Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery In Emerson's Boston, The

Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Summer 1999 by Symington, Timothy

The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery In Emerson's Boston. By Albert J. Von Frank. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998). $27.95 hardcover, $16.95 paperback

Albert J. Von Frank has delivered a very interesting and relatively unknown event in Massachusetts, one which once again set the eyes of the young nation on the state. The event, centering on a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns, demonstrated that by the mid-1850's the issue of slavery was already dividing the United States. What had made the situation more volatile was the application of the infamous Fugitive Slave Law. The book by Von Frank captures the inevitable move towards disunion with the case of Anthony Burns.

The Trials of Anthony Burns does not, however, focus only on Burns. He is only a figure who has extraordinary events occurring all about him. The book is a study and record of the abolition crusade in Massachusetts. Von Frank presents this record to demonstrate how the people of Boston were forced to deal with an unpopular law, which many hated in principle yet simultaneously felt obliged to consider as constitutional. The abolitionists and crowds of pre-Civil War Boston become a single character as the fate of a fugitive slave is handled in federal court.

Von Frank begins his work very much like a novelist setting up an interesting plot. A slave named Anthony Burns is captured because of an outstanding warrant signed out by his master in Richmond, Col. Charles Suttle. Burns, at first, quietly agrees to return to Richmond. However, prominent Boston abolitionists, upon hearing about his capture, get legal counsel for Burns and start to organize protest groups. Events escalate at a fever pitch, and a riot breaks out in which one of Burn's jailers is murdered. Rescue attempts are planned and abandoned while an offer is made to purchase Burns in the hopes of immediately setting him free (quite a paradox, for at that time it was illegal to buy or sell slaves anywhere in the Commonwealth). Soon federal marshalls get involved and President Franklin Pierce takes notice of the impending court trial.

The plot is made more informative when Von Frank explores, in detail, the Massachusetts abolition movement and the constitutional issues surrounding the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The abolitionist views and Transcendentalist principles of certain literary figures at the time -- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman -- are examined throughout the book, giving the reader an idea about popular northern thought in 1854. Slavery was, at one time, seen as a national disgrace which was confined to the South. Suddenly, the Fugitive Slave Law forced the issue into the North, for now the disgrace was shared by all the states.

Once the setting of Boston and the psyche of the people have been examined, Von Frank continues with the actual trial of Burns. The case is not clear-cut in favor of Burns or Suttle, which is obvious by the arguments of both sides. The outcome will not be given in this review. Von Frank does not end the book with the verdict, however. He once again focuses on the antislavery movement and the effects of the Fugitive Slave Law. The book's final section is a post-script, detailing the lives of the key players in the Burns case, such as Burns, Suttle, the defense and prosecution teams, literary figures and Boston abolitionists.

I found the book to be very interesting and obviously quite informative. Von Frank has certainly become the expert of the antislavery movement in New England. The book was incredibly well researched and painted an excellent portrait of Emerson's Boston. My only critique is that sometimes there was so much information that it was difficult to keep track of people and events. There were moments when I wished Von Frank simply stayed with the case, which was very dramatic and eventful.

However, these criticisms do not, in any way, take away from the fact that this book is a valuable and interesting historical work.

Timothy Symington

Westfield State College