The details of James Burr's early life are little-unknown. Itappears It appears from the scant evidence that he was born in Cuba, New York, in1814, but details of the subsequent twenty years trail off, until hisenrollment his enrollment at Oberlin College in 1834-35. He stayed a year and then wasdrawn was drawn away to The Mission Institute, aslo also known as The AdelphiaTheopolis Adelphia Theopolis Mission Institute, in Quincy, Illinois. The Institute wasfounded was founded by Dr. David Nelson, a former Revolutionary War soldier andphysicianand physician. Both Oberlin and The Institute were renowned for their opensympathies open sympathies with the cause of abolition.
After a reconnaissance mission into Missouri to free thoseenslavedthose enslaved, on the night of July 12th, 1841 Burr returned with twoclassmatestwo classmates, George Thompson and Alanson Work, and the slave ownersambushed owners ambushed them during their rescue attempt. The men were bound by ropesand ropes and paraded off to Palmyra, Missouri. They were quickly indicted forstealing for stealing slaves, held without bail, and chained together for monthsuntil months until their trial was called. In 1841 Missouri had no law againstencouraging against encouraging slaves to flee north. In addition, the testimony of blackscould blacks could not be used in court as evidence against a white man. Technicallythe Technically, the three had broken no law since no slave had run away. In addition, they had spoken only to slaves and there was no legally admissibleevidence admissible evidence for the prosecution. Still, the men were tried inmidin mid-September on an illogical combination of trumped-up charges andfound and found guilty of grand larceny though they had stolen nothing. Outsidethe Outside the court, the town's citizens prepared a gallows "in case they wereacquittedwere acquitted." Dubbed "The Quincy Abolitionists," they each received 12years 12 years at hard labor in the state peni-tentiarypenitentiary, and, still in chains, they left for Jefferson City. Years later George Thompson wrote hismemoir his memoir Prison Life and Reflections from the prison journals andletters and letters from all three men. Thompson vividly recalled their first nighttogether night together in jail, "[we] knelt down, and committed ourselves to God, imploring Imploring His guidance and protection, feeling that He had wisepurposes wise purposes to accomplish by this unintelligible dispensation." Deniedpaper Denied paper for nearly two years, Thompson kept his journal on "bedstead, oldboardsold boards, and blank leaves, by recording, sometimes a word, sometimes twoor two or three words, and sometimes a sentence or two-just enough to bringthe bring the occurrence or scene to my mind-with the date." Deprived of all butthe but the thinnest of clothing and blankets, they almost froze during thefirst the first two winters.
Eventually James was permitted to refashion their two smallbeds small beds into one so that all three could sleep together and "we could taketurns take turns getting into the middle. If an outside one was becomingfrostbittenbecoming frostbitten, he only had to request the middle one to exchange placesawhileplaces awhile; and we were ever ready to oblige and accommodatefor accommodate for each knewhow knew how to sympathize with the other. So far from murmuring, we had greatcause great cause for thankfulness-for many were in a worse condition than we." As "the cause" advanced, the health of all three declined, but Burr wasmost was most severely affected, and he was often unable to work for weeks at atimea time.
On January 19, 1844, James's arm was caught in a machine, twisted and crushed in such a way that both bones in the wrist werebroken were broken with one protruding through the skin. The doctor "set itaccording it according to the best of his skill; which we feared at the time was notvery not very good, as the result proved. He [James] bore the setting very well, scarcely uttering a groan-painful yet needful. As feared, his arm neverhealed never healed properly, remaining useless for the remainder of his life. Burrwas Burr was repeatedly ill and unemployed but this probably worked to hisadvantagehis advantage. Inasmuch as he was of little value to the prison lessees, hewas he was pardoned a year later. Freed quite suddenly in January 1846, heremembered he remembered feeling so stricken at the thought of leaving George alonethat alone that he offered to give his pardon to his Brother Thompson, but theauthorities the authorities wouldn't permit it. Burr returned to Quincy after hispardonhis pardon, but moved about one hundred miles north to Princeton, Illinois , by 1849. The 1850 census reported him working as a carpenter and havinga having a wife, Mary Anne Munroe, and two children: Charles H. and Mary A.Munroe who were 13 and 11 years of age respectively.
The Illinois Institutehad Institute had been founded in 1853 by Wesleyan Methodists who had split from themain the main body of the Methodist Church over the question of slavery. Earlyin Early in 1859, two months before his death from consumption, which heprobably he probably contracted while in prison, he prepared a will leaving $300 ofhis of his $4000 estate to the Illinois Institute in Wheaton. This money was "to be used for the educating of indigent fatherless young men who werewholly were wholly devoted to the cause of Christ wishing a preparation for such acalling a calling and wishing to preach said gospel to all irrespective of colorand color and who are opposed to slavery and sin of every grade and in favor ofthe of the reformers of the present day." The question of how Burr's gravecame grave came to campus remains an unsolved mystery. According to a brief letterin letter in the Christian Cynosureof Cynosure of February 20, 1879, by George Thompson, Burr was buried there "byspecial by special request." He wished his grave to be on grounds untrampled byslaveryby slavery. There were many other ties between the tiny school and thecity the city where Burr lived. In 1860 two of the trustees of the institution, Rufus Lumry and Owen Lovejoy, (another zealous abolitionist), listPrincetonlist Princeton, Illinois, as their home address. In addition, John Cross, who taught in the school, was also from Princeton. Undoubtedly, Burrwas Burr was well acquainted with the sympathies of these men and knew of theirefforts their efforts to aid runaway slaves. Given tuition costs of $24 per year forthe for the college by 1860, his legacy endowed a full scholarship. When forcedto forced to reorganize in 1859-60, the administration naturally looked for a manwho man who felt as deeply as they did about the issue of abolition. Consequently, they invited Jonathan Blanchardto Blanchard to become the president of the struggling school and he arrived inJanuaryin January, 1860, almost a year after Burr's burial. No one knows whetherthese whether these two men were acquainted, but it is almost certain that they knewof knew of each other and their joint sympathy for the abolitionist cause.
For years Burr rested quietly, his grave officially decoratedonce decorated once each year by students. Then the damage done by pranksters to thetombstone the tombstone caused campus officials to remove the seven-foot high markerand marker and replace it with one flush with the ground. In April of 1959, therewas there was a special commemorative service in his memory, focusing attentionon attention on his life. Although speculation about Burr waxed and waned followingthat following that occasion, he didn't return to prominence until 1987 when the newJames new James E. Burr Scholarship for first-year minority students wasannouncedwas announced.
|