Anthony Burns Essay

Imagine being a slave during the period of the fugitive slave act. Would you run away or would you stay and abide being a slave? If you ran away and you ran to Massachusetts and your master name you would you run from him? The man in this story did, listen as I tell you the sad story of Anthony Burns. Anthony burns was an educated slave that had a white father. His mother was a breeder which meant she had a baby two year. Anthonys first master treated him like a sunlight early in the morning and gives him a horse ride. Anthony was very smart. wizard day his master threw him of his horse in mid air Tony did a somersault and landed on his hand and he flipped over. At the season of nineteen, Anthony Burns escaped slavery in Richmond, traveling by send to Boston in 1853. In Boston he worked for Coffin Pitts, apparel dealer, no. 36 Brattle Street. On May 24, 1854 he was discover while walking in Court Street and arrested. As a hub of resistance toward the slave power of the Sou th, many Bostonians reacted by attempting to free Burns. hot seat Franklin Pierce made an example of the case to show he was unbidden to strongly enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.The show of force sour 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 dramaturgy to free the man. In the melee, Deputy U. S. Marshal mob Batchelder was fatally stabbed, fair the second Marshal to be killed in the line of duty. The police unplowed control of Burns, but the crowds of opponents, including such African-American abolitionists as ThomasJames grew large. While the federal political science 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 governments cost of capturing and conducting B urns through the trial was upwards of $40,000. He was eventually taken back to Virginia where he went to a slave prison house for a year. Afterward he was sold in North Carolina. Where his associate bought him and sent him to Canada where he lived the rest of his short life. He became a minister of religion and preached and lived peacefully.