In the summer of 1841, an enslaved man from Arkansas named Nelson Hackett undertook one of the longest overland escapes in American history — some 1,000 miles from Fayetteville to Chatham, a town in present-day Ontario about 45 miles east of Detroit. Hackett's enslaver, Alfred Wallace, followed him and demanded that the Canadians send Hackett back to Arkansas to face criminal charges for stealing a watch and saddle on his way out of Fayetteville.  

When Canada's government returned Hackett, he became the first fugitive from slavery that Canada returned to bondage, provoking international outcry and mobilizing abolitionists throughout the Atlantic world. These activists then used Hackett's case to convince the British government to prohibit the Canadians from returning any more slave fugitives to bondage. Hackett was, thus, central to ensuring that Canada remained the promised land for those fleeing slavery. 

Currently, Hackett's story is most widely known only to a handful of academic historians, but a new Honors College Signature Seminar has been designed to change that. "From Fayetteville to Freedom and Back: Nelson Hackett's Flight from Slavery" will be led by Michael Pierce, associate professor of history, who has high hopes about the new kind of storytelling that will be incorporated into the lesson plans.  

Students enrolled in the course will gather primary sources, including deeds, court transcripts, newspaper accounts, maps and other visuals to write narratives and build a new public-facing website dedicated to telling Hackett's story. In addition to Pierce, students will be working with researchers from the university's Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, which has produced several award-winning websites that use advances in digital technologies to tell compelling stories about life in Arkansas.   

The course will certainly satisfy a student whose primary interest is history, but it is also interdisciplinary, combining historical research and methodology with narrative storytelling and digital design. These components will work together to help students — and people who access the website that results from the course — understand better the settlement of Fayetteville, the role that enslaved people played in the making of the region and the ways that the actions of one Fayetteville man helped change the landscape of freedom across the North American continent.  

"Understanding things like Nelson Hackett's story changes the way that we come to understand the defining moment in American history, the Civil War and the emancipation of 4 million people," Pierce explained. "It also causes us to think of enslaved people as agents and actors in that history, rather than simply people who are acted upon. It's a way to understand that marginalized people have always shaped what our nation has become." 

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About Michael Pierce: Pierce received his A.B. from Kenyon College and his doctorate from Ohio State University. His current research examines how a coalition of labor and civil rights groups brought New Deal and Great Society-style liberalism to Arkansas in the late 1960s and early 1970s—and why politicians such as Bill Clinton, David Pryor and Dale Bumpers later rejected that approach in favor of policies more aligned with the state's corporate interests. Pierce also directs the University of Arkansas Humanities Center's Nelson Hackett Project and is the author of Striking with the Ballot: Ohio Labor and the Populist Party (2010). He is also co-editor of two volumes, including Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta (2022). 

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and brings together high-achieving undergraduate students and the university's top professors to share transformative learning experiences. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $80,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students' academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged. All Honors College graduates have engaged in mentored research.  

About the University of Arkansas:  As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.