“Go and get a box, and put yourself in it.”
Henry Brown heard those words, but he didn’t know if he could believe them. A voice was telling Henry, a slave from Virginia, to climb into a wooden box and mail himself to freedom.
The Disappearing Man is based on one of the most incredible escape attempts in the history of the Underground Railroad. In 1849, with the help of two friends, Henry Brown was placed in a box and shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, a harrowing 27-hour ordeal.
For Henry, this was the ultimate disappearing act. He intended to make a man disappear in Richmond and miraculously reappear in Philadelphia. He aimed to turn a dead man into a living man, a slave into a free man.
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