January 20, 1865 —- Letter from Gov. Andrew to Lewis Hayden
At a Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Masons meeting, a letter from Gov. Andrew to Hayden, is read. With the letter, the Gov. sends “a gavel made from a piece of the whipping-post at Hampton, Va….I also place in your hands, for the same purpose, a rude boat of straw, made in the woods by a poor refugee from slavery, Jack Flowers, ….I know of no place more fitting for the preservation of these memorials of the barbarous institution that is now tottering to its rapidly approach fall, than the association of free colored persons of Massachusetts over which you preside….”