A colored man named Shadrach was claimed as a slave; he was arrested, put in prison, and the kidnappers felt that for once they had a sure thing. Boston, however, was a strange place for a human being to be in a dungeon for wanting to be free; and Shadrach was spirited away to Canada, no one knew how. The men of Boston who traded largely with the South, felt that their city was in disgrace in not being able to execute the Fugitive Slave Bill, and many of them wished heartily for another opportunity.
So, on the night of the third of April, 1851, Thomas Simms was arrested, and after a trial which became historical, was sent back into slavery, to the utter disgrace of all concerned in his return.
Next came the rendition of Anthony Burns, a Baptist clergyman, who was arrested at the instance of Charles F. Suttle, of Virginia. The commissioner before whom the case was tried was Ellis Greely Loring. This trial excited even more commotion than did the return of Simms. A preacher in fetters because he wanted to be free was a new thing to the people of Boston.
During the progress of the hearing, the feeling extended to the country towns, and nearly every train coming in brought large numbers of persons anxious to behold the new order of things. To guard against the possibility of a rescue, the building in which the commissioner did his work was in chains. Burns was delivered to Suttle, and the Union was once more safe.
The Boston Court House in chains, two hundred rowdies and thieves sworn in as special policemen, respectable citizens shoved off the sidewalks by these slave-catchers, all for the purpose of satisfying "our brethren of the South."
