Henry “Box” Brown contorted himself to fit inside the 3-by-3 foot cargo box with only a bladder of water and a hand drill in case he needed holes for air. The box was loaded onto a train headed north. He was hoping to set himself free. After mailing himself to Pennsylvania in 1849, Brown continued to advocate for abolition, later living in England and Toronto as a speaker and touring musician. Jonathan Goldman, chief curator at the B&O Railroad Museum, figured Brown’s journey to freedom brought him through Baltimore. The only train from the south to Washington D.C. was the B&O, so therefore if Brown took the train to Washington, he may have continued on to Baltimore.
New B&O Railroad Museum exhibit shows for some on Underground Railroad, there was an actual train
December 12, 2022