Archy Lee
In 1858, the Kearney Street Hall of Justice was home for Archy Lee, fugitive slave, until he became a free man. At eighteen, Archy Lee was brought to California in1857 by Mississippian Charles Stovall to work in the gold mines. When Stovall decided to send Archy back, Archy resisted and hid in, black owned, Hackett Hotel. When found, Archy was tried under the California Fugitive Slave Law and won his case and declared a free man. But a State Supreme Court Justice reversed the decision under a dead state slave law. When Stovall moved Archy to San Francisco to board a vessel traveling to Mississippi, black leaders George W. Dennis, Mifflin Gibbs, and Peter Lester hired a team of white lawyers to appeal Archy’s case. Archy won his case, but a U.S. Marshall rearrested him in the courtroom under the 1850 National Fugitive Slave Law. Soon, riots broke out in front of the courthouse on Kearney Street and Archy’s case was retried. After winning his case, Archy joined San Francisco’s black families who resettled in Victoria, British Columbia (Lapp 148-152). (Courtesy “California Historical Society, FN-29364/CHS2011.576.tif”