Warrant of Arrest for Archy Lee, March 7, 1858
Charles A. Stovall v. Archy Lee, a Slave, is the only known federal fugitive enslavement case and the last fugitive enslavement case tried in California. It represents the hidden history of slavery in free states and demonstrates the agreements of the 1850 Compromise in action.
Surviving documents in the case file were mostly filed by Stovall (the enslaver). These give Stovall's account of his and Lee's travels from Mississippi to California, where Stovall hired Lee out as a laborer. With the aid of some free Black people, Lee attempted to hide from Stovall to avoid being sent back to enslavement in Mississippi, leading to his arrest as a fugitive. After much back and forth between California state courts debating the application of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the case fell under the San Francisco jurisdiction of the U.S. Commissioner, George Pen Johnston, a southerner expected to rule in favor of the enslaver. However, the Commissioner’s ruling on April 14, 1858, reached the conclusion that Lee was not a fugitive slave and should be released.
Read the full text, view, and download the Warrant of Arrest for Archy Lee and other documents from Stovall v. Archy, a Slave, U.S. Commissioner (San Francisco) on the National Archives Catalog. The National Archives at San Francisco holds nearly 200 cubic feet of U.S. Commissioner’s case files dating from 1855-1971.
Warrant of Arrest for Archy Lee, March 7, 1858. National Archives Identifier: 295966.
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