[nb 2] At the time when the couple was expecting the birth of Edward, they already had a daughter named Lydia Ann.

[7] He was a free black man from Wilmington, North Carolina who had settled in Boston about 1825, where he became a prominent abolitionist.

In his pamphlet Appeal, Walker had earlier written: "But I must, really, observe that generally falls into the hands of some white persons.

[2] Many Boston residents resisted the 1850 Law, resenting its requirement that officials in free states support slaveholders' efforts to take back slaves.

[13] Hannah was born in Lowell on October 10, 1835,[14] one of Henry and Lucinda Webster Van Vronker's three daughters.

[16] Having been inspired by Blackstone's Commentaries, which he consulted while trying to free Minkins in 1851, Walker "read the law", serving as an apprentice at the Georgetown, Massachusetts office of Charles A. Tweed and John Q.

And that a combination of circumstances has caused that Mr. Walker is representing Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue makes the case even more special.

[20] As Walker and Mitchell began their one-year terms in the 1867 Massachusetts legislature, the era of post-Civil War Reconstruction was underway.

[21] In the Massachusetts House, Walker opposed the 14th amendment, arguing that its language contained insufficient guarantees against race-based discrimination and disenfranchisement.

[22] Walker's opposition to the language of the 14th Amendment was part of a larger breach with his fellow Massachusetts Republicans.

They voted to give the position to George Lewis Ruffin, an African American considered by the Republicans to be "loyal" to their party.

[22] In 1885 Walker, with wealthy restaurateur George T. Downing and other black leaders, formed the Negro Political Independence Movement.