Exhibition Reviews

"The Price of Freedom: Anthony Burns and the Fugitive Slave Act." Moakley Federal Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, MA 02210.       Temporary exhibition, Sept. 2002–Oct. 2003. 650 sq. ft. Produced by the Bostonian Society. Cynthia Robinson, project director.       The Trial of Anthony Burns. Script by Wendy Lement and Bethany Dunakin, 2000. Directed by Wendy Lement. Produced by Discovering Justice in collaboration with Theatre Espresso.       Internet: information on the Bostonian Society <http://bostonhistory.org> (April 1, 2004), and on Discovering Justice <http://www.discoveringjustice.org> (April 1, 2004).
Anthony Burns, a slave, escaped to Boston where he lived as a free man until he was captured under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and placed on trial in 1854. Boston, a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment, witnessed a major protest meeting and an attempt to free Burns by force. A heavily armed force led Burns, defeated in court, to the ship that would send him back to slavery past thousands who lined his route in protest. Eventually abolitionists managed to purchase his freedom, but he died a young man as a result of the brutal conditions he endured after his return to slavery. (See Albert J. Von Frank, The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson's Boston, 1998.)	1
This wood engraving with letter press of Anthony Burns was published by R. M. Edwards in Boston in 1855. It features aspects of Burns's experience as an escaped slave captured and re-enslaved under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-90750.
"The Price of Freedom" was a collaboration between the Bostonian Society, which maintains the Old State House and uses it as a site for exhibitions on all aspects of the city's history, and Discovering Justice: The James D. St. Clair Court Education Project, which seeks to teach citizens of all ages about justice through a program that includes courthouse tours and historical dramas performed in courthouses. Set in the center of the Moakley Courthouse's second-floor lobby, the exhibition complemented Discovering Justice's educational play, The Trial of Anthony Burns. The exhibit consisted of four panels arranged in a square with a case in the middle and occupied a small space of 650 square feet. The glass exterior wall of the courthouse provided a magnificent panoramic view of Boston Harbor.	2
Three of the four panels addressed the following themes: What did the Compromise of 1850 cost the country's free states? What was the abolitionist movement willing to do to ensure freedom for all? What price were individuals willing to pay to remain true to their beliefs? The final panel focused specifically on Anthony Burns and the Fugitive Slave Act. The major themes were well presented, and images and text clear. Because the exhibition was so compressed, it was somewhat burdened with text. Overall, however, it was a well-conceived exhibit that successfully conveyed the particulars of the Burns trial as well as the larger national context, notably the Fugitive Slave Act.	. . .