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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879 (search)
Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879 Reformer; born in New Britain, Conn., Dec. 8, 1810. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In order to read the Scriptures in their original language, he learned Greek and Hebrew, and read these with so much ease that he continued his studies and mastered many other languages. He was called the learned blacksmith. He became a reformer, and went to England in 1846, where he formed the League of universal Brotherhood, for the abolition of war, slavery, and other national evils. He was appointed United States consul at Birmingham in 1865, and returned home in 1870. He died in New Britain, March 9, 1879.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Fugitive slave laws. (search)
ed the liability of free persons of color being kidnapped, under the provisions of the fugitive slave act of 1793. A petition was presented to Congress in 1818 from the yearly meeting of Friends at Baltimore, praying for further provisions for protecting free persons of color. This had followed a bill brought in by a committee at the instigation of Pindall, a member from Virginia, for giving new stringency to the fugitive slave act. While this bill was pending, a member from Rhode Island (Burritt) moved to instruct the committee on the Quaker memorial to inquire into the expediency of additional provisions for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade. Pindall's bill was warmly opposed by members from the free-labor States as going entirely beyond the constitutional provision on the subject of fugitives from labor. They contended that the personal rights of one class of citizens were not to be trampled upon to secure the rights of property of other citizens. The bill was support