Taste through Time

The notion of “taste” has been a constant thread throughout reading The Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown and Cordelia the Crude by William Thurman. Although they are in very different phases of life, Henry figuring out the logistics of how he will escape his life as a slave and Cordelia navigating her…

Reimagining “Box Brown”: Visual Allusion in Freedom Song: The Story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown

Both the 1851 Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself and Sally Walker’s 2011 Freedom Song: The Story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown illustrated by Sean Qualls begin with a depiction of Brown’s birth, but very quickly the texts diverge.  Walker and Qualls’s children’s adaption of Brown’s 1851 narrative re-visions the scene of Brown’s…

The Importance of Language in Depicting Emotion

In Sally M. Walker’s children’s book “Freedom Song: The Story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown” Walker’s use of short, simple sentences were somewhat reminiscent of poetry. The simplicity of the language she used, paired with the strong descriptors of Henry’s life on the field and relationship with his family highlighted those positive aspects of his life…

Free as a Bird

In Henry’s Freedom Box,By Ellen Levine and illustrated Kadir Nelson, Henry’s desire to be free is compared with the image of a bird in order for a young audience to understand what it means to have freedom. The primary audience for the book would be children who may be learning to read or having the book…

Bird’s Soaring, and the Leaves Swirling in the Wind

In the children’s book, “Henry’s Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, Imagery and symbolism is used to emphasize the feelings and desires of Henry Brown when he was being sent to work for his ill master’s son. On pages 7 and 8, a white man has come to pick up Henry…

Simplifying History to Educate Our Children

Ellen Levine’s use of simple language, along with the illustrations done by Kadir Nelson in the children’s book Henry’s Freedom Box, creates a heart wrenching depiction of an already horrific tale of freedom. Throughout the short book, Levine picks only a handful of quotes that are directly referenced from the original text, such as Brown’s mother’s story…

The Emotion Underneath The Story

In the Narrative of the Life of Henry “Box” Brown, Written by Himself, Henry “Box” Brown reflects upon a merciful overseer he once had as a slave. “Bennet was followed as overseer, by one Henry Bedman, and he was the best that we had. He neither used the whip nor cheated the hands of what…

The Emotion Behind a Juxtaposition of Pronouns

In the final paragraph of Chapter 7, Henry Box Brown describes his experience watching his wife and son stumble towards North Carolina where they were sold. Henry first recounts the witness of his eldest son. From a modern perspective, their is a dissonance to his account made clear in the line, “Thus passed my child…

Joy and Pain, Intertwined

In the Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Henry Brown writes, “I felt that life had joys worth living for if I could only be allowed to enjoy them, but my heart was filled with the deep anguish from the awful calamity” (Brown 76) of his impending separation from his wife and children….

The Vibrancy of Family

In the children’s book Freedom Song, two illustrations depict family in a way which counters the white perception of enslaved families during Henry’s lifetime. One page shows Henry’s parents and siblings, the other is an image of Henry, his wife Nancy and their children. In both of the illustrations, the backgrounds are monochromatic and the…