⛓️ The Glitched Gavel S01E08: The Commonwealth vs. The Man (The Anthony Burns Trial)

Gavel (The Narrator/Prosecutor): "Boston, 1854. The heart of abolitionism was under siege. Anthony Burns, a man who had escaped slavery in Virginia, was captured under the brutal mandate of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. His trial was a microcosm of the coming Civil War—a battle for the soul of the nation fought not on a battlefield, but in a federal courtroom where human beings were treated as property." (The grinding sound of heavy iron chains is heard, interspersed with a static-filled military drum beat.)

Static (The Analyst/Defense): "The legal system was rigged from the start. The Fugitive Slave Act required only testimony from the alleged owner (or their agent) and denied the accused the right to testify in his own defense or receive a jury trial. This was less a trial and more a hearing to certify ownership. We dissect the intense public resistance: the mass protests, the daring, but failed, courtroom rescue attempt led by abolitionists, and the massive federal mobilization to ensure the 'law' was upheld."

Gavel: "President Franklin Pierce, determined to enforce the unpopular act, sent federal troops and Marines to Boston, turning the city into an armed camp. We examine the cost: the federal government spent an estimated forty thousand dollars—a massive sum at the time—to return one man to slavery. Burns was ultimately sent back to Virginia, but the image of this lone man, marched through the streets of Boston by a regiment of soldiers, shattered the last vestiges of compromise and fueled the fire for the war that would follow. The Glitched Gavel records this as the moment the law irrevocably broke the union