_Massachusetts District, ss._
To the Marshal of our District of Massachusetts, or either of his deputies.
[Seal]
Greeting:
These are, in the name of the President of the United States of
America, to command you, the said marshal or deputies, and each of
you, forthwith to apprehend one Shadrach, now commorant in Boston,
in said district, a colored person, who is alleged to be a fugitive
from service or labor, and who has escaped from service or labor in
the state of Virginia, (if he may be found in your precinct), and
have him forthwith before me, one of the commissioners of the
circuit court of the United States for the Massachusetts district,
at the court house in Boston aforesaid, then and there to answer to
the complaint of John Caphart, attorney of John De Bree, of
Norfolk, in the state of Virginia, alleging under oath, that the
said Shadrach owes service or labor to the said De Bree, in the
said state of Virginia, and while held to service there under the
laws of the said state of Virginia, escaped into the state of
Massachusetts aforesaid, and praying for the restoration of the
said Shadrach to the said De Bree, and then and there before me to
be dealt with according to law.
Hereof fail not, and make due return of this with your doings
thereon, before me.
Witness my hand and seal at Boston, in the said district, on this
fourteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand
eight hundred and fifty one.
(Signed) GEO. T. CURTIS,
Commissioner of the Circuit Court of the United States,
for Massachusetts District.
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