Anthony Burns

Education: Oberlin College

Significance: Anthony Burns was born into slavery in Virginia in the mid-nineteenth century. He eventually escaped and fled to Massachusetts, where he started working. His capture and trial in 1854 resulted in protests and riots led by Northern abolitionists. Events such as this set the stage for the ultimate battle over slavery, the American Civil War (1861–1865).

Background

Anthony Burns was born on May 31, 1834, in Stafford County, Virginia. He was the youngest of thirteen children, and his entire family was enslaved. His father was his mother's third husband and worked as a slave in a stone quarry. His mother was enslaved and a cook in the home of John and Catherine Suttle. Burns's father died when he was still a young child.

John Suttle died several years later, leaving his family in debt. Burns and his family then were enslaved by Catherine Suttle, who sold off several of Burns's siblings to try to pay the family's debts. Catherine Suttle also hired out Burns, his mother, and his siblings to other people in the area to make money. As a young boy, Burns worked a variety of jobs. An accident on one of these jobs—his hand was crushed in mill machinery—led him to devote himself to God. Burns joined the Baptist Church, where he taught himself how to read and write.

When Catherine Suttle died, her oldest son, Charles F. Suttle, became Burns's enslaver. The young Suttle continued the practice of hiring out his enslaved workers. One of the men he hired Burns out to was William Brent. While working for Brent, Burns convinced Brent to let him hire out his own time on occasion. This led Burns to Richmond, Virginia, where he eventually made contact with some sympathetic mariners and others from the North. These people assisted Burns in his escape from slavery. Burns used the money he had earned by hiring himself out to arrange passage on a boat to Boston, Massachusetts, in March 1854. Burns was now free, but he was also a fugitive.

The Fugitive Slave Act

America was a tense place during the mid-nineteenth century. As the United States grew, citizens became more deeply divided over the issue of slavery. The question of slavery became even more important as the country gained more territory. Politicians fought over whether a territory would enter the union as a slave state or a free state, where slavery was outlawed. In 1850, the government reached a temporary compromise on the issue of slavery that kept the United States intact for the time being. This became known as the Compromise of 1850.

The compromise included several new measures and acts. One of these was the Fugitive Slave Act. People had been escaping bondage in the South and traveling to freedom in the North for many years. To appease the Southern states during the negotiation of the compromise, government officials created a new law that made it easier for enslavers to recover escapees from free states. At the time, Boston was known for being a safe place for fugitives from slavery. The city was home to many Northern abolitionists, who fought to end slavery throughout the country.

When Burns arrived in Boston, he found work cooking and cleaning windows. He found a permanent job in a clothing store run by abolitionist Lewis Hayden. However, Burns would not remain there for long. Burns had written a letter to one of his siblings. The note accidentally revealed that he was living in Boston. As was the custom at the time, the mail carrier had delivered the letter to Charles F. Suttle rather than to Burns's sibling.

Suttle and Brent traveled to Boston, where Suttle provided a court with evidence that he was Burns's enslaver and Burns should be returned to him. On May 24, 1854, officials took Burns into custody while he was walking home from work. On May 26, abolitionists, including Hayden, rioted and protested at the courthouse where Burns was being held. The riot left one officer dead and led to thirteen arrests. Several attempts were made to free Burns during this time.

Burns first went before a judge on May 27. During the proceedings, Burns inadvertently identified Suttle as his enslaver. This forced the judge to rule in Suttle's favor and return Burns to him under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act.

In the beginning of June, officials marched Burns to the harbor, where he boarded a ship bound for Norfolk, Virginia. As Burns journeyed to the boat, thousands of protesters filled the streets. They held American flags upside down and carried a coffin with the word Liberty painted on it to show their anger at Burns being returned to slavery. Thousands of soldiers patrolled the area to try to keep the peace.

Later Life

In Norfolk, Suttle had Burns held in jail, in shackles, for four months. Then he sold Burns to David McDaniel, who took him to North Carolina. However, the abolitionists in the North continued to fight for Burns. Eventually, they raised about $1,300 to purchase Burns's freedom from McDaniel. When he returned to Boston, about one thousand people gathered to welcome him.

Burns attended Oberlin College in Ohio thanks to funds he earned from the sale of his autobiography and a scholarship. He later moved to St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada, where he became a preacher in a Black church.

Burns died in Canada on July 17, 1862, at the age of twenty-eight. Some sources report the cause of death was tuberculosis, while others suggest he had been in poor health for much of his life. His grave in Victoria Lawn Cemetery, St. Catherines, was restored in 2000.

Impact

Burns was the last person ever arrested in New England and returned to his enslaver under the Fugitive Slave Act. His arrest inspired Northern abolitionists to fight even harder against slavery. People who had never spoken out on the issue before joined the abolitionists' cause. In 1855, Massachusetts officials passed the Personal Liberty Act, which essentially voided the federal Fugitive Slave Act by prohibiting state police from capturing escapees from enslavement, state judges from issuing warrants for them, and state prisons from housing them.

Personal Life

Records indicate that Burns never married. Some sources claim that he may have attended Fairmont Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, after attending Oberlin College.

Bibliography

"Anthony Burns Captured, 1854." PBS, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Espiritu, Allison. "Burns, Anthony (1834–1862)." Black Past, 12 Mar. 2007, www.blackpast.org/aah/burns-anthony-1834-1862. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested, May 24, 1854." Mass Moments, www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=153. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"'God Made Me a Man—Not a Slave': The Arrest of Anthony Burns." US National Park Service, 5 Aug. 2022, www.nps.gov/articles/-god-made-me-a-man-not-a-slave-the-arrest-of-anthony-burns.htm. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Maltz, Earl. "The Trial of Anthony Burns (1854)." Encyclopedia of Virginia, 16 Mar. 2016, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Burns‗Anthony‗The‗Trial‗of‗1854#itsFR. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Marsh, Denell. "Burns, Anthony (1834–1862)." The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History, edited by Christopher G. Bates, Sharpe Reference, 2013, pp. 154–55.

Pierpaoli, Paul G., Jr. "Burns, Anthony." American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 263–64.