Thomas Sims

American who escaped slavery but was reenslaved by law

Thomas Sims was an African American who escaped from slavery in Georgia and fled to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851. He was arrested the same year under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, had a court hearing, and was forced to return to enslavement. A second escape brought him back to Boston in 1863, where he was later appointed to a position in the U. S. Department of Justice in 1877. Sims was one of the first slaves to be forcibly returned from Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The failure to stop his case from progressing was a significant blow to the abolitionists, as it showed the extent of the power and influence which slavery had on American society and politics. The case was one of many events leading to the American Civil War.

Sims was born in Savannah, Georgia to James Sims, a white Slave overseer on the Potter Rice Plantation, and Minda Campbell, a slave under rice planter James Potter. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it is estimated to be around 1828. Before his escape, Thomas Sims worked as a bricklayer for Potter. but was not caught until he sent his address to his wife asking for money. The defense (Robert Rantoul Jr., Charles Greely Loring, and Samuel Edmund Sewall) had a harder time as the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act favored the prosecution of the case. The Fugitive Slave Act stated that the testimonies of escaped slaves on trial could not be used as actual evidence in the hearing, but because the act also required a trial in a "summary manner," there was not adequate time for the defense to find their witnesses. The Boston Vigilance Committee, which had previously helped Shadrach Minkins, another fugitive slave, escape the custody of U. S. Marshals, became desperate and came up with multiple plans to free Sims, including placing mattresses under Sims' cell window so that he could jump out and make his getaway in a horse and chaise.

Afterwards, Charles Devens, the U. S. Marshal who was ordered to return Sims to Georgia, unsuccessfully tried to buy Sims' freedom. In regard to matters at Vicksburg, Sims states that the rebel army is upon short rations, and is in a terrible condition." Devens appointed Sims to a position in the U. S. Department of Justice. Three years after Sims' arrest, Judge Edward G. Loring ordered another fugitive slave, Anthony Burns, back to slavery in Virginia. Sims' and Burns' cases are often compared, and, similar to Sims, Burns was escorted by the U. S. Marines to a ship headed for Virginia. By the time of Burns' deportation, his cause had become so famous that 50,000 people watched federal officers take him to the wharf. Within two years, Burns was back in Boston after the abolitionists raised $1,300 to pay for Burns' freedom.