"I FELT MY EYES SWELLING AS IF THEY WOULD BURST FROM THEIR SOCKETS AND THE VEINS ON MY TEMPLES WERE DREADFULLY DISTENDED. I FELT A COLD SWEAT COMING OVER ME WHICH SEEMED TO BE A WARNING THAT DEATH WAS ABOUT TO TERMINATE MY EARTHLY MISERIES. BUT AS I FEARED THAT EVEN LESS THAN SLAVERY, I RESOLVED TO SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF GOD.”
On March 30, 1849, a wagon carrying a large box arrived at the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 131 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
Inside the box was Henry Brown, born a slave near Richmond, Virginia in 1815.
Henry Brown conceived and carried out a bold, ingenious plan to gain his freedom. He arranged to be sealed in a box and shipped to freedom.
From THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF HENRY BOX BROWN (1851) IN HIS OWN WORDS:
The box which I had procured was three feet one inch wide, two feet six inches high and two feet wide. And on the morning of the 29th day of March, 1849, I went into the box—having previously bored three holes opposite my face, for air and provided myself with a bladder of water. Being thus equipped for the battle of liberty, my friends nailed down the lid and had me conveyed to the Express office, which was about a mile distant from the place where I was packed…
I had no sooner arrived at the office than I was turned heels up, while some person nailed something on the end of the box. I was then put upon a wagon and driven off to the depot with my head down. I had no sooner arrived at the depot than the man who drove the wagon tumbled me roughly into the baggage car, where, however, I happened to fall on my right side.
The next place we arrived at was Potomac Creek, where the baggage had to removed from the cars to be put on board the steamer, where I was again placed with my head down and in this dreadful position, had to remain nearly an hour and a half, which, from the sufferings I had thus to endure, seemed like an age to me.
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. In this position, I attempted to lift my hand to my face but I had no power to move it. I felt a cold sweat coming over me which seemed to be a warning that death was about to terminate my earthly miseries. But as I feared that event less than slavery, I resolved to submit to the will of God.
I could hear a man saying to another that he had traveled a long way and had been standing there two hours and he would like to get someplace to sit down. So perceiving my box standing on end, he threw it down and then the two sat upon it. I was thus relieved from a state of agony, which may be more easily imagined than described.
I could now listen to the men talking and heard one of them asking the other what he supposed the box contained. His companion replied that he guessed it was “the mail”. I, too, thought it was a mail but not such a mail as he supposed it to be.
The next place at which we arrived was the city of Washington, where I was taken from the steamboat and again placed upon a wagon and carried to the depot. When the driver arrived at the depot, I heard him call for some person to help to take the box off the wagon. Someone answered him to the effect that he might throw it off. But, says the driver, it is marked “this side up with care” so if you throw if off you might break something. The other answered him that it did not matter if he broke all that was in it. The railway company was able enough to pay for it.
No sooner were these words spoken than I began to tumble from the wagon and falling on the end where my head was. I could hear my neck give a crack, as if it had been snapped asunder and I was knocked completely insensible.
The first thing I heard after that was some person saying, “There is no room for the box. It will have to remain and be sent through tomorrow…” But the Lord had not quite forsaken me. I now heard a man say that the box had come with the express and it must be sent on. I was then tumbled into the car with my head downward s again. But the car had not proceeded far before more luggage having to be taken in, my box got shifted about and so happened to turn up on its right side. In this position I remained till I got to Philadelphia. Of our arrival, I was informed by hearing some person say, “We are in port and at Philadelphia.” My heart then leaped for joy and I wondered if any person knew that such a box was there.
I was only twenty-seven hours in the box, though traveling a distance of three hundred and fifty miles.
I was now placed in the depot amongst the other luggage, where I lay till seven o’clock PM, at which time a wagon drove up and I heard a person inquire for such a box as that in which I was. I was then placed on a wagon and conveyed to the house where my friend in Richmond had arranged I should be received.
A number of persons soon collected round the box after it was taken into the house. As I did not know what was going on I kept myself quiet. I heard a man say, “Let’s rap upon the box and see if he is alive.”
Immediately, a rap ensued and a voice said, tremblingly, “Is all right within?”
I replied, “all right.”
The joy of the friends was very great. When they heard that I was alive they soon managed to break open the box and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery. I rose a free man.
NEXT: HOW DID THE TRAGEDY OF LOSING HIS FAMILY DRIVE THE SLAVE HENRY BOX BROWN TO PLAN HIS ESCAPE?
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Monday, March 1st 2010 at 9:32PM
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