Henry 'Box' Brown: The Enslaved Man Who Mailed Himself to Freedom

Key facts

• Henry Brown was born into slavery in 1815 in Louisa County, Virginia.
• He was enslaved by John Barret on the Hermitage plantation.
• His wife Nancy and their four children were sold to a plantation in North Carolina in 1848.
• Brown escaped on March 23, 1849, in a wooden crate shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia.
• The crate measured 3 x 2.5 x 2 feet and was marked as 'dry goods'.
• He arrived at the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society on March 24, 1849.
• James McKim opened the crate; Brown emerged alive reciting a prayer.
• Samuel Worcester Rowse created a lithograph titled 'The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown' in 1850.
• Brown appeared at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston in May 1849.
• His narrative was published in September 1849, written by Charles Stearns.
• Frederick Douglass argued against publicizing the escape method.
• Samuel Smith was arrested and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
• Brown created a moving panorama with Josiah Wolcott, exhibited in Boston in April 1850.
• He was assaulted in Providence, Rhode Island on August 30, 1850.
• He fled to England in fall 1850 due to the Fugitive Slave Act.
• He remarried in 1859 and added a magic act, calling himself 'King of all the Mesmerisers'.
• He returned to the US in 1875 and performed with his original shipping box.
• His last known performance was on February 26, 1889, in Ontario.
• He died on June 15, 1897, in Toronto.