In 1851, members stormed Federal marshals and freed Shadrach Minkins, a slave who escaped from Virginia, and who had been captured in Boston.
Walker was an abolitionist who in 1851 collaborated with attorney Robert Morris and activist Lewis Hayden of the Boston Vigilance Committee to gain the release of Shadrach Minkins, a fugitive slave from Virginia who had been arrested in Boston by US Marshals under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
In 1851 he was arrested, tried, and acquitted for the court-house rescue of Shadrach Minkins, a freedom seeker who was caught in Boston by federal slave catchers empowered by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
That year, a slave, Shadrach Minkins, had escaped into Boston, where he came to reside and earn a living as a waiter.
He served as counsel in 1851 in the trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins from the custody of the United States Marshal in Boston.
Hayden was one of the men who helped rescue Shadrach Minkins from federal custody in 1851, and he played a significant role in the attempted rescue of Anthony Burns.
Hayden was one of the men who helped rescue fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins from federal custody in 1851.
White and black members of the Boston Vigilance Committee freed and hid him, helping him get to Canada via the Underground Railroad.