On the morning of March 23, 1849, a wooden box was loaded onto a wagon in Richmond, Virginia. It was an ordinary-looking package, roughly three feet long and two feet wide, with air holes bored into its sides. Inside, folded into a cramped space with barely enough room to move, was a man who had decided to risk everything for freedom.
His name was Henry Brown. He was enslaved, and he had devised a plan so extraordinary that it would eventually earn him the nickname by which history remembers him: Henry “Box” Brown.
The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, a lithograph by Samuel Rowse (published in 1850).
Henry Brown was born into slavery around 1815 or 1816 in Louisa County, Virginia. Like thousands of other enslaved children in the American South, he entered a world in which his future was determined by the people who claimed ownership over him. His labour could be demanded without his consent, his movements restricted, and his family relationships broken apart at an enslaver's whim.
As a young man, Brown was sent to Richmond, Virginia, where he worked in a tobacco factory. He became a skilled worker, and by putting in additional hours, he managed to earn money beyond what was required of him. He used these earnings to support himself and his family, renting a house where he could live with his wife, Nancy, and their children.
He also made financial arrangements with Nancy’s abusive owner, hoping that payment would ensure that Nancy and the children would not be sold away. He was tragically mistaken. In August 1848, Nancy's enslaver sold her and the couple's three children to a Methodist minister in North Carolina. Nancy was pregnant with their fourth child at the time. The sale of Nancy and the children devastated him and he vowed to escape the life of slavery.
After several months of mourning, he eventually confided in James Caesar Anthony Smith, a free Black man who was a fellow member of his church choir. Through Smith, Brown made contact with Samuel Alexander Smith, a white shoemaker who agreed to help him escape. The men explored different possibilities before settling on a plan that seemed almost absurd in its audacity—Brown would be packed inside a wooden crate and shipped to Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania was a free state, and Philadelphia had an active community of abolitionists who helped fugitives from slavery. Brown's helpers established contact with James Miller McKim, a prominent abolitionist associated with the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. The organisation could receive the package and help Brown once he arrived.
A box was constructed measuring approximately three feet long, two and a half feet deep and two feet wide. A few small holes were made to admit air, and Brown prepared himself for the journey with a little water, some biscuits and a tool with which he could bore additional holes if necessary.
On March 23, 1849, Brown climbed inside. His companions secured the lid with nails, and the box was dispatched from Richmond through the Adams Express Company, a commercial package-delivery service.
The crate passed through a succession of transport systems, including wagons, railways and steamboats. Despite the instructions on the box of "handle with care" and "this side up", carriers often placed the box upside-down or handled it roughly. On one occasion, the box was turned upside-down for several hours and Brown nearly died. He later wrote: “I felt my eyes swelling as if they would burst from their sockets; and the veins on my temples were dreadfully distended with pressure of blood upon my head.”
The journey lasted approximately 27 hours. At last, on March 24, 1849, the crate arrived at the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. The men who had arranged to receive it gathered around the box. Then the nails were removed, the lid lifted, and Henry Brown emerged.
Henry Brown’s daring escape quickly attracted attention, and he was renamed Henry “Box” Brown. Subsequently, Brown became involved in the American abolitionist movement. He travelled to meetings across the northern United States, recounting his experiences and speaking against slavery. His story provided audiences with a vivid account of the conditions endured by enslaved people and the dangers they faced in attempting to escape.
When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by Congress, giving slaveholders the right to reclaim escaped slaves, Brown went to England where he supported himself as a hypnotist, magician, and entertainer, traveling with a large panorama he used to help tell the story of his 1849 escape. While he was abroad, the American Civil War broke out, and slavery was abolished in the United States through the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Brown eventually returned to the United States in 1875, accompanied by his second wife, Jane Floyd, and their daughter. He continued to perform, although many criticized him for what they considered to be excessive showmanship and concern with profit.
Brown died in Toronto, Canada, on June 15, 1897. A century after his remarkable journey, Brown’s escape from bondage in a crate has come to represent the Underground Railroad, with his harrowing confinement and eventual release inspiring numerous contemporary artists. His story has been adapted into short films, stage plays, an opera, and even a wax museum display.
References:
# Henry Box Brown. Wikipedia
# Henry Box Brown (1815 or 1816–1897). Encyclopedia Virginia
# Henry Box Brown. Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown
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