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Article: Burns Fugitive Slave Case
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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BURNS FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE
BURNS FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE.
The Burns Fugitive Slave Case of 1854 was one of three famous fugitive slave cases arising in Boston after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In 1854 Anthony Burns successfully fled bondage in Alexandria, Virginia, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. Within a few months, however, his owner, Col. Charles F. Suttle, arrived in Boston to reclaim him. In response, part of the Boston Vigilance Committee, a group of lawyers committed to protecting the rights of fugitive slaves, planned to rescue Burns from an upper room of the courthouse. On the night of 26 May, they battered in a door of the building, entered, and one of ...