33 Facts About Lewis Hayden

Lewis Hayden escaped slavery in Kentucky with his family and reached Canada.

Lewis Hayden established a school for African Americans before moving to Boston, Massachusetts.

Lewis Hayden was elected in 1873 as a Republican representative from Boston to the Massachusetts state legislature.

Lewis Hayden was born into slavery in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1811, as one of a family of 25.

Lewis Hayden's mother was of mixed race, including African, European, and Native American ancestry; slavery of Native Americans had been prohibited since the 18th century.

Lewis Hayden was first owned by a Presbyterian minister, Rev Adam Rankin.

Lewis Hayden sold off the boy's brothers and sisters in preparation for moving to Pennsylvania; he traded 10-year-old Hayden for two carriage horses to a man who traveled the state selling clocks.

The travels with his new master allowed Lewis Hayden to hear varying opinions of slavery, including its classification as a crime by some people.

When he was 14, the American Revolutionary War soldier Marquis de Lafayette tipped his hat to Lewis Hayden while visiting Kentucky.

Lewis Hayden approached other men, asking them to buy him and proposing that they hire him out for fees to return their investment, but asking them to allow Lewis Hayden to keep some earnings and purchase his freedom.

Lewis Hayden started to save his share of earnings for future freedom.

Lewis Hayden cared for her son Joseph as his stepson.

In Massachusetts, Lewis Hayden began work as an agent, or traveling speaker and organizer, for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Lewis Hayden prevented slave catchers from taking the Crafts by threatening to blow up his home with gunpowder if they tried to reclaim the pair.

Lewis Hayden opened a clothing store in 1849 at 107 Cambridge Street.

The financial crisis of 1857 caused a decline in sales, so Lewis Hayden closed that shop and set up business in a smaller store.

Lewis Hayden served on the Boston Vigilance Committee, which had 207 members; 5 were black.

Lewis Hayden was elected to the executive committee and worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison.

Lewis Hayden conducted "daring acts of defiance against the Fugitive Slave Law" of 1850.

Lewis Hayden personally fed and housed hundreds of runaways and used his clothing store to outfit many more.

Lewis Hayden was one of the men who helped rescue fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins from federal custody in 1851.

Lewis Hayden played significant roles in the attempted rescue of Anthony Burns and in resisting legal authorities in the case of Thomas Sims, and is believed to have shot and killed US Marshal James Batchelder.

Lewis Hayden was appointed to a patronage position as a messenger in the Secretary of State's office.

In 1873, Lewis Hayden was elected to one term as a representative from Boston to the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court.

Lewis Hayden supported the movement to erect a statue in honor of Crispus Attucks, a black and Native American man who was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre, at the beginning of the American Revolution.

Lewis Hayden criticized the organization for its racial discrimination, and helped found numerous black Freemason chapters.

Lewis Hayden was a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of the United States Colored Troops.

Lewis Hayden's son served in the Union Navy during the Civil War and was killed.

Lewis Hayden is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.

Mr Lewis Hayden has the confidence of all good men at the North, and his acquaintance is cultivated by most of our leading politicians.

Lewis Hayden is a noble example of what freedom will do for a man.

Records from the Boston Vigilance Committee, of which Lewis was a member, indicate that scores of people received aid and safe shelter at the Hayden home between 1850 and 1860.

In 1865, Harriet Lewis Hayden bought the house from Francis Jackson's estate.