State Historical Society of Iowa

"The Resurrection of Henry 'Box' Brown at Philadelphia" Illustration, 1850

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The illustration shows a somewhat comic yet sympathetic portrayal of the culminating episode in the flight of slave Henry "Box" Brown, "who escaped from Richmond Va. in a Box 3 feet long, 2-1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft. wide."
Courtesy of Library of Congress, "The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, who escaped from Richmond Va. in a bx 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft wide," 1850

Description

Henry "Box" Brown was born enslaved in Virginia in 1815. He was sent to work in a tobacco factory and was taken from his family. But he was able to escape enslavement by mailing himself to a northern state. This illustration portrays the culminating episode in the escape of Brown, "who escaped from Richmond Va. in a Box 3 feet long, 2-1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft. wide." In the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, the young Brown is seen emerging from a crate as several figures, including Frederick Douglass (holding a claw hammer at left) look on. Brown shipped himself, via the Adams Express, from Richmond to Philadelphia to reach freedom. His story was widely publicized in a narrative of his ordeal published under his own name in 1849. The box itself became an abolitionist metaphor for the inhumanity and spiritual suffocation of slavery.

Source-Dependent Questions

  • Henry Brown mailed himself from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Why would he want to move from a state with slavery to live in a state without slavery? Why would freedom be important to him?
  • Why might the caption read "the resurrection" of Henry Brown?

Citation Information 

"The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, who escaped from Richmond Va. in a bx 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft wide," 1850. Courtesy of Library of Congress