I'm going to try to post about 2 of these a day. I'm getting these little facts from a book called, "Dirty Little Secrets," by Claud Anderson. It's really interesting!!
They Mailed Themselves to Freedom
Two black slaves took the US Postal Service at their word that nothing, "rain, sleet nor snow shall stop the mail" from going through, and mailed themselves to freedom.
In 1856, Henry Brown mailed himself from Richmond, VA to freedom in Philadelphia, PA. It seems physically impossible for Brown's plan to have worked. He built a box 3 ft. long by 2 ft. and eight inches deep and packed a jug of water, a few biscuits, and a pry-bar to open the box from the inside. He had his friend, James A. Smith, another slave, to address the box to the home of an abolitionist, William H. Johnson, on Philadelphia's Arch Street. To lessen the hardship of being locked in the box, in a fetal position, Brown marked the outside of the box"Handle With Care" and "This Side Up" so that he would travel with his head up.
The postal service did not follow outside instructions to keep the box right side up. After traveling upside down in the box for 25 hours, Brown arrived in Philly at Johnson's home. Johnson took the box to the office of the Anti-Slavery Society. After members of the society pried the top of the box open, Brown jumped up and said, "How do you do, gentlemen!"
In 1859, William Peel Jones used Henry "Box" Brown as a model in planning his escape from slavery in a box aboard a steamship from Baltimore, MD, to Philly, PA. Jones had a special reason to attempt his escape. His white master had confided that he was liquidating his assets and intended to sell Jones and other slaves as soon as possible. Like Henry Brown, Jones acquired a box for his escape. But, in his haste, he picked a box that was too small for him, even in a fetal position. He was forced to keep his legs folded in a painful position throughout his voyage. In addition to the pain of leg cramps and bruises from the cramped space, Jones was ill-clothed for the cold sea air and moisture that penetrated the box.
Jones was finally rescued when the boat reached Philly by the same friends who had mailed him and traveled by land to be in Philly when the box containing Jones arrived. Jones' pain and his friends; teamwork paid off when they opened the box and jones was alive and free.
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