Henry "Box" Brown | undergroundrailroad

Henry "Box" Brown:

The image to the left depicting Henry "Box" Brown reaching Philadelphia became a very famous image that abolitionists used to gain support and sympathy. Henry Brown, who mailed himself to the North to escape slavery, became a legend like Harriet Tubman for the way that he represented the dedication of the abolitionists and gave hope to slaves. The image, published in New York in 1850, was very effective at uniting the North in their view on slavery because it showed how desperate some slaves were to escape the terrible plantations and hard labor. Because William Still , another abolitionist dedicated to the Underground Railroad was also pictured (holding the crate lid), more people began to see the Underground Railroad as an unstoppable force that would not allow slavery to go unchallenged for as long as it existed in the United States.

Henry "Box" Brown was born into slavery in 1815 on the Barret plantation, 45 miles away from Richmond, Virginia. At the age of 15, Brown's master died so Barret's four son's gained ownership of Brown's family. Because there were four Barret sons, Henry Brown's family was divided up between the sons of his former master. Henry was taken by William Barret and ended up in Richmond, Virginia. While there, he worked in a tobacco factory for William Barret where he was rewarded for his hard work. Later on, Brown joined the Richmond African American community and their local church, and he met a slave named Nancy who did house work. They fell in love, got married, had children, and moved into their own home. Henry Brown was an abolitionist, just like many of the conductors of the railroad. After a while, Nancy and their children were sold away from Brown and whites stole everything from their home. Left with nothing and nobody, Brown was also sold to a new master. In 1849, Brown came up with the idea to be shipped North in the mail. In other words, he decided to mail himself out of slavery. In order to do this, he had to get a carpenter to make a crate that could fit a grown man. The crate ended up being 3 feet 1 inch long, 2 feet 6 inches deep, and 2 feet wide; Brown was 200 pounds and 5 feet 8 inches tall, so he had to squeeze into the crate to fit. James Caesar Anthony Smith and Samuel A. Smith helped Brown with his plan to mail himself, together they decided to mail Brown to the anti-slavery office of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he was shipped specifically to William H. Johnson. The crate had "This Side Up With Care" written on it; however, according to Brown, some people handling the crate kept the right side up "with care," while others did not pay attention to it. As a result, Brown spent a considerable amount of time upside down In the crate. Brown brought water, a hat, and a fan with him and he drilled air holes in the crate in order to breathe. William Still was present when the Adam Express Company opened the crate in the anti-slavery offices on North Fifth Street. Later, Brown published an autobiography that was written, not by himself, but by Charles Stearns. The autobiography was not only popular in the United States, but it was also revised and reissued in England in 1851. Around 30 years later, Brown died in 1879. Brown remained a symbol of the determination of the Underground Railroad for many years; in 2007, a popular children's book about Henry Brown's life, called Henry's Freedom Box, was published.