Anthony Burns / drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple & Black ; John Andrews, sc.

Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854. A bust portrait of the twenty-four-year-old Burns is surrounded by scenes from his life. These include (clockwise from lower left): the sale of the youthful Burns at auction, a whipping post with bales of cotton, his arrest in Boston on May 24, 1854, his escape from Richmond on shipboard, his departure from Boston escorted by federal marshals and troops, Burns's "address" (to the court?), and finally Burns in prison. Copyrighting works such as prints and pamphlets under the name of the subject (here Anthony Burns) was a common abolitionist practice. This was no doubt the case in this instance, since by 1855 Burns had in fact been returned to his owner in Virginia. (Source: Reilly)

Inscribed in ink on verso: 230.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Anthony Burns in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on January 25, 1855.
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1855-7.