Story of Henry`Box` Brown

The Story of Henry Box ' Brown

.having satisfied myself of the value of freedom I resolved to purchase it whatever should be its price ' so Henry states in his autobiography . Henry , born a slave in 1816 in Virginia , desired freedom greatly , and once , when his owner was nearing death , the owner sent for my mother and me to come to his bedside we ran with beating hearts and highly elated feelings , not doubting [ .] but that he was about to confer upon us the boon of freedom (but he was disappointed

p However , the one deciding factor of his desire for freedom was his witnessing of the cruelties of slavery , and his knowledge that there was a possibility of liberty for himself . Somewhere in the mid-1830 's , he had married a slave woman , with promises from her owner that she would not be sold . However , some years later found her and their children on the road , en route to a new master to whom she had been sold , and Henry could do nothing about this separation . Thus became his passion for his liberty , in which he found the bravery to risk the punishment of death .had I never heard the name of liberty or seen the tyrant lift his cruel hand to smite my fellow and my friend , I might perhaps have dragged my chains in quietude to the grave ' After the separation from his family , Henry became intent on escaping to freedom . He stated his intentions to the shoemaker Samuel Smith , a white man , who fortunately was sympathetic : The man asked me if I was not afraid to speak that way to him I said no , for I imagined he believed that every man had a right to liberty

Henry was obviously a passionate soul with much strength of character On March 23 , 1849 , before daybreak , carrying a bladder full of water Henry had himself nailed into a wooden crate 2 and 2 /3 feet deep , 2 feet wide and 3 feet long . Along the way , on one occasion , when his box was placed with his head down , which was very difficult for him , .an hour and a half [ .] seemed like an age to me , but I was forgetting the battle of liberty , and I was resolved to conquer or die ' Henry arrived in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where he was retrieved from his box by four anti-slavery officials . In Philadelphia he became an active abolitionist

Henry was of a noble and altruistic character as well , and he desired that all his people attain liberty . After Henry got his freedom , he wrote his autobiography "The Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown with the view of furthering the goals of the abolitionists . He also exhibited in Northeastern Unite States a panorama called Mirror of Slavery ' where he depicted the cruelties of slave life . When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed , he fled to England , where he continued to exhibit his panorama . In England he remarried...