1815-1873

Jail didn’t stop him

This free black from Leesburg, VA operated a hackney (taxi) company that he used to move runaways towards freedom. In 1839 he was arrested with a woman named Patty and her six children on board.

Grimes served two years in a Richmond prison – apparently saved from a tougher sentence because many people vouched his good character. Patty and her six children made it to freedom in Canada.

He moved his family north – first to New Bedford, MA and then to Boston. As pastor of what came to be known as the Fugitive Slave Church in Boston, he continued helping runaways escape.

When Anthony Burns was captured and arrested as a fugitive slave in Boston, Rev. Grimes collected money to buy Burns’ freedom.