The Trials of Anthony BurnsThe Trials of Anthony Burns

In 1854 an escaped Virginia slave, Anthony Burns, was captured and brought to trial in Boston and Northerners were unable to ignore the unpleasantness of slavery anymore. This is the story of Burns' trial and of how, arising in abolitionist Boston just as the Kansas-Nebraska Act took effect, it revolutionized the moral and political climate in Massachusettes and sent waves through the nation.