Authors: Anthony Burns: The Defeat,Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
Tags: #Fugitive Slaves, #Antislavery Movements
Virginia Hamilton
Anthony Burns
The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
Virginia Hamilton
IN MEMORY OF
ANTHONY BURNS
Contents
Selections from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
A Biography of Virginia Hamilton
      Â
THE ABOLITIONIST HYMN
We ask not that the slave should lie
As lies his master, at his ease
,
Beneath a silken canopy
,
Or in the shade of blooming trees
.
We ask not “eye for eye,” that all
Who forge the chain and ply the whip
Should feel their torture, while the slave
Should wield the scourge of mastership.
We mourn not that the man should toil
,
'Tis nature's need, 'tis God's decree;
But let the hand that tills the soil
Be, like the wind that fans it, free
.
â
ANONYMOUS
| R. A. B ALL | Minister, St. Catharines, Canada |
| P. T. B ARNUM | The showman, owner of Barnum's Hotel and Circus |
| J AMES B ATCHELDER | The Marshal's guard killed during the storming of Boston Court House |
| W ILLIAM B RENT | Southerner, Colonel Suttle's slave agent |
| H ORACE W. B ROWN | Witness, police officer, former carpenter |
| A NTHONY B URNS | Fugitive slave who ran away from Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts |
| A SA B UTMAN | Deputy U.S. Marshal known for capturing fugitive slaves |
| E BENEZER C ALDWELL | Slave owner |
| C OLONEL C OOPER | Adjutant of the Army under orders of the President of the United States |
| C AL C ROSS | Sailor, friend of Anthony Burns |
| R ICHARD H ENRY D ANA | Abolitionist lawyer for Anthony Burns |
| A RCHIBALD D AVENPORT | Slave owner |
| G EORGE H. D REW | Bookkeeper at Mattapan Works, South Boston |
| M AJOR G ENERAL B. F. E DMANDS | Commander of all the Federal battalions and regiments in Boston |
| E FRUM | Slave owned by Charles Suttle |
| C HARLES M AYO E LLIS | Abolitionist lawyer for Anthony Burns |
| J OHN F AVOR | Witness, carpenter |
| M R. AND M RS. (M ISSY ) F OOTE | Slave owners |
| W ATSON F REEMAN | U.S. Marshal in charge of prisoner Anthony Burns |
| C YRUS G OULD | Witness, William Jones's employer |
| L EONARD G RIMES | Pastor of the 12th Baptist Church of Boston, known as the fugitive slave church |
| B ENJAMIN F. H ALLETT | U.S. District Attorney |
| T HOMAS W ENTWORTH H IGGINSON | Minister and abolitionist from Worcester, Massachusetts |
| S AMUEL G. H OWE | Philanthropist and historian |
| S ISTER J ANETY | Slave owned by John Suttle, sister of Anthony Burns |
| W ILLIAM J ONES | Witness, employer of Anthony Burns at Mattapan Works, South Boston |
| E DWARD G REELEY L ORING | Judge of Probate, Commissioner for taking bail and affidavits, presiding over slave cases |
| R OBERT L UMPKIN | Slave trader, owner of Lumpkin's Jail |
| L UTHER | Slave owned by Charles Suttle |
| M AMAW | Slave owned by John Suttle, mother of Anthony Burns |
| M AUDE M AW | Slave, a “two-head”: a seer said to know the future |
| M r. and M RS. D AVID M C D ANIEL | Slave owners |
| M R. M ILLSPAUGH | Druggist, hired Anthony Burns in Richmond, Virginia |
| R OBERT M ORRISS | Abolitionist lawyer |
| E DWARD G. P ARKER | Lawyer for Charles Suttle |
| T HEODORE P ARKER | Abolitionist, minister of 28 th Congregational Society, Tremont Temple |
| W ENDELL P HILLIPS | Abolitionist lawyer, orator, and crusader for human rights |
| F RANKLIN P IERCE | 14th President of the United States, 1853-57 |
| C OFFIN P ITTS | Deacon, 12th Baptist Church of Boston, friend and employer of Anthony Burns |
| D EPUTY M ARSHAL J OHN H. R ILEY | One of the Marshal's men guarding Anthony Burns |
| M R. R USSELL | Employer of William Jones |
| G EORGE R. R USSELL | Presiding at Faneuil Hall public meeting, Friday, May 26, 1854 |
| S HADRACH | Fugitive slave, captured but escaped from Boston Court House, 1851 |
| S IMON | Slave owned by Charles Suttle |
| T HOMAS S IMS | Fugitive slave, captured by Asa Butman in 1851, tried and returned to slavery |
| J.V.C. S MITH | Mayor of Boston |
| G. S. S TOCKWELL | Northern minister who discovered whereabouts of Anthony Burns, 1855 |
| M ARTIN S TOWELL | Abolitionist from Worcester, Massachusetts |
| C HARLES F. S UTTLE | Son of John Suttle, Colonel in Virginia Militia, owner of Anthony Burns |
| J OHN S UTTLE | Called he Mars, father of Charles Suttle, owner of child Anthony Burns, Mamaw, Big Walker, Janety, etc. |
| M ISTRESS S UTTLE | Called she Missy, wife of John Suttle, owner of slaves |
| J OHN S WIFT | Young lawyer |
| S ETH J. T HOMAS | Lawyer for Charles Suttle |
| B EN T RUE | Witness, guard over Anthony Burns |
| B IG W ALKER | Possibly Anthony Burns's father; driver, or foreman, of John Suttle's slaves |
| J AMES T. W HITTEMORE | Witness; member, Boston City Council, and a lieutenant in the Pulaski Guards |
| W HITTOM | Slave owned by Charles Suttle |
“HOLD ON, BOY!”
A harsh voice called to him from the
dim light on Brattle Street.
He held himself in and managed to sound calm when he asked, “What do you want of me?”
“They say a boy broke into the jewelry store,” the man said, and walked nearer. “About twenty hours ago it was that a boy took a valuable piece of silver. And you look like the same boy.”
“I never stole in my life!” he exclaimed. He knew he couldn't have been the one. He was no boy. But something inside him cautioned,
Steal away to Jesus!
“I haven't ever stole,” he said evenly.
“Let's just see about it, m'boy,” the man said. “Let's just walk down to the Court House.”
He panicked and started to run. Men came out of the shadows to surround him. He bolted, but they caught him and lifted him off his feet. They carried him like a corpse at the height of their shoulders. He did next what he knew how to do: He closed his eyes and went far inside himself. Gripped tightly by these strangers
up on their shoulders, he stayed stiffly in their hands.
There seemed to be a leader and maybe six others. He thought, They are like pallbearersâam I a dead man? They've caught me, but I'm not a thief. They say I
stole
. I know I have stole nothing in my life!
He was innocent. That was why he had resisted and run. He'd been on the corner of Brattle and Court Streets, coming from his work at Mr. Pitts' clothing store. In view was Faneuil Hall, the old market building. It had been built with money earned from selling West Indian slaves. Now it was used by Christian abolitionists who in the present year, 1854, prayed and preached against slavery. So he had been told by his employer and friend, the freeman Coffin Pitts.
The men who had caught him continued to carry him on their shoulders to Boston Court Square and the Court House.
They've mixed me up with some poor soul, he was thinking. It's all a mistake. Keep yourself quiet, make no resistance, he told himself. He didn't move a muscle.
Breathing heavily, perspiring, the men took a moment's rest when they arrived at the Court House. Once inside, they stood him on his feet. He opened his eyes and looked at them hard just for a moment. They looked rough to him, like the lowest types; so did the leader.
They lifted him up again and carried him to a jury room on the third floor. There, with some relief, they set him down again.
He brushed and straightened his clothing to proper order and looked around for the jewelry
store owner; instead, he saw the door closing, shutting him in. There were iron bars set in the door. The windows, too, had iron bars over them. And the men who had carried him now stood silently to either side of the barred door.