There was certainly a profit motive to doing this stealing. The bounty for runaways was triple or quadruple if taken in a free state. Posses, usually deputized for the job, could come freely in and out of any state they wanted to collect people and make a very good living, too. Some states did have restrictions on the dogs though - the posse they might have to let in but the vicious dogs, no. (There's a whole 'nother story about these dogs, by the way, and a reason why Union troops shot all the dogs as they went through the South. We're not talking bird dogs here.)
Do it yourself slave retention was risky. Some ended up dead or attacked by mobs. Heck even the 'legit' slave retention was subject to mob interference or attacking jails.
Anthony Burns
Following the decision against Burns, the government effectively held Boston under martial law for the afternoon. The streets between the courthouse and the harbor were lined with federal troops to hold back the waves of protesters as Burns was escorted to the ship for return to his Virginia master. On June 2, throngs in the city witnessed Burns' being taken to the ship that would carry him back to slavery in Virginia.
On May 24, 1854, he was discovered "while walking in Court Street" and arrested.
[1] As a hub of resistance to the "
slave power" of the South, Boston had numerous residents who tried to free Burns. President
Franklin Pierce made an example of the case to show he was willing to strongly enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. The show of force turned many New Englanders against slavery who had passively accepted its existence before.
On May 26, before Burns' court case, a crowd of both black and white abolitionists, including
Thomas Wentworth Higginson and other Bostonians outraged at Burns' arrest, stormed the courthouse to free the man.
[2] In the melee, Deputy U.S. Marshal
James Batchelder was fatally stabbed,
[3] the fourth
U.S. Marshal to be killed in the line of duty.
[4] The police kept control of Burns, but the crowds of opponents, including such black abolitionists as
Thomas James and
Lewis Hayden, grew large.
[5] While the federal government sent US troops in support, numerous anti-slavery activists arrived in Boston to join the protest and continue the faceoff. It has been estimated the government's cost of capturing and conducting Burns through the trial was upwards of $40,000 (equivalent to $1,138,000 in 2019).
[6] (2000 troops were employed.)
Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested
in 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from Virginia, was arrested in Boston. His capture enraged black and white abolitionists. Two days after the arrest, a number of them attacked the federal courthouse with a battering ram, hoping to free Burns. Their attempt failed. Burns's defense lawyers were no more successful. After a brief trial, he was ordered returned to slavery. On June 2nd, thousands of people lined the streets of Boston. They hissed and shouted, "Shame! Shame!" as federal authorities escorted Anthony Burns to a ship waiting in the harbor.
It took approximately 2,000 troops and cost $40,000 to maintain order and return the black man to bondage. No fugitive slave was ever captured in Massachusetts again.