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…

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…

Sugar Coating Slavery

Children’s books are usually centered on happy stories, families, animals, and events. The genres main goal is to keep kids entertained, in a good mood, or to fall asleep. Slavery in America may not be the history that comes to mind when one thinks of a plot for a children’s book, but it is an…

Cognitive Dissonance in Christian, Slave-Holding Society

In the fourth chapter of the Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Brown describes an overseer’s excessive physical abuse of an ill slave and offers an argument against the white paternalism defense of slavery at the time (1849). From his personal experience of both kind and cruel overseers and masters during his own…

Henry Box Brown’s Harrowing Narrative

            Henry Brown’s experiences in Chapter 2 at the mill bring to light the nuances of slavery in a harrowingly casual way. The painful and tragic specifics of the lives of slaves make the horrors of slavery within the narrative especially horrifying. Between candidly describing forced incest: “consequently they were all related to each other”…