Henry Box Brown: From Slavery to Show Business

Henry Box Brown is well known in America for escaping slavery by being packed in a box and mailed from Virginia to Philadelphia. The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 made it unsafe for Brown to remain in America. He relocated to England where he had a very successful career, initially as a speaker on abolitionism before he began speaking on other subjects and then branched out into other forms of entertainment, including magic. He married Jane Floyd, who, with their children, appeared in his acts. This book concentrates on the relatively unknown period of his life in Britain, detailing both how he was received and how he developed as a performer. It is the biography of a brave, intelligent individualist who was always willing to learn and to take chances, becoming the first black man to achieve landmarks in British law and entertainment.

Binding Type: Paperback
Author: Chater, Kathleen
Published: 08/17/2020
Publisher: McFarland & Company
ISBN: 9781476679228
Pages: 267
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.90w x 0.70d