Henry Box Brown

14.65

Transform your space with “Henry Box Brown” printable wall art! Download and print this lovely digital artwork in any size you like to brighten up your interior decor with a touch of elegance. Get it now and let it bring a little style into your space!

garanti-sanat
SKUSKU_6144385
Categories
70-140cm (27.5″≈55″) Printable
Resolution: 300dpi / Digital download
Product taxes included

The story of Henry Box Brown’s escape from slavery

Denise Valentine doesn’t so much tell the remarkable story of Henry “Box” Brown, an escaped slave and abolitionist who mailed himself to freedom in 1849, as she sings, chants, and stomps it. A professional storyteller and Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Valentine uses the folktales and handclap games of African-American oral tradition to animate her discussions of the Underground Railroad and the heroes of black emancipation. “The historians take care of the facts and figures, the dates and the statistics. But I try to help people understand what it felt like,” she says. “What it was like to be an African American living during the time of enslavement, what it was like being a white person trying to help an African American escape, or even what it was like to be a slave owner or merchant.”

Her colorful reenactments are at least partially indebted to the bravura style of one of her famed subjects: After a grueling, twenty-seven-hour voyage from Richmond to Philadelphia in a tiny wooden container, Henry Brown found a lucrative career as a public lecturer in the North. His means of escape became part of his identity when he was rechristened “Box” Brown at a Boston antislavery convention.

Appearing in cities across New England and, later, Britain, Brown attained a form of nineteenth-century celebrity on the strength of his astonishing tale and flair for showmanship. He rode between speaking engagements inside a box identical to the one that had carried him from Virginia, accompanied by marching bands and American flags, before emerging onstage from the cramped conveyance and presenting scenes from his “Mirror of Slavery,” a painted canvas of one hundred scenes mounted on two enormous spools. Various iterations of the act, which evolved into a kind of vaudeville routine following the end of slavery, were performed in the United States, England, and Canada for decades before Brown receded from view, dying sometime after 1889.

When she was a student, Valentine remembers, “I did mandatory tours of historic Philadelphia . . . and I remember feeling like my story was not told in any of these places. I remember wondering, ‘Did African Americans contribute anything to the founding of this country?’ Where was our story? And I went searching for it.”

The route through Philadelphia was perhaps the busiest line of the Underground Railroad, and Valentine’s investigations into its legacy led her to dig through centuries of neglected history—from the arrival in 1684 of the city’s first shipment of human cargo to the very literal excavation of slave quarters in the rediscovered foundations of the President’s House in 2002. The long-demolished building, which functioned as the Presidential Mansion during Philadelphia’s decade as the nation’s capital, also housed George Washington’s domestic staff of nine slaves.

The men and women who attended to the first family—maids and stable hands, scullions and cooks—were regularly shuttled back and forth between Philadelphia and the Mount Vernon estate; this migration allowed the president to get around Pennsylvania’s Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, which granted any slave their freedom after inhabiting the state continuously for over six months. Among the first stories that Valentine told professionally was that of Oney Judge, a dower slave of Martha Washington who bolted to New Hampshire in 1796 rather than return to Virginia and the possibility of being given as a wedding present to the first lady’s granddaughter.

There have been several depictions of Henry “Box” Brown’s unlikely flight from bondage (including a play by Tony Award-winning author Tony Kushner), the first of which was provided by Brown himself: His 1851 Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown offers both a moving account of his life in servitude and an extremely bitter harangue against the greed and false piety of slave holders. A favorite of his master, the successful planter and Richmond mayor John Barret, Brown was seldom subjected to the extreme deprivation and violence that haunted the lives of most slaves. His comparatively fair treatment, however, afforded him no peace of mind. “The slave has always the harrowing idea before him—however kindly he may be treated for the time being—that the auctioneer may soon set him up for public sale and knock him down as the property of the person who, whether man or demon, would pay his master the greatest number of dollars for his body,” he wrote.

Ultimately, Brown was never sold—his wife and children were. Grief-stricken and powerless to protest, he enlisted two friends to enclose him with a small supply of water inside a 15-cubic-foot box (about half the size of a casket) and ship him to the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Transported by wagon, railroad, and steamboat, the box was flipped upside down for so long that its passenger worried his skull might burst, and only arrived at its destination after a full day in transit. Brown arose in freedom from what he called “the grave of slavery,” ready to begin telling his story. He never saw his family again.

/About the author
Kevin Mahnken is an editorial intern at HUMANITIES.

Article appears in
HUMANITIES
May/June 2013
Volume 34
Issue 3

Additional information

Drawing Technique

Digital

Licance

Personal. Resale is not allowed.

Print

Canvas, paper, aluminium, acrylic glass, and more.

This artifact boasts a resolution of 300dpi and measures 70cm (27.5in) on its longest side. It is an excellent way to showcase your style and personality on your wall, adding character to your space. It makes for a unique and lasting gift. Printing at these dimensions will result in high-quality prints. Doubling the dimensions will allow for larger prints suitable for interior decoration. We have provided some artifact sizes based human size to give you an idea.

Looking to purchase art from our online gallery? Follow these simple steps:

  • Find the artwork you love and click on it. If you're considering multiple pieces, click "ADD TO CART." If you've decided on just one, click "BUY NOW."
  • Feel free to keep browsing our gallery and adding more artwork to your cart.
  • To review your selected artworks, click on the shopping cart icon in the top right corner. You can remove any items if you change your mind.
  • When you're ready to complete your order, click "CHECKOUT" at the top right corner of the screen.
  • After your purchase, you'll receive a download link. Additionally, we'll send the link to your email address for easy access.
 

Wondering how to pay for your selected artworks? Here's how:

Simply click the "CHECKOUT" button to finalize your order, and then select your preferred payment method. We offer the following options:
  • Credit cards (Stripe)
  • PayPal
  • Bank transfer (Upon placing your order, we'll send you an invoice. Once the invoice is paid in full, we'll proceed to ship the artwork.)
 

Is the payment secure?

  • Rest assured, our payment system is highly secure. We exclusively process transactions that are 3D secured to combat fraud.
  • Additionally, as an added measure of protection, we may request identity verification to prevent unauthorized use of your credit card.
 

Is it possible to request a commissioned artwork with specific size and color preferences?

  • Interested in commissioning an artwork of a specific size or color? While not all artists offer commissions for paintings and sculptures, you can request a customized size print.
  • Feel free to reach out to us and share your requirements if you're interested in commissioning an artwork. We're here to assist you.

Shipping & Returns?

Purchase Terms of Agreement
The purchase of digital products, including EPS, PDF, AI or JPG downloads and online material is subject to the following terms and conditions. Consumers are advised to review carefully before making any purchase

Payment + Refund Policy
All transactions for purchase of intangible products, pdf, eps, ai or jpg downloads, resource material, and online content are made through payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe that use SSL encryption. These payment gateways are safe and secure for using all types of credit cards and debit cards in different countries and your details are not stored during this process.

Since your purchase is a digital product, it is deemed “used” after download or opening, and all purchases made on www.daymara.com (Swiss Llc Ltd.) are non-refundable or exchangeable. However, we will provide a full refund if the resolution, print quality, if you have received a product that differs from the product image shown to you at the time of purchase or if there are file errors. Since the products made available here are intangible, there is a strict no refund policy.

Daymara (Swiss Llc Ltd.) reserves the right to amend any information, including but not limited to prices, technical specifications, terms of purchase and product or service offerings without prior notice.

Delivery of Goods and Services
If you do not receive the digital product link upon purchasing, you can immediately contact [email protected] with your transaction/payment details to ensure your product is delivered as soon as possible.

Delivery Process

  • The product you purchased is a print-ready visual design product.
  • A download link of the product will be presented to you after the purchase. You will be able to download and use the work using this link.
  • Delivery is provided with a downloadable link after purchase. Also, no physical product will be sent. Please make sure you understand this point. If you have any questions, please write to us from the contact section.
  • Each product may be in different sizes. The maximum printable size of the product is written on the page of the product. It is naturally possible to print larger than this size. But in this case, pixel distortions can be seen.
  • Since a downloadable link is offered to you after purchasing the product, the product you have purchased is deemed to have been delivered.
  • It is not possible to return the delivered products or cancel the order after this stage. However, we will provide a full refund if the resolution, print quality, if you have received a product that differs from the product image shown to you at the time of purchase or if there are file errors.
  • If you encounter a problem with the file you downloaded, please do not hesitate to contact us. Your request will be answered within 1 hour at the latest.