Henry Box Brown

Henry Box Brown
The Narrative of Henry Box Brown (1849)
Born	c.1816 Virginia, United States
Died	June 15, 1897 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	American
Occupation	abolitionist, magician, performer
Spouse(s)	First wife Nancy (sold by master) Second wife Jane Floyd

Henry "Box" Brown (c.1816–June 15, 1897) was an 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

For a short time Brown became a noted abolitionist speaker in the northeast United States. As a public figure and fugitive slave, Brown felt endangered by passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which increased pressure to capture escaped slaves. He moved to England and lived there for 25 years, touring with an anti-slavery panorama, becoming a magician and showman. Brown married and started a family with an English woman, Jane Floyd. This was Brown's second wife; his first wife, Nancy, had been sold by their master. Brown returned to the United States with his English family in 1875, where he continued to earn a living as an entertainer. He toured and performed as a magician, speaker, and mesmerist until at least 1889. The last decade of his life (1886–1897) was spent in Toronto, where he died in 1897.

Henry Brown was born into slavery in 1815 on a plantation called Hermitage in Louisa County, Virginia. Henry remembers his parents fondly, stating that his mother was the one to instill Christian values in to him. After this he even saw his master as God and the young master as Jesus. He believed this since thunder was seen as the voice of God and his master would always come around whenever it thundered to tell them to go inside. He would comment on how nice the rain was for the flowers and would show the children them. In turn, the children believed that he was making it rain so his flowers would grow beautifully. Henry's mother eventually taught him that there was a worldly God and that their master was not him. Henry seemed to have a brother and a sister as well, mentioning them in his autobiography. At the age of 15 he was sent to work in a tobacco factory in Richmond. In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, he describes his owner: "Our master was uncommonly kind, (for even a slaveholder may be kind) and as he moved about in his dignity he seemed like a god to us, but notwithstanding his kindness although he knew very well what superstitious notions we formed him, he never made the least attempt to correct our erroneous impression, but rather seemed pleased with the reverential feelings which we entertained towards him."

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