Henry "Box" Brown at Philadelphia Poster

Have you heard of the story of Henry "Box" Brown? Born into slavery in Louisa County, Virginia, after his slave-master sold off his whole family Brown resolved to escape. With the help of a sympathetic white shoemaker, Brown was mailed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a box to abolitionist James McKim. On March 23, 1849, Brown positioned his 200-pound frame into a wooden box with breathing holes. After 27 hours and 350 miles, he arrived in Philadelphia where the abolitionists freed him from the box. He went on to write his autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown", which was published in 1851, and became a well-known speaker for the Anti-Slavery Society.