This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I-Heart Radio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

And I'm Holly Fry.

This is the second part of our two-parter about Anthony Burns,

inspired by how frequently I have seen a quote about him on social media over the last several months.

In part one, we talked about his life in Virginia up until about the age of 20, during which he was enslaved.

Then in 1854, Burns escaped aboard a ship bound for Boston.

Where we left off, his enslaver, Charles F. Suttall had learned where Burns was

and had filed the necessary paperwork to have him pursued as a fugitive.

Slave catcher and deputy marshal Asa O. Butman had arrested Burns under false pretenses

on the evening of Wednesday, May 24, 1854, saying that Burns had been accused of robbing a jewelry

store. Burns was taken to the courthouse and held in the jury saying that Burns had been accused of robbing a jewelry store,

Burns was taken to the courthouse and held in the jury room where he was kept under guard.

While Anthony Burns was being held in the jury room at the courthouse,

Charles F. Suttall and William Brent arrived, and they were led in to see him.

As we talked about in part one, Burns had previously worked for Brent for a couple of years, and Brent was managing his hiring out in Richmond,

so Brent knew Burns and could identify him. Suttall asked Burns why he had run away,

and Burns told him he had fallen asleep on board the vessel where he had been working, and when he woke up, the ship had set sail and carried him off.

This, of course, had some elements of the truth, but without an admission that he had been trying to escape.

...