Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, July 17, 1844, Nelson Hackett begins his flight north from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Hackett was escaping his enslaver, who was following him in hot pursuit.

According to reports at the time,

quote, Hackett traveled only at night, hiding through the day in the woods,

subsisting on such fare as the desert afforded. Upon reaching the Missouri River, he luckily

found the fairy to be tended by a Negro of whom it was believed he made a confidant,

and that same man subsequently denied all knowledge of the fugitives

passing that way and so we're getting a hint here of the network that carried Nelson Hackett

northward and he would eventually find his way through Ohio and Michigan and then ultimately he would reach Canada

which is a big part of the story but that's one of the reasons we're discussing Nelson Hackett today

because he doesn't just escape to Canada he gets

sent back to the United States. The Canadian government collaborates, returns Hackett

to sit in a jail in Detroit and ultimately be returned to Arkansas and enslavement.

So here to discuss the role that Canada played for people escaping slavery and this incident in which

they collaborated the first and last, are, as always,

Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

Kelly, we haven't done a like proper underground railroad episode and I don't know if this

...