Henry Brown was slave in Virginia whose biggest wish was escaping slavery and living life as a free man. On March 1849 for $86, Brown enlisted the help of a local store owner to stuff his 5-foot-8-inch, 200-pound body into a wooden crate only 3 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2.6 feet deep.
James Miller McKim, an abolitionist, agreed to receive the box in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Armed with only water and biscuits, Henry “Box” Brown endured a 27-hour journey, traveling by steamboat, wagon, a railroad car, ferry, another railroad car, and a final delivery wagon that took him to McKim's home in Philadelphia.
Southerners saw his escape as Yanks trying to meddle with Southern property. When the Southerners created the Fugitive Slave act – an act forcing the federal government to help return slaves – Brown fled to England.
Brown later returned to the United States where his story has inspired monuments, children's story books, plays and films.
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