Henry Box Brown
From Wikipedia, the
Henry "Box" Brown (1815-unknown) was an African-American slave in Virginia
and is remembered by history for escaping in a shipping box sent
north to the free state of Pennsylvania.
Henry Brown was born into slavery in 1815 in Louisa County, Virginia.
In 1830, he was sent to Richmond to work in a tobacco factory.
There, he married another slave, Nancy, and the couple had at
least three children. Brown used his wages to pay Nancy's master
for the time she spent caring for them. However, in 1848, his
wife and children were sold to a plantation owner in North Carolina.
Henry Brown found himself helpless to prevent this.
Henry Brown then determined to escape to freedom. He obtained
the help of a sympathetic white shoemaker named Samuel Smith,
who agreed to ship him to a free state in a box, disguised as
dry goods. Brown paid $84, had himself nailed into a small box
and was shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a
distance of about 275 miles. The box was only 2' 8" deep, 2' wide,
and 3' long; Brown was five feet eight inches, and 200 pounds
(91 kg). During the trip, which began on March 23, 1849, several
cargo workers placed the box upside-down or had handled it haphazardly
with no indication that Brown was inside the box. Amazingly, Brown
survived the 26-hour-long journey by overland express stage wagons.
Upon arrival in the "City of Brotherly Love", the box containing
Brown was received by James Miller McKim,
a member of the Underground Railroad. When Brown was released,
history records his first words as "How do you do, gentlemen?"
He then sang a chosen Psalm from the Bible he had previously selected
for his moment of freedom.
Henry Brown survived his journey and became a well-known speaker
for the Anti-Slavery Society. He apparently willingly accepted
the nickname of Henry "Box" Brown, as in 1851, he wrote his autobiography, Narrative
of the Life of Henry Box Brown. Brown traveled throughout
free states with a panoramic display, but eventually was forced
to move to England after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law
in 1850. There he hosted abolitionist speeches, and eventually
conducted singers, dancers and ventriloquists in his anti-slavery
According to historians, Henry Brown was in England and Wales
during the American Civil War. However, his whereabouts after
1864 are unknown, and it is also unknown if he was ever reunited
with his wife Nancy or his children.
Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, a lithograph by Samuel Rowse,
depicted Henry Brown emerging from the shipping box into freedom
in Philadelphia. The lithograph was widely published to help raise
funds for anti-slavery purposes and Brown's travels. One of only
three known originals is preserved in the collection of the Virginia
Historical Society in Richmond.
Brown was the subject of a Tony Kushner play entitled
Henry Box Brown or the Mirror of Slavery.
References and additional reading
- Brown, Henry (2003). Narrative of the Life
of Henry Box Brown, Oxford University Press. 0195148541.
(Revised version with introduction by Richard Newman, foreword
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
- Ruggles, Jeffry (2003). The Unboxing of Henry
Brown, Richmond, Virginia: Library of Virginia. 0884902005.