Anthony Burns-The defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave (pages 1-42)

Summery: In the expodition of Anthony Burns a slave named Anthony rus away from Virginia to Boston. Anthony does not stay free for very long. Because of the Fugitive slave Act that stated that a run away slave can be captured in any free state Burns is captured and put into prision. When this happens and Burns is picked up by the police he goes into his own world, the world when he was still a child, he looks back on his childhood when he was about seven. Burns talks about his mother and whole family being slaves on a man called John Suttle land. He talks about how he was treated differently from the other slaves because he was lighter than them. He even gets special treated, he doesnt have to work all day like they do, he doesnt work at all.By the time Anthony comes back to reality he is in prison waiting to go to court.

Quote: " Yays-surah, they yo' slaves. They my slaves, too"(Hamiliton 16).

Reaction:The quote is Anthony saying that he thinks if everyone is John Suttle's slaves then they are his slaves as well. This quote is important to the book because it shows just how little or how much Anthony actually knew about slavery and what was going on around him. This quote made me feel that Anthony was traeted very special compared to the actual slaves so he felt that he could say that kind of thing to John Suttle and it would be ok. But in reality it wasn't.