The story ends with a reimagining of the lithograph that inspired it, in which Henry Brown emerges from his unhappy confinement-in every sense of the word-and smiles upon his arrival in a comfortable Pennsylvania parlor. His journey took just over one full day, during which he was often sideways or upside down in a wooden crate large enough to hold him, but small enough not to betray its contents. Torn from his mother as a child, and then forcibly separated from his wife and children as an adult, a heartsick and desperate Brown conspired with abolitionists and successfully traveled north to Philadelphia in a packing crate. Gr 2–5-Inspired by an actual 1830s lithograph, this beautifully crafted picture book briefly relates the story of Henry 'Box' Brown's daring escape from slavery. (Jan.)Ĭopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Still, these powerful illustrations will make readers feel as if they have gained insight into a resourceful man and his extraordinary story. Readers never learn about Henry's life as a free man-or, perhaps unavoidably, whether he was ever reunited with his family. A concluding note provides answers to questions that readers may wish had been integrated into the story line, such as where did Henry begin his journey? (Richmond, Va.) how long did it take? (27 hours). Alongside Henry's anguished thoughts en route, Nelson's clever cutaway images reveal the man in his cramped quarters (at times upside-down). Henry then enlists the help of an abolitionist doctor and mails himself in a wooden crate 'to a place where there are no slaves!' He travels by horse-drawn cart, steamboat and train before his box is delivered to the Philadelphia address of the doctor's friends on March 30, 1849. In a heartwrenching scene depicted in a dramatically shaded pencil, watercolor and oil illustration, Henry watches as his family-suddenly sold in the slave market-disappears down the road. As a boy, separated from his mother, he goes to work in his new master's tobacco factory and eventually meets and marries another slave, with whom he has three children. Thanks to Nelson's (Ellington Was Not a Street) penetrating portraits, readers will feel as if they can experience Henry's thoughts and feelings as he matures through unthinkable adversity. Levine (Freedom's Children) recounts the true story of Henry Brown, a slave who mailed himself to freedom.

Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine