His capture enraged black and white abolitionists. Two days after the arrest, a number of them attacked the federal courthouse with a battering ram, hoping to free Burns. Burns's defense lawyers were no more successful. After a brief trial, he was ordered returned to slavery. On June 2 nd , thousands of people lined the streets of Boston. They hissed and shouted, "Shame! No fugitive slave was ever captured in Massachusetts again.
President Franklin Pierce ordered troops to maintain order and insisted that a U. Navy ship transport Burns back to Virginia. Anthony Burns was not the first fugitive slave arrested in Boston and returned to his enslaver. But he was the last. More than any other city in the North, Boston was considered a haven for runaways; its black community was especially strong and well organized and it was a city where black and white abolitionists were willing to act on their convictions.
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All this came into play in May of In an attempt to find a compromise that would save the Union, Congress had passed the Fugitive Slave Act in September of The new law gave slave owners or their agents the right to seize runaway slaves merely by presenting sworn testimony proving ownership.
Law-enforcement officials throughout the North were required to arrest suspected fugitives and help return them to their masters. Anyone who aided an escaped slave or interfered with his or her arrest was subject to fine and imprisonment. The law significantly increased anti-slavery sentiment among Northerners.
Vigilance Committees were formed to aid fugitive slaves, and some of the more militant abolitionists turned to civil disobedience.
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In the early spring of , Anthony Burns escaped from Alexandria, Virginia, by hiding on a ship bound for the North. He arrived in Boston at the end of March; before long, his owner learned of his whereabouts and came to reclaim him.
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Marshalls arrested Burns and confined him to the federal courthouse. Word of the arrest spread quickly. Handbills announcing "The Kidnappers Are Here! Slavery opponents hastily dispatched letters seeking support from abolitionists in other towns. Two days after the arrest, close to 5, abolitionists, most of them white, gathered at Fanueil Hall.
A smaller group, mostly black men and women, met at the Tremont Temple. While the Fanueil Hall group debated strategy, those meeting at the church decided to act: A shot rang out.
Fugitive Moment by B.A. Brittingham - FictionDB
Half a dozen sheriff's deputies beat back two men who attempted to enter the building. Meanwhile, those meeting at Fanueil Hall had learned of the rescue-in-progress, and several hundred headed to the courthouse. Police later reported that protesters threw bricks, fired pistols, and attacked another door with axes.
Don't have an account yet? Get the most out of your experience with a personalized all-access pass to everything local on events, music, restaurants, news and more. The portrait is an attempt to freeze time. Whether painting or photograph, its purpose is to hold the subject safe, to fix that moment when the person looks just so, before the passing of time and the cares of living take their toll. Though he's been gone 50 years, Great-Granddad stills looks down with hale and hearty benevolence over his growing brood; at his side, Great-Grandma still possesses the beauty that broke hearts at the county fair.
This is the conceit that Oscar Wilde flipped on its head in. That painting bears the ravages of dissipation and degeneration while its subject retains his youth and beauty. And it's the reason I'm reluctant to replace the year-old portrait of me that hangs on my mother's wall: I look better in it.
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The paradox of " Portraits ," Amy Blakemore's current exhibit at Inman Gallery, is that rather than arresting time, her work seems to partake of its fluidity. One explanation is that most of these photographs are not portraits in the traditional sense of a formal sitting, with the subject posed and highly conscious of the camera's eye. These have the feel of candid shots, even in the few in which the people are looking directly at the camera.
That leads us to another explanation, Blakemore's tool of choice: One Web page devoted to the Diana affectionately calls it "the crappiest camera ever manufactured. So why would anyone bother? You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter s - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! For an answer to that question, look at these photographs.
They're of a world as seen through gossamer. Delicately distorted, like memories or dreams, they soften even more at the edges. In most, the colors are rich, dark and dense; where brightness prevails, the sunniness has the surreal aspect of a fevered hallucination. And Duncan stands in a flat landscape that suggests a barrier island, looking down at something, in light so bright it makes you sweat. The sensation of heat is intensified by the shadow his face and sunglasses cast on his white-hot shirtfront.