Largest exporter of what? I'm not sure what you're referring to. The words above weren't from a quote of mine, at least not on this thread.
But seriously, I seem to remember some old newspaper story about a large number of runaways heading out of Chicago and bound for Canada ahead of the slave catchers.
You are probably referring to one of my posts. See Link.
After making that post I purchased the Campbell book I mentioned above. It is one of the better WBTS books I've ever bought. Fairly balanced and very informative about the fugitive slave situation in the 1850-1860 period.
The Campbell book noted that the large flight of fugitive slaves from Chicago in April 1861 occurred after the April 3 arrest of a slave named Harris, his wife, and two children. Harris belonged to one Missouri slave owner; his wife and children to another. The New York Times, where I found the articles I posted in the above link, had not included the name or the ownership details. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to old Chicago newspapers to get names and other details or I would have looked them up and posted them.
I wonder whether Lincoln had anything to do with the arrest of the Missouri fugitive slaves in Chicago. Perhaps I'm too suspicious, but Lincoln had promised to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law and he needed to keep border state Missouri in the Union. Returning fugitive slaves to Missouri from the more or less sanctuary city of Chicago might have been useful in swaying public opinion in Missouri. Being an Illinois resident and lawyer Lincoln probably would have known some of the marshals.
Although the arrest occurred in Chicago, the slaves were quickly taken to Springfield for the hearing on whether they were fugitive slaves. The arrest seems to have panicked fugitive slaves in Chicago, who had probably thought they were safe from the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Why the arrest of fugitive slaves in Chicago at this particular point in time, when no arrests or few arrests had apparently been made for some time before?
Anyway, it's fun to speculate on whether Lincoln had a role in this affair. The timing of it would have worked well for him with regard to Missouri.
The following link supports the information in Campbell's book. Link
I also see that the New York Times has now started making available on the Internet articles from their old newspapers. Kudos to the Times. Here is one of the articles I had found on an old microfilm: NYT
Sorry, apparently the cut from another thread got pasted on this one. Mea culpa.
You are probably referring to one of my posts
Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Interesting story.