Virginia Hamilton by Anthony Burns: The Defeat, Triumph of a Fugitive Slave Page A

Commissioner
At the Court House in Court Square

SHALL BOSTON STEAL ANOTHER MAN?
    Thursday, May 25, 1854
    Written by Reverend Parker, the leaflet was printed by the antislavery press and carried across Massachusetts by volunteers who worked on trains, stagecoaches, and trucks. As it was being distributed, Theodore Parker had time to fire off another leaflet:
    SEE TO IT THAT NO FREE CITIZEN OF MASSACHUSETTS
IS DRAGGED INTO SLAVERY
    Overnight, without his ever knowing it, Anthony Burns became a symbol of freedom. But high up in the Court House he was a tired, miserable prisoner, alone save for his guard of petty criminals.
    Anthony felt he had no one to turn to. He had no way of knowing that all through the night men watched the three massive doors of his granite prison Court House. It was a different time from 1851, when Thomas Sims was taken. The watchers made certain the authorities knew of their presence. Their message was clear: Anthony Burns was cared for.
    Anthony was unaware that abolitionist ministers and lawyers argued fiercely hour upon hour over their next course of action on his behalf. There was no one to inform him that the slavers, Suttle and Brent, were followed everywhere by black men who never looked at them but were always in their sight. Suttle became so terrified that these blacks would try to lynch him, he and Brent moved to quarters in the Revere House attic and hired bodyguards.
    In two short days Anthony had become a symbol to freedom lovers and a devilish token of danger to slavers like Suttle. But the courteous Reverend Leonard Grimes and his deacon, Coffin Pitts,never for an instant confused the man, the fugitive, with his cause. They agreed that Reverend Grimes must try to see Anthony the next morning.
    Anthony knew none of this. He wished to shut out the prying questions of guards hoping to trick him. He did what he knew how to do best of all: He retreated within, taking comfort in his unchanging past.

7
Winter 1846
    THE BOY OF HIS past was now twelve. At that time he had just finished two years’ service to Mars William and Missy Brent in Falmouth, Virginia.
    â€œI be two year with Brents,” spoke the boy. “Missy treat me kind, and all ’em be house slaves she treat the same. She let me read secret in her house. And I gain two hundred money for Mars Brent. He hired me out and I done it all well.”
    Charles Suttle had more black slaves then he could possibly need or use. He had mortgaged his land and sold much of it to pay off past debts. By the time Anthony was grown, Suttle was a shopkeeper and a high sheriff. In his part of Virginia, Stafford County, the land had been worked almost to death. So Suttle began to hire out his slaves to people who had none and needed workers. It became so profitable for him to supply other towns and cities that he made more of his women slaves into breeders to keep up the supply of slave labor.
    When Anthony came back to theSuttle home after his second year with the Brents, Suttle said, “Tony, Mr. Brent speaks very well of you. Likes you so well, he has hired you for another year.”
    â€œBut Mars Charles, I haven’t hire him ,” Anthony said. He was confident he could speak boldly to his owner, for he knew Mars Charles favored him.
    â€œWhat’s the matter, boy—hasn’t Brent treated you well?” asked Suttle.
    â€œWell, yes, Mars, but there’s th’tuther boy there mislikes me, and—”
    Suttle shook his head. “It can’t be helped now,” he said. “I’ve agreed to let you stop with Mr. Brent. And besides, he pays more for you this year than he did last year.”
    â€œJust as you say, Mars. The woods is big enough to hold me ,” Anthony said.
    Charles Suttle was surprised. This was the first time Anthony had used the argument of the woods , and it was a position that carried weight with every slaveholder. So much of Virginia was dense forest that a slave might