The Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown

In 1849, Henry Brown escaped from slavery by shipping himself in a crate from Virginia to an anti-slavery office in Philadelphia. Over 27 hours and 350 miles later, he stepped out of his box to begin a new life. This is his memoir, originally published in England in 1851. The narrative paints a vivid portrait of life in slavery and describes one of the most audacious, creative escapes ever completed. With a keen sense of irony, Brown examines the "peculiar institution" from the hypocrisy of slave-owning Christian preachers, to the system of bribery that forced slaves to purchase rights to their own belongings, to the practice of separating slave families with no warning. Indeed, it was when his own wife and children were sold away that he became determined to escape and enlisted the help of a friend, who nailed him into a three-foot-by-two-foot wooden box. Travelling by railroad, car, steamboat and horse cart to the free state of Pennsylvania, Brown's unprecedented manner of arrival made him a public sensation in the North and a celebrity on the anti-slavery lecture circuit. His memoir conveys the unquenchable spirit of a hero who risked death rather than live as a slave.