The Abduction of Angeline

Angeline Palmer lived in the Poor Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she was 10 years old she worked as a servant for a family called the Shaws. Other people thought the Shaws were going to take Angeline to Georgia to sell her into slavery. Then Angeline's half-brother Lewis Frazier, Henry Jackson, and William Jennings asked the Amherst selectmen to stop the Shaws from selling Angeline as slave. The town refused to help. On May 26, Angeline was working in the Amherst home of Susan Shaws' sister, they hired Henry Frink to drive Angeline back to the Shaw's home in Belchertown because they believed that the three men were going to take her away. No one knows for sure but some people say that Henry Frink was in on the entire plan, Frink took a long route to Belchertown so that Jackson and the others could "abduct" Angeline. When the carriage arrived at the house the men forced their way in, and despite the efforts of Mrs. Shaw, where able to safely get Angeline out of the house and into the wagon.

Angeline was kept safe in the town of Colrain where she remained for months to come. Frazier, Jackson, Jennings, and Frink were soon arrested and charged with the assault of Susan Shaw and the kidnapping of the absent Angeline Palmer.
They were defended by lawyer, Edward Dickinson who was part of the Abolition movement in Amhest. Frink was let go and the other three were sentenced to three months in jail. The local press condemned the conviction and scolded the jury for not realizing that the abduction was for a good cause. Even the jailer believed that the men did what they did for a good reason and allowed them to leave the jail as long as they came back to the jail in the evening. When the danger was over, Angeline returned to Amherst and resumed a dignified life.

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