Preview
Identifier
E 450 .B93 S74 1856
Creation Date
1856
Description
Stevens, Charles Emery. Anthony Burns: A History. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1856.
Born enslaved in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1834, Anthony Burns escaped in 1854 by stowing away on a ship to Boston. His enslaver, Charles F. Suttle, traveled to Boston to claim Burns under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Boston Vigilance Committee attempted to free Burns by attacking the courthouse, killing a guard in the process. In Burns's trial, his defense argued that the Act was unconstitutional. The judge ruled against Burns, returning him to slavery. Antislavery activists later purchased his freedom and Burns became a minister. The case inflamed the country’s political divisions over slavery. Abolitionists in the North opposed the Fugitive Slave Act and many Southerners viewed the violent resistance as a refusal by the North to support Southerners' rights.