BURNS, Anthony, American fugitive slave: b. Virginia, about 1830; d. Saint Catherine's, Ontario, 27 July 1862. Escaping from slavery he worked in Boston during the winter of 1853-54; but on 24 May 1854— the day after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had in flamed the North against the slave power— was arrested on warrant of Charles F. Suttle through his agent Brent. The next day he was taken before United States Commissioner Ed ward G. Loring for examinatinn; but Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker secured an ad journment for two days. Burns, meanwhile, was confined in the courthouse under a strong guard, and on the evening of the 26th a great mass meeting in protest was held at Fanenil Hall. T. W. Higginson and others had planned to stampede the meeting into storming the courthouse and rescuing Burns, and at the ap pointed time battered in a door and attempted the rescue them9elves, relying upon assistance in their undertaking The size of the meet.: ing, however, prevented the signals from work. ing well and the leaders from emerging, and after a scuffle in which a deputy was fatally stabbed and several, assailants wounded, the latter retired. The next day Loring, an ardent
upholder of the Fugitive Slave Law, delivered Burns to his claimant on evidence entirely legal and worthless even under that law. Es corted by a strong military guard, Burns waS taken to a government cutter, through streets draped in mourning and crowds ready to stone the soldiers. A riot at the wharf was only pre vented by the action of Rev. Daniel Foster upon his saying us pray to The crowd uncov ered and stood quiet while Burns was taken on board. Indictments were drawn against his would-be rescuers, but quashed for want of evi dence. Burns afterward gained his liberty, studied theology at Oberlin College and was eventually settled over a Baptist colored church in Saint Catherine's, Ontario, where he died. Consult Stevens, 'Anthony Burns: a History' (1856) ; Adams, Henry Dana: a Biography' (1891) ; Higginson, 'Cheerful Yes terdays' (1898).