left|thumb|The Hayden household sheltered hundreds of blacks seeking freedom; it was said they "harbored 75 percent of all slaves passing through Boston". Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Harriet Hayden managed and operated Boston's main Underground Railroad operations, and was key to leading people through Boston's tunnel system. Regarding keeping families together, Clay applied the opposite to the family of Lewis Hayden. Around 1836. Clay had an enslaved mother, Esther Harvey, and her son, sold South. They were the family of Lewis Hayden, a waiter at the upscale Phoenix Hotel. Arounf 1842, Hayden was threatened, also by Clay, with the sale of his second wife, Harriet Bell Hayden and her son Joseph who he had adopted. Hayden secured the aid of Vermont resident Delia Webster and Oberlin College student Rev. Calvin Fairbank through the assistance of John Mifflin, AME minister and resident of Oberlin, Ohio. They crafted a successful escape plan via the Underground Railroad through Maysville, Kentucky, across the Ohio River to the free states of Ohio and Michigan. The Haydens became residents of Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. On January 4, 1845, Webster received a sentence of two years hard labor for her part in the escape; she was pardoned on February 24, 1845. Also during February, Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years. The Kentucky governor pardoned him in 1849. However, he was imprisoned again in 1852 and served 12 years for aiding in another escape.
left|thumb|The Hayden household sheltered hundreds of blacks seeking freedom; it was said they "harbored 75 percent of all slaves passing through Boston". Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Harriet Hayden managed and operated Boston's main Underground Railroad operations, and was key to leading people through Boston's tunnel system Regarding keeping families together, Clay applied the opposite to the family of Lewis Hayden. Around 1836. Clay had an enslaved mother, Esther Harvey, and her son, sold South. They were the family of Lewis Hayden, a waiter at the upscale Phoenix Hotel. Arounf 1842, Hayden was threatened, also by Clay, with the sale of his second wife, Harriet Bell Hayden and her son Joseph who he had adopted. Hayden secured the aid of Vermont resident Delia Webster and Oberlin College student Rev. Calvin Fairbank through the assistance of John Mifflin, AME minister and resident of Oberlin, Ohio. They crafted a successful escape plan via the Underground Railroad through Maysville, Kentucky, across the Ohio River to the free states of Ohio and Michigan. The Haydens became residents of Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. On January 4, 1845, Webster received a sentence of two years hard labor for her part in the escape; she was pardoned on February 24, 1845. Also during February, Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years. The Kentucky governor pardoned him in 1849. However, he was imprisoned again in 1852 and served 12 years for aiding in another escape.