Henry “Box” Brown, an enslaved Black man who escaped to freedom in 1849 by mailing himself in a wooden crate.

Henry “Box” Brown was born into slavery in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1815. At the age of 15, he was sent to Richmond to work in a tobacco factory. Though his circumstances were harsh, he fared better than many of his enslaved peers.

However, the loss of his freedom meant he could not live with his wife, Nancy, who was owned by a neighboring slaveholder. In 1848, while she was pregnant with their fourth child, Brown received devastating news: Nancy and their children were to be sold to a plantation in North Carolina.

Standing on the street with tears in his eyes, Brown watched helplessly as 350 enslaved people, including his wife, their unborn child, and their three young children, were marched away in chains. He had tried to prevent this fate, paying Nancy’s owner to keep the family together, but his efforts were betrayed when the man sold them anyway.

Determined to escape bondage, Brown devised an audacious plan: he would have himself shipped in a wooden box to a free state. With the help of James C. A. Smith, a free Black man, and Samuel A. Smith, a sympathetic white shoemaker, Brown arranged for the Adams Express Company—known for its secrecy and efficiency—to transport him.

Brown paid Samuel Smith $86 (equivalent to $2,675 in 2020) from his savings of $166. Smith traveled to Philadelphia to seek guidance from abolitionists, including James Miller McKim, William Still, and Cyrus Burleigh, who advised shipping Brown to the office of Quaker merchant Passmore Williamson, a Vigilance Committee member.

Henry Brown

To avoid suspicion on the day of his escape, Brown intentionally burned his hand with sulfuric acid, making him unfit for work. He then climbed into a wooden crate measuring 3 feet by 2.67 feet by 2 feet (0.91m × 0.81m × 0.61m), labeled “dry goods.” The box was lined with baize, a coarse woolen cloth, and contained only a small hole for air, a little water, and a few biscuits. Once nailed shut, it was sent on a perilous journey.

Over the next 27 hours, Brown’s box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, ferry, and delivery cart, often handled roughly despite labels instructing “handle with care” and “this side up.” At times, he was flipped upside down and had to remain perfectly still to avoid detection.

When the box was finally opened in Philadelphia, Brown emerged and greeted his rescuers with the words, “How do you do, gentlemen?” He then sang a psalm he had chosen to mark his freedom.

As historian Hollis Robbins noted, Brown’s escape underscored the power of the mail system, which allowed abolitionist messages—and even enslaved individuals—to circumvent Southern control. The Adams Express Company, a private mail service founded in 1840, was especially favored by abolitionists for its promise of confidentiality.

Samuel Alexander Smith later attempted to smuggle more enslaved individuals to freedom but was caught and imprisoned. James C. A. Smith was also arrested for another escape attempt.

Brown, now a fugitive, became a well-known abolitionist speaker in the North. However, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which increased the risk of capture for escaped slaves, he fled to England. He spent 25 years there, lecturing against slavery, performing in an anti-slavery panorama, and working as a magician and showman. He also remarried, starting a family with an Englishwoman named Jane Floyd.

Henry “Box” Brown became a powerful symbol of the Underground Railroad and the fight for freedom. His life exemplified courage, ingenuity, and resilience. Reflecting on his journey, Brown once declared, “Continue to command me now as a freeman, to do the impossible!”—a testament to the creative spirit that led him to seek freedom inside a box.