In the 1850s, Stafford County slave Anthony Burns escaped bondage only to be thrust into the national spotlight

Date published: 5/9/2006

IF YOU are familiar with the life and times of Anthony Burns, you are excused from today's column. Have a nice week, and I'll meet you back here again soon.

However, if you were among the Stafford residents who asked, "Anthony who?" recently when you heard the name of our newest elementary school, pull up a chair and allow me to share a little county history.

Burns was born a slave in Stafford in 1834. And, remarkably, by the time he was 20 years old, he was one of the most well-known black men in America. Although he sought only freedom and not fame, Burns became the central character in a celebrated trial that attracted national attention and sparked the so-called "Boston Slave Riot."

How could that be?

Well, it had to do with a controversial national law (the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), a determined owner (prominent Stafford merchant Charles Suttle) and several members of Boston's antislavery movement (including Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Lloyd Garrison).

But it mostly had to do with Burns, whose name would be long forgotten today had he not been a man of courage, boldness and fortitude.

Burns, who was known as "Tony" in Stafford, had been the youngest of 13 children. The Suttle family lived near Stafford Courthouse and later at Aquia Creek. At some point, Burns learned basic reading and writing skills from white friends and also developed deep religious convictions.

By 1854, Burns was one of several Suttle family slaves who were hired out to work in Richmond. That's how he came to escape as a stowaway on a ship bound for Massachusetts. Wearing all the clothes he had, Burns endured three weeks of winter chill, seasickness and hunger before reaching Boston.

Within three months, however, Suttle intercepted a letter from Burns to one of his brothers and had the fugitive slave arrested. That action set in motion a series of events that included a mass anti-slavery rally at Faneuil Hall, the so-called "riot," which was a hastily planned and poorly executed attempt to rescue Burns by storming the courthouse, and a three-day trial monitored by the national press.

According the the Fugitive Slave Act, a slave owner needed only an affidavit describing the fugitive and a convincing argument that the captive was indeed his property. No defense was guaranteed.

If Burns had admitted that he owed service to Suttle and agreed to return to Virginia, the episode would have created little notice. But when he accepted legal assistance from the abolitionists, Burns raised the stakes--not only for himself, but for the anti-slavery cause nationwide.

From the Southern perspective, the Fugitive Slave Act was simply the law of the land and a necessary protection of property rights. Judge Edward G. Loring agreed, and ruled on June 2, 1854, that Burns should be returned to Virginia as a slave.

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Date published: 5/9/2006