Raynor HCA 2013-07
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/18/2013
BURNS, Anthony (May 183-1862) was born a slave in Stafford County, Virginia. As a young man, he became a Baptist and a "slave preacher" at the Falmouth Union Church in Falmouth, Virginia. At the age of nineteen, Anthony Burns escaped slavery in Richmond, traveling by ship to Boston in 1853. In Boston he worked for a pie company and for a man named "Coffin Pitts, clothing dealer, no.36 Brattle Street." On May 24, 1854 he was discovered "while walking in Court Street" and arrested. As a hub of resistance toward the "slave power" of the South, many Bostonians reacted by attempting to free Burns. President Franklin Pierce made an example of the case to show he was willing to strongly enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. The show of force turned many New Englanders against slavery who had passively accepted its existence before. Autograph Letter Signed, “Anthony Burns,” 2pp., July 22, 1859, Cinncinnati, Ohio. In large part, “I avail myself of this opportunity to write you a few lines ... I am as well as usual, & still continuing the prosecution of my Studies. I hear that Mr. Dana has gone to visit the old country for his health.. ... Mr. Ellis will you please attend to a little business for me. It is this, I have some money in Saugus Bank which I am in much need of, but can not get this money except I have some one to send my bank book to that they may draw the money & it to me. If I send you the book will draw out & send me $50.00. Please write by return mail. Yours Truly, Anthony Burns, to Mr. Ellis.” VG. Then, in his hand and signed by “C(harles) M. Ellis,” in full, “Mr. Burns was a good man of some ability, an effective speaker. When here he came to see me. I secured several letters from him. I hear of his death with sorrow. August 25, 1862, C.M.Ellis.” Then, a newspaper clipping of the Burns obituary. This letter is tipped onto a fair copy of the book, “ Athony Burns A History” by Charles Emery Stevens. The book is signed twice by Ellis. At the time of this writing, Burns was attending Fairmont Theological Seminary in Cincinnati for a year's study. Richard.H. Dana, Jr. and Charles M. Ellis, were counsels for Burns during his fugitive trial in Boston.
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