A 35-year-old enslaved man named Edgar Canton originally escaped from Shelbyville, Missouri in the summer of 1857, but was recaptured by U.S. officers near Springfield, Illinois in 1860 and brought before federal commissioner Stephen Corneau for a rendition hearing under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Corneau remanded Canton to the custody of his enslaver, George Dickinson. However, during his return to St. Louis, Canton managed to attack one of his guards with a razor. He was disarmed, however, and Canton was quickly sold. However, Canton somehow escaped again one month later, this time for good.
Blackett, The Captive's Quest, 160-161; "Fugitive Slave Cases: ATTEMPT OF A FUGITIVE TO KILL ONE OF HIS CAPTORS," New York Times, February 21, 1860; see also Springfield Journal-Register, 11/30/2013; see also Jesse W. Weik, The Real Lincoln (1922), p. 196.