Blood and Daring by John Boyko Read Free Book Online Page B

wounds.
    Influential British abolitionist John Scoble, who in 1851 had moved to Canada and become involved in the Canadian abolitionist movement, understood the importance of the case and found a lawyer to represent Anderson. He hired successful Hamilton attorney Samuel Black Freeman who, eight years previously, had been a founding member of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. Freeman had read of the Anderson case and it had moved him.
    Freeman met with Anderson, then Matthews. He argued that according to British and Canadian law, there was no Canadian charge pending against Anderson and so no reason to keep him jailed. The persuasive lawyer threatened that if Anderson were not immediately freed, he would take the case to a higher court.
    While Matthews considered his options, Scoble saw to it that Canadian newspapers brought Anderson’s story to the largely anti-slavery public. In an April 9 editorial, the
Globe
, like most others, took a protective stance: “Every care will be taken that he is not delivered to the United States authorities for such a crime.” 29 Meanwhile, a number of abolitionist sympathizers and members of the Anti-Slavery Society sent letters to Canadian government officials, all demanding that Matthews free Anderson.
    Detective Gunning finally arrived on April 30 with extradition papers, but he was too late. Anderson was gone. Matthews had ordered him released just two days earlier, and Freeman and Scoble had helped him disappear.
    Anderson settled this time in the small town of Simcoe, where he found lodging within the town’s community of fugitive ex-slaves. Undeterred, however, Gunning, a Detroit detective named Julius Blodgett, and a hiredtracker set after their man. Anderson was protected and the hunters misdirected, but they were pugnaciously persistent. On August 27 Anderson was discovered and after a brief struggle hauled to Simcoe’s Norfolk County jail.
    Having had an apparent change of heart, brought on, some said, by a promise to share in Missouri’s thousand-dollar bounty, Magistrate Matthews petitioned to have Anderson returned to Brantford, and sent a group of police officers to carry out his orders. But Crown lawyers and Simcoe magistrates would not give him up. Meanwhile, newspapers told the tale of Anderson’s arrest and the stories brought abolitionists and Simcoe’s Black community out in force, demanding that the prisoner be set free.
    Matthews eventually won the day and Anderson was returned to Brantford. He was accompanied along the entire route by white abolitionists and Black friends and supporters. They camped outside the Brantford jail to ensure that the Americans did not simply whisk their prisoner back over the border without Canadian due process. Inside, Anderson lay handcuffed and alone in a small cell. He was allowed to see only his lawyer.
    The extradition hearing began with American and Canadian reporters joining Anderson’s supporters, a contingent from Missouri, and others filling the small courtroom. Matthews would make the final decision without the advice of a jury. He had a background and reputation that impressed few. A former mayor of Brantford, he had harassed electors, been accused of fraud during his election and of having beaten a prisoner, and was widely believed to have found his way to the bench only because he was a friend of John A. Macdonald. 30
    Macdonald was Canada’s most fascinating and influential political leader. Tall and gangly, with a quick smile, dancing eyes and an endless supply of jokes and funny stories, Macdonald was a hard drinker, a rascal and a charmer. His intelligence, political genius, and charisma would soon play an essential role in the birth of an independent Canada, and by 1860 Macdonald was already a successful corporate lawyer in Kingston and an experienced and skilful political strategist. His allies loved him and even enemies bore him grudging respect.
    Since 1849, Canada’s government had been split into three