The details of James Burr's early life are little-unknown. Itappears from the scant evidence that he was born in Cuba, New York, in1814, but details of the subsequent twenty years trail off, until hisenrollment at Oberlin College in 1834-35. He stayed a year and then wasdrawn away to The Mission Institute, aslo known as The AdelphiaTheopolis Mission Institute, in Quincy, Illinois. The Institute wasfounded by Dr. David Nelson, a former Revolutionary War soldier andphysician. Both Oberlin and The Institute were renowned for their opensympathies with the cause of abolition.
After a reconnaissance mission into Missouri to free thoseenslaved, on the night of July 12th, 1841 Burr returned with twoclassmates, George Thompson and Alanson Work, and the slave ownersambushed them during their rescue attempt. The men were bound by ropesand paraded off to Palmyra, Missouri. They were quickly indicted forstealing slaves, held without bail, and chained together for monthsuntil their trial was called. In 1841 Missouri had no law againstencouraging slaves to flee north. In addition, the testimony of blackscould not be used in court as evidence against a white man. Technicallythe 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 for the prosecution. Still, the men were tried inmid-September on an illogical combination of trumped-up charges andfound guilty of grand larceny though they had stolen nothing. Outsidethe court, the town's citizens prepared a gallows "in case they wereacquitted." Dubbed "The Quincy Abolitionists," they each received 12years at hard labor in the state peni-tentiary, and, still in chains,they left for Jefferson City. Years later George Thompson wrote hismemoir Prison Life and Reflections from the prison journals andletters from all three men. Thompson vividly recalled their first nighttogether in jail, "[we] knelt down, and committed ourselves to God,imploring His guidance and protection, feeling that He had wisepurposes to accomplish by this unintelligible dispensation." Deniedpaper for nearly two years, Thompson kept his journal on "bedstead, oldboards, and blank leaves, by recording, sometimes a word, sometimes twoor three words, and sometimes a sentence or two-just enough to bringthe occurrence or scene to my mind-with the date." Deprived of all butthe thinnest of clothing and blankets, they almost froze during thefirst two winters.
Eventually James was permitted to refashion their two smallbeds into one so that all three could sleep together and "we could taketurns getting into the middle. If an outside one was becomingfrostbitten, he only had to request the middle one to exchange placesawhile; and we were ever ready to oblige and accommodatefor each knewhow to sympathize with the other. So far from murmuring, we had greatcause for thankfulness-for many were in a worse condition than we." As"the cause" advanced, the health of all three declined, but Burr wasmost severely affected, and he was often unable to work for weeks at atime.
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 with one protruding through the skin. The doctor "set itaccording to the best of his skill; which we feared at the time was notvery good, as the result proved. He [James] bore the setting very well,scarcely uttering a groan-painful yet needful. As feared, his arm neverhealed properly, remaining useless for the remainder of his life. Burrwas repeatedly ill and unemployed but this probably worked to hisadvantage. Inasmuch as he was of little value to the prison lessees, hewas pardoned a year later. Freed quite suddenly in January 1846, heremembered feeling so stricken at the thought of leaving George alonethat he offered to give his pardon to his Brother Thompson, but theauthorities wouldn't permit it. Burr returned to Quincy after hispardon, but moved about one hundred miles north to Princeton, Illinois,by 1849. The 1850 census reported him working as a carpenter and havinga 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 been founded in 1853 by Wesleyan Methodists who had split from themain body of the Methodist Church over the question of slavery. Earlyin 1859, two months before his death from consumption, which heprobably contracted while in prison, he prepared a will leaving $300 ofhis $4000 estate to the Illinois Institute in Wheaton. This money was"to be used for the educating of indigent fatherless young men who werewholly devoted to the cause of Christ wishing a preparation for such acalling and wishing to preach said gospel to all irrespective of colorand who are opposed to slavery and sin of every grade and in favor ofthe reformers of the present day." The question of how Burr's gravecame to campus remains an unsolved mystery. According to a brief letterin the Christian Cynosureof February 20, 1879, by George Thompson, Burr was buried there "byspecial request." He wished his grave to be on grounds untrampled byslavery. There were many other ties between the tiny school and thecity where Burr lived. In 1860 two of the trustees of the institution,Rufus Lumry and Owen Lovejoy, (another zealous abolitionist), listPrinceton, Illinois, as their home address. In addition, John Cross,who taught in the school, was also from Princeton. Undoubtedly, Burrwas well acquainted with the sympathies of these men and knew of theirefforts to aid runaway slaves. Given tuition costs of $24 per year forthe college by 1860, his legacy endowed a full scholarship. When forcedto reorganize in 1859-60, the administration naturally looked for a manwho felt as deeply as they did about the issue of abolition.Consequently, they invited Jonathan Blanchardto become the president of the struggling school and he arrived inJanuary, 1860, almost a year after Burr's burial. No one knows whetherthese two men were acquainted, but it is almost certain that they knewof each other and their joint sympathy for the abolitionist cause.
For years Burr rested quietly, his grave officially decoratedonce each year by students. Then the damage done by pranksters to thetombstone caused campus officials to remove the seven-foot high markerand replace it with one flush with the ground. In April of 1959, therewas a special commemorative service in his memory, focusing attentionon his life. Although speculation about Burr waxed and waned followingthat occasion, he didn't return to prominence until 1987 when the newJames E. Burr Scholarship for first-year minority students wasannounced. |