Charles Nalle was a twenty-eight year old freedom seeker, who escaped from his enslaver, Mr. Hasbrough, in Virginia using the Underground Railroad and ended up in Rensselaer County, NY. At first Charles worked as a teamster, then with Mr. Schram in Sandlake, and finally as a coachman for coach maker and former Mayor of Troy, Mr. Uri Gilbert.
When he worked in Sandlake, Charles met and worked for a lawyer by the name of Horace Averill. Because he could not read and write, Charles asked Mr. Averill to write his letters for him. Through this letter writing, Mr. Averill learned that Charles was a fugitive slave. Knowing that according to the Fugitive Slave Act he could be fined and put in jail if he did not turn Charles in, Mr. Averill wrote a letter to Mr. Hasbrough telling him Charles’ location. When he learned of Charles’s whereabouts, Mr. Hasbrough sent someone from Virginia to work with the United States Marshals to arrest Charles as a fugitive slave and bring him back to Virginia.
On the morning of April 27th, 1860, Charles went to get some bread for Mr. Gilbert. While he was out, a United States Marshal arrested him as a fugitive slave. Charles was taken to the Commissioner’s office located on the corner of First and State Streets in Troy, New York. In that building, Charles waited while his fate was tried in court. Quickly, it was decided that according to the Fugitive Slave Act, Charles was fugitive slave and should be sent back to Virginia.