Sources
Newspaper articles and other publications related to the event were published in The Boston Slave Riot, and Trial of Anthony Burns in1854. Other important primary sources include Charles Emery Stevens’ Anthony Burns: A History (1856), E. H. Gray’s Assaults Upon Freedom!  A Discourse, Occassioned by the Rendition of Anthony Burns (1854), Theodore Parker’s The New Crime Against Humanity: A Sermon Preached at the Music Hall, in Boston, on Sunday, June 4, 1854 (1854) , and Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s Massachusetts In Mourning: A Sermon, Preached in Worcester, on Sunday, June 4, 1854 (1854).  Henry David Thoreau also responded to Burns’ situation with an essay entitled “Slavery in Massachusetts” in 1854. In addition, the Massachusetts Historical Society has several collections with  material related to Burns’ case, such as two broadsides . The Charles Cushing Barry Papers contain the checks used to purchase Burns’ freedom in 1855. (You can see a detail image of the checks on this page . Other collections with material related to Burns’ case include the Dana Family Papers, the John A. Andrew Papers, and the Theodore Parker Papers. In addition, this online finding aid provides an overview of all the collections relevant to African American History at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Important secondary sources include Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease’s The Fugitive Slave Law and Anthony Burns (1975), Virginia Hamilton’s Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave (1988), and Albert J. Von Frank’s The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson’s Boston (1998).

Places to Visit
Lewis Hayden was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee and participated in the failed attempt to rescue Burns in 1854. While the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House is on the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, it is a private residence. See the Boston African American National Historic Site website for more information. Other interesting places to visit include the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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