Henry "Box" Brown Memorial (Richmond, Virginia)
Dublin Core
Title
Henry "Box" Brown Memorial (Richmond, Virginia)
Subject
Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Mid-Atlantic United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Slavery--Emancipation
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Mid-Atlantic United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Slavery--Emancipation
Subject (Name)
Brown, Henry "Box," 1816-1897
Brown, Henry "Box," 1816-1897
Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture
Commemorative sculpture
Description
The memorial commemorates Henry "Box" Brown's harrowing journey to freedom. On March 23, 1849, with the assistance of James Caesar Anthony Smith, a freedman and white abolitionist, Samuel Alexander Smith, Brown shipped himself in a two-by-three-foot crate marked "dried goods" from Richmond to Philadelphia. Brown would later become a well-known antislavery activist, attempting to assist other enslaved people to escape in crates.
The memorial includes a bronze crate meant to resemble the wooden one that Brown used. The crate is open and an outline of a crouching human figure is inscribed on the back panel of the box. An informational placard is sited near the sculpture, which details the history of slavery in Richmond and Brown's escape.
The memorial includes a bronze crate meant to resemble the wooden one that Brown used. The crate is open and an outline of a crouching human figure is inscribed on the back panel of the box. An informational placard is sited near the sculpture, which details the history of slavery in Richmond and Brown's escape.
Creator
Unknown
Source
Photographs by Renée Ater
Date
2001
Contributor
City of Richmond, Richmond City Council Slave Trade Commission, and Venture Richmond.
Rights
City of Richmond, 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23219
Relation
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Visual Arts-Sculpture
Coverage
Box Brown Plaza, 1498 Dock Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, United States
Has Part
Inscriptions on five sides of box:
"Buoyed up by the prospect of freedom...I was willing to dare even death itself."
"The idea flashed across my mind of shutting myself up in a box, and getting myself conveyed... to a free state."
"I laid me down in my darkened home of three feet by two feet."
"My friends...managed to break open the box, and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery."
"I arose a free man."
"Buoyed up by the prospect of freedom...I was willing to dare even death itself."
"The idea flashed across my mind of shutting myself up in a box, and getting myself conveyed... to a free state."
"I laid me down in my darkened home of three feet by two feet."
"My friends...managed to break open the box, and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery."
"I arose a free man."
An inscription on the stone ground:
"In a wooden crate similar to this one, Henry Brown, a Richmond tobacco worker, made the journey from slavery to freedom in 1849"
"In a wooden crate similar to this one, Henry Brown, a Richmond tobacco worker, made the journey from slavery to freedom in 1849"
Extent
36 x 33.6 x 24 in. (91.44 x 85.34 x 60.96 cm.)
Medium
Bronze
Rights Holder
Renée Ater
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Sculpture
Physical Dimensions
36 x 33.6 x 24 in. (91.44 x 85.34 x 60.96 cm.)
Collection
Citation
Unknown, “Henry "Box" Brown Memorial (Richmond, Virginia),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed October 9, 2024, https://www.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1217.