Henry “Box” Brown’s daring escape reveals that state-level slave-stealing statutes prove far more draconian than federal fugitive slave legislation
Date(s): 1849
Location(s): Richmond, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Outcome: Freedom
Summary:
Henry “Box” Brown (House Divided Project)
Henry Brown made up his mind to escape after another slaveholder sold his wife and children away to North Carolina. The freedom seeker determined to mail himself via the new Adams Express service all the way from Richmond to Philadelphia. Brown’s daring escape plan involved help from antislavery activists in both Virginia and Pennsylvania. In Richmond, Samuel Smith mailed Brown and advised Philadelphia vigilance leaders James Miller McKim and William Still to be on the lookout for the crate in Philadelphia. It took Brown 26 hours inside the box to reach Philadelphia, and he traveled with only a bladder filled with water and a few biscuits to eat. Afterwards, Brown became a highly demanded speaker on the antislavery lecture circuit, before eventually relocating to England, where he presented lectures and performed magic and hypnotism to his audiences. Importantly, Brown’s escape underscored that Underground Railroad activists in Northern states faced far fewer risks than activists in the South, where state-level slave stealing statutes proved far more punitive. None of the Philadelphia-based activists who assisted Brown were ever charged with violating the federal 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. But Virginia authorities arrested Smith and sentenced him to six years in the state penitentiary.
Philadelphia’s vigilance committee opens the box containing freedom seeker Henry Brown (House Divided Project)
Related Sources
- Henry Box Brown, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown (1851)
- William Still Recalls “Box” Brown’s Escape