Anthony Burns
Encyclopedia
Anthony Burns was born a slave in Stafford County, Virginia
. As a young man, he became a Baptist
and a "slave preacher
". 1850 would prove a vital year in Burns' life because of the passage of the new Fugitive Slave Act that required states to cooperate in returning escaped slaves to their masters, even if recaptured in northern states that had abolished slavery. Burns was affected by the law after he became a fugitive in Massachusetts.
He was captured and tried under the law in Boston, in a case that generated national publicity, large demonstrations, protests and an attack on US Marshals at the courthouse. Federal troops were used to ensure Burns was transported to a ship for return to Virginia after the trial. He was eventually ransomed from slavery, with his freedom purchased by Boston sympathizers. Afterward he was educated at Oberlin College
and became a Baptist
preacher
, moving to Upper Canada
for a position.
, traveling by ship to Boston
in 1853. In Boston he worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street
."
On May 24, 1854 he was discovered "while walking in Court Street
" and arrested. As a hub of resistance toward the "slave power" of the South, many Bostonians reacted by attempting to free Burns
. President Franklin Pierce
made an example of the case to show he was willing to strongly enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. The show of force turned many New Englanders against slavery who had passively accepted its existence before.
On May 26, before Burns' court case, a crowd of abolitionists of both races, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson
and other Bostonians outraged at Burns' arrest, stormed the court house to free the man. In the melee, Deputy U.S. Marshal James Batchelder
was fatally stabbed, becoming the second U.S. Marshal to be killed in the line of duty. The police kept control of Burns, but the crowds of opponents, including such African-American abolitionists as Thomas James grew large. While the federal government sent US troops in support, numerous anti-slavery activists arrived in Boston to join the protest and continue the faceoff. It has been estimated the government's cost of capturing and conducting Burns through the trial was upwards of $40,000.
and his associate, the African-American lawyer Robert Morris
, acted as Burns' defenders, but were not successful in the case. With the ruling made against Burns, the government effectively held Boston under martial law
for the afternoon. The streets between the courthouse and the harbor were lined with federal troops to hold back the waves of protesters as Burns was escorted to the ship for return to his Virginia master.
The matter did not end as Burns was transported south. The events generated strong opposition across the North to Pierce and his administration. Massachusetts residents formed an Anti-Man Hunting League; William Lloyd Garrison
's burned copies of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Burns court decision, and the Constitution of the United States; and, as a result of the efforts of the Vigilance Committee
to lobby the legislature and governor against him, the removal from office in 1857 of Edward G. Loring
, the judge who tried Burns. (The next year Loring was appointed to the US Court of Claims under President James Buchanan
.) In a broader sense, the Burns case fueled anti-slavery sentiments all across the North.
. Leonard A. Grimes eventually managed to ransom Burns's freedom from McDaniel, with financial aid from Boston, for $1,300. Once freed, Burns returned to live in Boston.
With proceeds that came from his biography, combined with a scholarship, Burns received an education at Oberlin College
in Ohio. After briefly preaching in Indianapolis
, Burns emigrated to Upper Canada
to accept a call from a Baptist church in that colony. He served as a non-ordained minister until his early death from tuberculosis
at the age of 28 in St. Catharines on July 17, 1862.
Stafford County, Virginia
Stafford County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, and just across the Rappahannock River from the City of Fredericksburg. As of the 2000 census, the population was 92,446, increasing to 128,961 in 2010.. Its county seat is Stafford. In 2006, and again in 2009,...
. As a young man, he became a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
and a "slave preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
". 1850 would prove a vital year in Burns' life because of the passage of the new Fugitive Slave Act that required states to cooperate in returning escaped slaves to their masters, even if recaptured in northern states that had abolished slavery. Burns was affected by the law after he became a fugitive in Massachusetts.
He was captured and tried under the law in Boston, in a case that generated national publicity, large demonstrations, protests and an attack on US Marshals at the courthouse. Federal troops were used to ensure Burns was transported to a ship for return to Virginia after the trial. He was eventually ransomed from slavery, with his freedom purchased by Boston sympathizers. Afterward he was educated at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
and became a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
, moving to Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
for a position.
Flight from slavery and capture
At the age of nineteen, Anthony Burns escaped slavery in RichmondRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, traveling by ship to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in 1853. In Boston he worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street
Brattle Street (Boston, Massachusetts)
Brattle Street was a street in Boston, Massachusetts located on the current site of City Hall Plaza, at Government Center.-History:Around 1853 former Virginia slave Anthony Burns worked for "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street."...
."
On May 24, 1854 he was discovered "while walking in Court Street
Court Street (Boston, Massachusetts)
Court Street is located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to 1788, it was called Prison Lane and then Queen Street . In the 19th century it extended beyond its current length, to Bowdoin Square. In the 1960s most of Court Street was demolished to make way for the...
" and arrested. As a hub of resistance toward the "slave power" of the South, many Bostonians reacted by attempting to free Burns
Burns Fugitive Slave Case
Burns Fugitive Slave Case was one of three famous fugitive slave cases arising in Boston, Massachusetts, after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Part of the Vigilance Committee planned to rescue Anthony Burns, an escaped slave, from an upper room of the courthouse...
. President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
made an example of the case to show he was willing to strongly enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. The show of force turned many New Englanders against slavery who had passively accepted its existence before.
On May 26, before Burns' court case, a crowd of abolitionists of both races, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism...
and other Bostonians outraged at Burns' arrest, stormed the court house to free the man. In the melee, Deputy U.S. Marshal James Batchelder
James Batchelder
James Batchelder was the second United States Marshal to be killed in the line of duty. Batchelder was a truckman employed by the Marshals, and assigned to stand guard at the Boston Court House, where Anthony Burns, an escaped slave captured by slave-hunters, was imprisoned.President Franklin...
was fatally stabbed, becoming the second U.S. Marshal to be killed in the line of duty. The police kept control of Burns, but the crowds of opponents, including such African-American abolitionists as Thomas James grew large. While the federal government sent US troops in support, numerous anti-slavery activists arrived in Boston to join the protest and continue the faceoff. It has been estimated the government's cost of capturing and conducting Burns through the trial was upwards of $40,000.
Trial and aftermath
Burns's trial was a formality as the requirements of the Fugitive Slave Act were clear. Richard Henry Dana, Jr.Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...
and his associate, the African-American lawyer Robert Morris
Robert Morris (lawyer)
Robert Morris was an African-American attorney. He was one of the first black lawyers in the United States. He has been called "the first really successful colored lawyer in America."...
, acted as Burns' defenders, but were not successful in the case. With the ruling made against Burns, the government effectively held Boston under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
for the afternoon. The streets between the courthouse and the harbor were lined with federal troops to hold back the waves of protesters as Burns was escorted to the ship for return to his Virginia master.
The matter did not end as Burns was transported south. The events generated strong opposition across the North to Pierce and his administration. Massachusetts residents formed an Anti-Man Hunting League; William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
's burned copies of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Burns court decision, and the Constitution of the United States; and, as a result of the efforts of the Vigilance Committee
Vigilance committee
A vigilance committee was a group formed of private citizens to administer law and order where they considered governmental structures to be inadequate. The term is commonly associated with the frontier areas of the American West in the mid-19th century, where groups attacked cattle rustlers and...
to lobby the legislature and governor against him, the removal from office in 1857 of Edward G. Loring
Edward G. Loring
Edward Greely Loring was a Massachusetts judge who ignited controversy in Massachusetts and the North by ordering escaped slaves Thomas Sims and Anthony Burns to be returned to slavery under the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850...
, the judge who tried Burns. (The next year Loring was appointed to the US Court of Claims under President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
.) In a broader sense, the Burns case fueled anti-slavery sentiments all across the North.
Freedom and later life
The abolitionist community in Boston raised $1,200 to buy Burns' freedom from his master, Charles F. Suttle, but Suttle refused to deal with anyone seeking Burns' emancipation. After Burns was transported to Virginia, Suttle sold him for $905 to David McDaniel, a slaver, cotton planter, and horse-dealer from Rocky Mount, North CarolinaRocky Mount, North Carolina
Rocky Mount is an All-America City Award-winning city in Edgecombe and Nash counties in the coastal plains of the state of North Carolina. Although it was not formally incorporated until February 28, 1867, the North Carolina community that became the city of Rocky Mount dates from the beginning of...
. Leonard A. Grimes eventually managed to ransom Burns's freedom from McDaniel, with financial aid from Boston, for $1,300. Once freed, Burns returned to live in Boston.
With proceeds that came from his biography, combined with a scholarship, Burns received an education at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in Ohio. After briefly preaching in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Burns emigrated to Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
to accept a call from a Baptist church in that colony. He served as a non-ordained minister until his early death from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
at the age of 28 in St. Catharines on July 17, 1862.
Sources
- Tuttleton, James W., Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Twayne Publishers. pp. 34-36
- Charles Emery Stevens (1856), Anthony Burns: A History.
- “Anthony Burns Biography (1834-1862).” A&E Television Networks. 2007.
- “Anthony Burns (1834-1862)”, Black Abolitionist Archive, University of Detroit Mercy.
- Stewart, James Brewer, and Eric Foner. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery, revised edition. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
- Zebly, Kathleen R. "Anthony Burns", in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War. ed. Hedler, David S. and Hedler, Jeanne T. (2000) ISBN 0-393-04758-X
See also
- “Slavery in MassachusettsSlavery in Massachusetts"Slavery in Massachusetts" is an 1854 essay by Henry David Thoreau based on a speech he gave at an anti-slavery rally at Framingham, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1854, after the re-enslavement in Boston, Massachusetts of fugitive slave Anthony Burns....
”, Henry David ThoreauHenry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
’s reaction to the Burns trial
Further reading
- PBS Resource Bank: People and Events: Anthony Burns captured, 1854
- Ronica Roth (2003): "The Trial of Anthony Burns", in Humanities, May/June 2003, Volume 24/Number 3.
- Virginia Hamilton, Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
- Gordon S. Barker, The Imperfect Revolution: Anthony Burns and the Landscape of Race in Antebellum America
- Henry David ThoreauHenry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
(July 4, 1854): "Slavery in Massachusetts"