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Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

ISBN: 0679839976

Title: Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

Author: Virginia Hamilton

KDL Description:

A biography of the slave who escaped to Boston in 1854, was arrested at the instigation of his owner, and whose trial caused a furor between abolitionists and those determined to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts.
Lexile Level: 860
Guided Reading Level: V

Amazon Description:

The year is 1854, and Anthony Burns, a 20-year-old Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston. But according to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Anthony is soon imprisoned. The antislavery forces in Massachusetts are outraged, but the federal government backs the Fugitive Slave Act, sparking riots in Boston and fueling the Abolitionist movement.

Written with all the novelistic skill that has won her every major award in children’s literature, Virginia Hamilton’s important work of nonfiction puts young readers into the mind of Burns himself.