BOXED IN BY SLAVERY HE SCREAMED OUT FREEDOM

On March 23 1849, Henry Brown, an enslaved Virginia tobacco worker, had himself shipped from Richmond to the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-slavery Society in Philadelphia in a twelve-cubic-foot crate labeled “dry goods,” from which he emerged after twenty-six hours of confinement. Henry “Box” Brown became an instant celebrity. He toured New England as a speaker and singer specializing in hymns of thanksgiving, his story was published as a book ghostwritten by the abolitionist Charles Stearns, and he was featured in a painted panorama depicting slavery scenes that opened to public view in several northern cities.*