Trump’s threat of mass deportation has, so far at least, not shown its ugly head here in Clay County. Lately, though, I’ve been working on efforts to prepare our immigrant neighbors for the possibility, and thinking about the prospect has called to mind the story of Anthony Burns.
Who was Anthony Burns, you ask? He was a slave who escaped in 1854 and made his way to Boston. However, his master learned of his whereabouts and, with the help of a deputy marshal, had him arrested and confined to the federal courthouse. His master had the assistance of the federal government because of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, one of the most oppressive pieces of legislation in U.S. history. That act overrode the personal liberty laws which a number of northern states had passed to ensure due process for Blacks who were seized by slavecatchers.
Burns was one of many Blacks taken back into slavery under the act, but his case became famous because of what happened next. A vigilance committee made up of a biracial group of abolitionists attacked the courthouse in an attempt to free him and were beaten back. In response, President Franklin Pierce pulled out all the stops to ensure that Burns would be returned to Virginia. The government went so far as to block the sale of Burns after Bostonians raised money to purchase his freedom.
Although Burns failed to gain his freedom, episodes like this had a powerful effect on northern opinion. For most northerners, the issue of slavery had seemed like none of their business, and slavery itself was a vague abstraction tinged by the pervasive racism of white America. When the federal government flexed its muscle in their communities to cart off their neighbors, however, the issue became real and took a human face. Many became convinced that a Slave Power Conspiracy was determined to make slavery national without regard to the will of local voters, and they began to feel that their own freedom was in jeopardy. Opposition to slavery went from a fringe movement of abolitionists into the mainstream.
I tell this story because I see parallels to the present situation regarding immigrants. Federal forces again threaten to enter our cities and towns to round up neighbors whose only crime is their desire for freedom and a better life for themselves and their families. In their defense, states and localities have declared themselves as sanctuaries in the same way that northern states passed personal liberty laws. Those defenses, however, were and probably are no match for the might of the federal government.
Just as northerners back then typically had no direct contact with slaves and were subject to racist stereotypes about them, many Americans today are swayed by right-wing depictions of an invasion by criminals. If public opinion is to be changed, we need to put a human face on our New American neighbors. If and when ICE comes to town, we ought to be out there to loudly proclaim that the people they are after are good people we care about.
Let me be clear. I am not advocating mob violence to stop federal agents, much less trying to escalate matters toward a civil war. But maybe, just maybe, there is a role for something like the vigilance committee organized by the good people of Boston. Actions speak louder than words. Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves how far we are willing to go.
In the meantime, if you or anyone you know are worried about the threat of deportation, Anna Stenson gave a highly informative presentation at the Moorhead Human Rights Commission offering practical advice on how New Americans can better prepare for possible encounters with immigration officials. You can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRQUhwP3oc.
Paul Harris
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