Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave - Hardcover

The year is 1854. Anthony Burns, a Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston, but his freedom is short-lived. According to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Burns is soon imprisoned.

The antislavery forces in Massachusetts are outraged. Abolitionist lawyer Richard Dana steps forward to defend Burns free of charge, and the sensational trial brings massive riots and thousands of troops to the streets of Boston. At the center of it all, haunted by memories of his life as a slave and praying that his defenders will prevail, is Anthony Burns himself. This is the true story of his desperate fight for freedom.

*  Virginia Hamilton, storyteller, lecturer, and biographer, was born and raised in Yellow Springs, OH, which is said to be a station on the Underground Railroad.  Her grandfather settled in the village after escaping slavery in Virginia.

*  She was educated at Antioch College and Ohio State University and did further study in literature and the novel at the New School for Social Research.

*  Virginia was the first African American woman to win the Newbery Award, for M.C. Higgins the Great.  Since then, she has won three Newbery Honors and three Coretta Scott King Awards.

*  In 1992, Virginia was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, which is presented every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People, in recognition of her entire body of work.

* Virginia writes first for the pleasure of using words and language to evoke characters and their world, and in historical accounts such as Anthony Burns, the lives of real people.  Secondly, Hamilton writes to entertain, to inspire in people the desire to read on and on good books made especially for them.