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Background

Henry was born into an enslaved family in 1815 on Hermitage plantation in Louisa County, about 50 miles from Richmond, Virginia.

In 1849, his wife Nancy was expecting their fourth child, when she and the children were sold to a plantation in North Carolina. Henry decided to escape, and with the help of shoemaker Samuel A Smith and Black Freedman James CA 'Boxer' Smith, they built a small wooden box 91cm by 81cm by 61cm, and lined it with baize.

On March 23 1849, Henry squeezed himself into the box with a few biscuits, a bottle of water, and an awl to bore air holes when he couldn't breathe, and he was posted via the Adams Express Company to the Quaker merchant Passmore Williams of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. The box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, and ferry for twenty seven hours, sometimes upside down with the blood rushing to Henry's head. On his arrival in Philadelphia, he burst out of the box and sang a hymn to freedom.

In January 1855 he first appeared in Wales, where he performed throughout the Valleys. The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette reported on 12th January, 'Mr. Henry Box Brown, we believe, is a gentleman of colour, and an escaped slave, (who will) exhibit a popular Panorama of African and American Slavery, consisting of views in the interior of Africa, with illustrations of the... customs of the natives. Not to particularize further, we think it will be well worth going to.'

Peter Stevenson c2024

Possible questions to discuss

  • Why did Henry Box Brown post himself in a box?
  • What was life like for Black people in America in the 19th century?
  • How did Henry share his story?
  • How do we know Henry visitied Wales?

Learning experiences

(derived from the statements of what matters)

Expressive Arts
  • Developing creative techniques
  • Representing personal, social and cultural identities
  • Understanding context in creative works  
  • Mastering creative techniques
  • Exploring purpose and meaning
  • Convey feelings and emotions
  • Develop and refine designs
Health and Well-being
  • Empathy
  • Understanding relationships
  • Feelings and mental health
  • Social decisions
  • Social awareness
Humanities
  • Understanding ideas and perspectives
  • Human impact on the world
  • Understanding the past
  • Understanding human rights
  • Similarity and social differentiation
  • Contribution to society
  • Identity

 

Henry Box Brown:

Escaping slavery and introducing Crankies to Wales

By Peter Stevenson, c2024

When I tell stories, I often use a crankie, a wooden box the size of a large suitcase, open at the front like a picture frame, containing a long illustrated scroll turned by a handle on top. It's like a moving picture book, or an animation storyboard, or a movie without electricity.

However, the story of one crankie maker is more extraordinary than anything the imagination of a storyteller or illustrator could ever conjure up.

On April 11, 1850, in Boston, U.S.A. Henry Box Brown showed a moving panorama titled 'Mirror of Slavery' to large crowds and enthusiastic newspaper reviews. It contained forty-nine scenes painted onto a canvas scroll by the ornamental sign-painter and abolitionist Josiah Wolcott. The Boston Daily Evening Traveler pronounced it to be, 'one of the finest panoramas now on exhibition.'

Early life and childhood

Henry was born into an enslaved family in 1815 on Hermitage plantation in Louisa County, about 50 miles from Richmond, Virginia. He was something of a trickster who knew African conjuring and magic, the kind his Gullah Geechee ancestors had used to escape from the Outer Banks and fly home to Africa. He knew the tricks of the stage magician, too. He could pick up a nail, close his hand over it, speak creole words, and when he opened his hand, the nail had turned into an acorn which he said would grow into a nail tree.

In 1849, his wife Nancy was expecting their fourth child, when she and the children were sold to a plantation in North Carolina, even though Henry had been paying their enslaver Mr Cottrell with money raised from selling tobacco. Henry decided to escape, and with the help of shoemaker Samuel A Smith and Black Freedman James CA 'Boxer' Smith, they built a small wooden box 91cm by 81cm by 61cm, and lined it with baize.

The Escape

On March 23 1849, Henry poured sulphuric acid over his hand, burning it to the bone, to get the day off work. He squeezed himself into the box with a few biscuits, a bottle of water, and an awl to bore air-holes when he couldn't breathe, and he was posted via the Adams Express Company to the Quaker merchant Passmore Williams of the Philadelphia Vigilence Commitee. The box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, and ferry for twenty seven hours, sometimes upside down with the blood rushing to Henry's head. On his arrival in Philadelphia, he burst out of the box and sang a hymn to freedom.

West African folklore and magic

In 1940, the Savannah Unit of the Federal Writers’ Project interviewed 134 African Americans from the Georgia and Carolina coast about their lives, and published them as Drums and Shadows. The people made no distinction between the magical and earthly worlds. Transmigration was as real as walking. James Moore had watched people disappear in front of his eyes. Rosa Grant spoke of how her mother, with two quick swings of her skirt, took to the air with her gran watching. Caesar Grant, formerly enslaved at St John's Island, South Carolina, knew a group on a plantation who leapt into the air with a shout and blew away like a handful of leaves over the fields and fences beyond the horizon. Former enslaved person Jack Wilson said they had magic that could fly them back to Africa. Martha Page, formerly enslaved at Yamacraw near Savannah, said her grandfather knew the 'strange talk' the Africans spoke. Prince Sneed's grandmother taught him the words:

'Kum buba yali kum buba tambe, Kum kunka yali kum kunka tambe.'

Similar to a Luba proverb which translates:

'He is tricky, I will win by being tricky too, he asks smart questions, I will win by asking smarter ones.'

The old trickster Henry 'Box' Brown flew to freedom, too, and his story lives on.

Henry was transformed, and published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry 'Box' Brown, to publicise the horrors inflicted on his people. He wrote: 'I entered the world a slave. ... Yes, they robbed me of myself before I could know the nature of their wicked arts.'

With his earnings from the book he built his moving panorama, and toured it around the east coast in the Spring and Summer of 1850. Following the passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill that year, he was attacked in Providence, and knew if he were caught he would be sent back to Virginia, which is presumably the reason why he couldn't go in search of his first family. So on 7 October he fled again, this time to England on the packet ship Constantine along with his moving panorama.

Travelling to England

Henry arrived penniless in Liverpool, England in November 1850 to be greeted by the acclaim of the newspapers as his fame spread before him. He settled in Cheetham Hill, Manchester where a second edition of his book was published by Thomas G Lee, Minister of the New Windsor Chapel in Salford. There is a copy of this rare edition in the John Rylands library in Manchester.

Henry, ever the showman, began touring his moving panorama around the north of England. In Bradford in May 1851 he was packed into a wooden box like the one he had escaped in, and in half an hour he was paraded through the streets of Leeds and placed on the stage of the Music Hall in Albion Street, where he escaped again and then showed 'Mirror of Slavery' to an audience who seen nothing like this before.

Performing in Wales

In January 1855 he first appeared in Wales, where he performed throughout the Valleys. The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette reported on 12th January, 'Mr. Henry Box Brown, we believe, is a gentleman of colour, and an escaped slave, (who will) exhibit a popular Panorama of African and American Slavery, consisting of views in the interior of Africa, with illustrations of the... customs of the natives. Not to particularize further, we think it will be well worth going to.'

On 19th January, the same newspaper reported, 'The people of this town, for the last few evenings, have been amused with the stories of this gentleman, and have been no less entertained by the exhibition of his panorama. The entertainment took place in Bethany Chapel, Church street, next door to the Post-office, Mr. Box Brown has two more evenings to remain.'

Under the heading 'Blaenavon Mesmerism, it was reported that 'Mr. H. Box Brown is still attracting crowded houses to his entertainments at the Town Hall.'

Source: Welsh Newspapers (library.wales)

Later Life

Later in 1855 he married Jane Brown, the daughter of a Cornish tin miner even though he was still presumably married to Nancy. By 1857 he was acting in 3 plays at the London Theatre, including The Fugitive Free, The Nubian Captive or Royal Slave, and Pocahontas or the English Tar and the Indian Princess.

By 1871 the family were living in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, where the census lists his profession as public lecturer at 87 Moreton Street, with Jane, and their 3 children, Agnes, Edward, Annie, and a servant.

After 25 years of re-enacting his escape from enslavement, Henry and his family crossed the Atlantic again to spend his final years in Toronto where he described himself as 'Lecturer', 'Traveler'. And 'Professor of Animal Magnetism.' He died on June 15, 1897, and is buried in Toronto’s Necropolis Cemetery.

Reflection

Henry spent his extraordinary life giving voice to those who had escaped slavery and were living in impenetrable hideaways like the great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina, where they took refuge in caves, underground holes and houses on stilts, and used using oral storytelling as a secret library of freedom, hope and flight. Most didn't have the support Henry received, nor his extraordinary artistic and entrepreneurial skills, but they needed him to tell their hidden tales to the wider world. 

Crankies

Make a Crankie

Acknowledgements

This article is adapted with permission from the History Press which can be read here https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-art-of-visual-storytelling/

Much of the information about Henry's life in Wales can be found in the National Library of Wales, Welsh newspapers online https://newspapers.library.wales/

There are films of Welsh folk tales told with crankies on Peter Stevenson's website https://www.peterstevensonarts.co.uk/crankies

Sue Truman's Crankie Factory website contains more information about Henry and his crankies https://thecrankiefactory.com/115034636.html

Katherine Fahey's crankie channel https://www.youtube.com/user/2hawks2fishes

Bronia Evers' crankies https://www.broniaevers.com/what-is-a crankietheatre

Martha J. Cutter, The Many Resurrections of Henry Box Brown (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

The instructions on how to make a mini-crankie are take with permission from 'Straeon Gwerin Cymru i'r Hen a'r Ifanc / Illustrated Welsh Folk Tales for Young and Old' published by the History Press in 2023 and 2024

Photographs of Henry's crankie c Peter Stevenson 2024

Diolch / Thanks to the History Press