An International Fugitive: Henry Box Brown, Anti-Imperialism, Resistance & Slavery

Abstract

Virginia slave Henry Brown's 1849 escape from slavery in a box makes him on of the most memorable fugitives in American history. Many have marveled over his escape ruse as a testament to his determination to break the bonds of American slavery. Brown's antislavery tours in America and England dramatizing his escape and exhibiting a panorama of slavery further established him as an inventive showman. This essay suggests that as we think the problematics of freedom and resistance our analyses of Brown need to extend beyond the fascinating details of his escape, beyond considering him an American phenomenon of the underground railroad, and towards repositioning Brown as part of a broader geopolitical circuit of resistances to both American and British dominative regimes. Reading Brown as a transatlantic maroon enables us to uncover the interlocking political and ideological links between Brown and his American, British, and Caribbean contexts, and to reconsider his contributions to a discourse on diaspora and to larger currents of black resistance than have previously been noted.

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