Embedded Files
By: Arrow
Though many African slaves attempted to escape slavery to a better life, few succeeded. In the 1800s, the Underground Railroad came to be, and in years to come more slaves escaped. The slaves who made their way to freedom were hunted for years thereafter . Most escaped slaves were forced to flee the country, but some returned many years later. There were a great number of escapes during the time of the Underground Railroad, two of the most daring were those of Henry “Box” Brown, as well as William and Ellen Craft.
Henry “Box” Brown’s journey to freedom was one of the greatest during the time of the Underground Railroad. To begin, Brown was born enslaved on a Virginia plantation in 1815. At age fifteen, Brown was sent to Richmond to work in a tobacco factory. Later, Brown married and had four children. One day while he was working in the factory, he received the news that his family was sold to a plantation in North Carolina. Consequently, that loss drove his desire for freedom. Brown had a plan to ship himself from Richmond to Philadelphia. He received help from a free black man, in addition to a white shopkeeper. On March 23, 1849, Brown wedged himself into a three-by-two-foot box labeled "dry goods." Brown traveled by a combination of wagons, steamboats, and railroads to get to the home of the abolitionist, James Miller McKim. Brown's journey was not easy, he had very little food and water, and only one hole for air. The box he wedged himself into was sometimes handled roughly, and at one point he was placed upside down for ninety minutes. Twenty-seven grueling hours later, Brown arrived safely at his destination; Philadelphia, PA.
In the end, Brown’s story made him a minor celebrity in New England, where he decided to start hosting a stage act documenting his escape. This was a very risky decision, and there were many dangers involved, “some abolitionist leaders — including Frederick Douglass — argued that [his escape] should be kept confidential''(www.biography.com). Many others argued that it would result in more daring escapes. Brown appeared before the New England Anti-Slavery Society Convention in Boston. Even the Boston publisher, Charles Stern published a version of Brown's story that later became one of the best-known slave narratives. The escape artist was forced to flee to Great Britain after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. There, he remarried and fathered a daughter despite the criticism that he should buy the freedom of his first wife and children. Brown and his English family returned to the states in 1875, where he continued to host his stage act. February 26, 1886, Brown performed his last recorded stage act in Ontario, Canada. The date and location of Brown's death are unknown still to this day . Henry “Box” Brown’s escape was one of the greatest escapes in the history of the Underground Railroad.
The Crafts’ escape was the one most clever and daring during the Underground Railroad. To begin with, the Crafts’ both had very different upbringings. Ellen Craft was the offspring of her first slaveholder and one of his biracial slaves. Many times, Ellen was thought to be a member of his white family. The plantation mistress was deeply annoyed by the situation, and in turn she sent eleven-year-old Ellen to her sister, who lived in Macon Georgia, as a wedding gift. Ellen worked as a ladies maid, she was treated better than most slaves, she even received a room in their house. Still, Ellen was a slave. Contrarily, Willam endured an entirely different upbringing as a slave. Williams' masters throughout his childhood regularly ripped apart his family by selling his parents and siblings. One master sold William and his sister to separate households, and William was purchased by a wealthy banker, then trained as a carpenter. He was very skilled, but his master claimed most of his hard-earned money. The little money William kept would eventually come to be very useful. William's work is what brought him to meet Ellen. They were denied the opportunity to get married, so instead, they wed in secret.
Afterwards, the Crafts decided it was time to escape. It was their fear of separation that drove them to freedom. “Our condition as slaves was not by any means the worst'' (allthatisinteresting.com). Nevertheless, William knew the pain of separation and never wanted to feel that again. With that said, William and Ellen Craft put together a “simple plan”. William cut Ellen’s hair short and covered her face with bandages to hide that she was a woman. Ellen posed as an injured white man and put on a fake sling, so she would not have to explain her inability to write. William assumed the role of her manservant. The Crafts’ destination was Boston, Massachusetts. William used the cash he saved to buy their tickets from Macon to Savannah. On December 21, 1846, the Crafts began their journey. Things went better than expected for the Crafts. When they boarded the train, William saw someone his master knew, he luckily went unseen by the man. A similar event happened to Ellen, but she played it off by acting deaf. They spent the next four days traveling and staying in the finest hotels. Arriving in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, they were sheltered by abolitionists. The Crafts continued to Boston where they took up jobs, William continued as a carpenter and Ellen a seamstress. Unfortunately, they journey was not over yet. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the Crafts had to flee the country. They went to Britain, where they had five children. Upon their return in 1868, they ran a farm in South Carolina, until they were burned out in the 1870s. The Crafts then went to Georgia and opened a school to educate newly freed blacks. In 1891, Ellen passed away and William in 1900. The Crafts' escape was made possible only by the Underground Railroad.
Henry “Box” Brown and the Crafts had the most clever and daring escapes during the Underground Railroad. Escaping was not easy for either party, they were hunted by those they escaped from. Eventually Henry Brown and the Crafts had better lives. The Underground Railroad was instrumental in many slaves' escapes.
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