Virginia Vignettes

Anthony Burns was an escaped slave from Stafford County who became a cause célèbre for the abolitionist movement when he was arrested in Boston in 1854. After stowing away on a ship to gain his freedom, Burns, who was unusual for being able to read and write, worked for a few months in a clothing shop. His whereabouts were discovered, however, after a letter he wrote to his still-enslaved brother was intercepted. According to the highly controversial Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Burns’ owner had the right to return his “property” to Virginia, a right he planned to exercise. Now enter the angry abolitionists of Boston, who declared that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God” and stormed the courthouse where Burns was being held. There were axes, revolvers, and even a battering ram, and during the melee a deputy marshal was shot and killed. President Franklin Pierce dispatched federal troops to Boston to uphold the law, despite the fact that Burns’ owner seemed willing to sell. Instead, Burns was forcibly returned by ship to Virginia at a cost to the government of (in today’s dollars) about $2.5 million.

Further Reading:

Charles Emery Stevens, Anthony Burns: A History (1999)

Albert J. Von Frank, The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson’s Boston (1998)

This Vignette Provided By

Brendan Wolfe is Associate Editor of Encyclopedia Virginia