cambridge Street.
Anti-slavery efforts
In February 1848, he responded to a letter from the society informing him of "his agency being stopped" after he had spent about 2 months income to establish his family and himself for the lecture tour and without fare for his return home. His response included: "You all know it is me jest three years from slavery… if I am not Wendell Phillips now, it ought not appear what I shall be.. I shall do all I can to make myself a man."
Kantrowitz wrote of Hayden:
We do not know what route he took home from western New York to Detroit, nor what hardships he endured on the wya. We do know that he was able to move past his disappointment and self-doubt and to assert himself as a self-confident citizen among equals. Slavery had taught him to expect trials and rebukes, and they did not break him.[15]The Boston City Directory for 1849-50 lists him as a lecturer.
Underground Railroad
An author was escorted by an unnamed individual to their home:
When, in 1853, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe came to the The Liberator Office, 21 Cornhill, to get facts for her Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, she was taken by Mr. R.F. Wallcutt and myself over to Lewis Hayden's house in Southnac Street, thirteen newly-escaped slaves of all colors and sizes were brought in into one room for her to see. Though Mrs. Stowe had written wonderful "Uncle Tom" at the request of Dr. Bailey, of Washington, for the National Era, expressly to show up the workings of the Fugitive Slave-Law, yet she had never seen such a company of 'fugitives' together before.[3]
Merchant
It was reported on August 3, 1849 that Hayden opened a clothing store on 107 Cambridge Street. The financial crisis of 1857 resulted in Hayden closing his shop on Cambridge Street and setting up business in a smaller store, The smaller store, was burned out, he went bankrupt and "took to peddling jewelry".Vigilance Committee
Hayden served on the Boston Vigilance Committee, which had 207 members, 5 of them were black. His involvement including "daring acts of defiance against the Fugitive Slave Law." At a meeting at Samuel Snowden's church [May Street Church], which included reading of the act, Hayden said: "… safety was to be obtained only by an united and persevering resistance of this ungodly law …"[23]In American National Biography, Roy E. Finkenbine wrote:
After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Hayden worked tirelessly to fight its enforcement... As a member of the executive board of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which was created to aid and protect fugitive slaves in the city, he often functioned as a liaison between white and black activists, including members of the Twelfth Baptist Church, to which he belonged. He personally fed and housed hundred of runaways and used his clothing store to outfit many more.[17]Hayden was one of the men who helped rescue Shadrach Minkins from federal custody in 1851.Hayden was arrested and tried in the Minkins case, but the trial resulted in a hung jury.He played a significant role in the attempted rescue of Anthony Burns. Hayden contributed money to John Brown, in preparation for his raid on Harper's Ferry. He was also prominent in resisting legal authorities in the case of Thomas Sims.
Political activities
Hayden was a longtime supporter of John A. Andrew, who became governor in 1861. In his book, The Negro in the Civil War, Benjamin Quarles said of the Hayden's House:Hayden had been the first to suggest to John A. Andrew that he run for governor; on Thanksgiving Day in 1862 Governor Andrew was to come down from Beacon Hill and have turkey dinner at the Haydens.Hayden received a position a messenger in the Secretary of State's office.
In 1873 Hayden served one term as a representative from Boston to the Massachusetts legislature.
He was involved in the movement to erect a statue in honor of Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston Massacre.
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