Bittersweet Infamy - #73 - This Side Up With Care

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

Taylor tells Josie about American abolitionist and magician Henry Box Brown, and his most ingenious disappearing act: his escape from slavery. Plus: the stop-and-go story of East Berlin's iconic Ampelmännchen traffic lights.

Music Welcome to BittersweetMedia. I'm Taylor Baso. And I'm Josie Mitchell. On this podcast, we share the stories that live on and in the... To strangen the familiar, the tragic and the comic, the bitter and the sweet. We have a milkweed plant in our backyard that is very nude because all these Monarch butterfly caterpillars have been munching away. I'm lovely. I'm building a little plump

Chryslices Yeah, Josie has been keeping me up with the saga of the Chryslices via our discord channel Yes, yes, and I told you about the most exciting, which was Chris. Oh, less. Right. Well, Liz was on the recycling. Yeah. Well, no, I thought I was saying a less is though it were his last name, but do you do cut us in on what happened to poor Liz? Right. Yeah. So poor Liz didn't didn't make it. She emerged and but we just found her on the driveway.

Like in front of Mitchell's car, it looked like he hit her or something, but he just just just happened. He just hit and run this butterfly. Yeah. This is a second chrysalis though that was out on your like recycling thing. Yeah, on the recycling bed. And so where was the other one? Where's Chris at?

He was on our back door, right in front of the back door window. That's inconvenient. We had to be very careful not to slam the back door. That was very delicate. They're made of like silk, like woven of silk, these cacoon. Oh, and they have like little gold accents on them. Oh, they're beautiful. It's like bright green with gold.

It was really pretty. Yeah, no, by the last two days, we stopped using the back door. We went out the front door. Let's fair, Fox. Princess is slumbering in the back. We got it. We can't disturb her beauty, sleep.

Yeah, but I was at home when Chris emerged. And it was like literally right in front of a pain of glass right at the back door I just stood there with my coffee all morning and watched Watched how he she they Came out and pooped their brains out and then unfurled their wings Need to take a hard shit after I sleep like that. Yeah. Yeah. No totally. I totally get it It was really really cool to watch I bet what a nice treat for you. Yeah, and I had like work I had to do I had to go somewhere

And I was just like I'm not doing that. I'm just gonna stay here and watch Chris emerge That's what life is about and when you when you're on your deathbed you won't regret not Neves you won't even remember what spreadsheet you had to do, but like, you probably also won't remember the butterfly feet pair. But it's pretty sick, it's pretty sick, and cool, and nature is dope, and awesome, and I wonder to be old.

Yes, and apparently when they come out of their chrysalis, all of their organs in their little bodies, they have to, they have to like settle once they emerge from their chrysalis, they have to give themselves time and like- For all the kidneys to kinda go, are they're gonna need to be? Yeah, yeah, and the antenna and the proboscis.

And the wings too are all scrunched, and they have to like air them out and dry them out. Gonna degunk those babies. Degonkum. And we did. We had some other chrysalises around the yard. And I don't think all of them made it. Nature's cruel. We hope.

Dude, it's, there was one this morning that everything looked like it was going good, but the wings never just fully unfurled and one was like folded over And it looked like everything else was fine like like the antenna. It's a little body But it just I don't and we didn't see it fly away. I think it Brutal real brutal by it, but beautiful, but Chris gets a beautiful vacated board of Iarta. How about it? Yeah, no exactly exactly And in fact because he climbed up to the very top of the door and then he kind of launched so he had the most like gravitational effect to catch him right and

Beeman and I like ran out the door. Beeman was barking. I was like pumping my face out the door, B-Nam was barking, I was like pumping my fish. Yeah! Go Chris, go! Yeah! I think he's like got the kid on the on-through willy, you know when the kid, the whale is jumping over the child. It had that. Yeah, it was really nice.

It was nice, good for you, I really like that for you. Was Mitchell jealous that he missed the burgeoning? I think so. I took some vids. Not the same. A lot of pics, but it's just not the same. Just not the same. Especially, and I realized today, because we had another one that was kind of like emerging in the backyard as we were both here, but being on the window like that, like you could just stand there, march the whole thing and not bother him.

Yeah. Aiming inside in the air conditioner. Perfect. Oh my god. What a what a dream. I know yeah, but couldn't use the back door for a couple days So there's a trade-off totally worth it Deadly worth it Taylor do you want to tell us about your haircut? Oh, yeah, I Have a sick haircut now. It's pretty much all the haircuts at once. It's like uh, I don't know lady wrestler from the 80s gay porn star I've been told that this is like a little Star Wars rat tale. So there's just a lot happening all at once. You need to get some beads on the rat tale.

A pink one and a blue one. Taylor. Why did you cross the road? Why did I cross the road? I have to think of something clever to say. Silence, the best media for a month. Just give me a second, just give me a second. I crossed the road.

Why did Taylor make sure I mean, I don't have an answer. That's it. I got nothing. I'll tell you why you crossed the road in Berlin. If you want to know that, just go with me. Okay. Taylor crossed the road in Berlin because there was an adorable little pedestrian light in the shape of a plump, jovial, behatted man called Ampleman that flashed go.

I didn't know that's why I guess. I guess it was. That's why I guess it was. So I have this haircut now too. Because I'm in Berlin. Yeah, I guess you're in the, yeah, you're in the club scene. I don't go to, I don't go to clubs.

I'm like, what's the thing? Where are you going? You go to Berkheim and you get pissed on. That's the club scene in Berlin. Yeah, and you wear a halter. Yeah, yeah, hence the rath tail. Yeah. No, I'm starting my Memphis.

No, I got that. Okay. I got that. And this is the story of a very well-known and beloved relic of East Germany. Okay, the pedestrian light stop and go figure. Interesting. I love this. Yes, that was originally in place in East Berlin and could have and fortunately did not disappear.

So the Ampuman. The Ampuman. And the East Germany folks, there used to be two Germany's and East Germany was not the capitalist one. And part of that splitting was they built a wall right down the Capitol. Berlin wall. Berlin. It's the Berlin wall.

There was a dude in WCW. I had a haircut like this actually. His name was Berlin and he had a big, he was a German dude and he had a big bodyguard named the wall. Oh, okay, that's cute. I like that. I like that. East Berlin.

There's a devout citizen who grows up there. His name is Karl Paglau. Karl with a K, of course. Well, Germany. Get that. Yeah. He's born in 1929, so actually before the creation of East Germany, but that's where he lives. And he studied psychology with a specification in traffic psychology. Okay. So the way that people move through roads and streets. Navigate infrastructure. If there's an element of urban planning in there, it makes a lot of sense. Exactly. Yeah. His dissertation was developing a breaking system for the Berlin suburban railway circuit. But because the Berlin wall was built during his lifetime,

there was no way that a suburban railway system would work in Berlin anymore. So his training and all his very specific calculated work was kind of all for not bit of a bummer. But that made him turn to doing more specific work with traffic psychology. So he worked as the executive traffic psychologist for the medical service of East Germany, which is a very long bureaucratic title, but I think you know... Germany, baby. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. and East Germany at that. Yeah, exactly. If you say that in German, that title is one word that has 84 letters. So in this role, he developed a

revision for the standard traffic light, you know, the red yellow green traffic light. He wanted to pose an alternative for people who might be colorblind, which is about 10% of the population. I mean, you can memorize the position, but what he did was he added a filter that would make each one a different shape. So the red was a horse. Oh, the bar, the green was a, like, an arrow shape, you know. Love idea. It is pretty clever. And in this revision, he also included pedestrian symbols that depicted a small man. Now Taylor, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and show you this hot dick. Okay. But I think something to consider when it comes to the psychology of a pedestrian traffic symbol is that it's not only for people who are driving, it's for children, it's for the elderly,

it's anybody in everybody who's young or a brother. Taurus, you don't speak the language. Exactly. Yeah, I mean in East Germany, that's probably not gonna happen. Taurus, from fucking Romania who don't speak the language, okay? Yes, there we go, there we go. Okay, so if you want to describe this, this image that you see in the zoom chat. Okay, so there's a pedestrian light that you would see when you were crossing a crosswalk.

It's a red and a green light and they depict the silhouette of two figures. The red guy is teaposing for the fucking gods. He looks like the statue of Jesus and Rio. He looks amazing. Yeah. And then below him is Go. And this is a jaunty little man in a little chapo. They're both wearing little fedoras.

And he's just on his way. He looks like he might be whistling a jaunty tune and thinking about, you know, maybe I'll pick up some flowers on the way home for the wife. Yeah, yeah, it has that vibe. Pegla was the man who designed this. And he was interested in having a very functional image, stop and go, this idea of the kinda teapos

has a very like traffic guard kind of vibe. Like don't move, just stop. Keep it in one place. The profile one of the little man going, it kind of has an arrow almost involved in its shape. And it's green and you see him, yeah, he's hoofing it. He's trying to make a move, right? Originally, Pecla was interested in making

the character a little plumber, then it's Western counterpart, which is kind of like the more or less the one that we have, which is a stick figure, right? And he wanted the character to have a little bit of a punch, one because it created more area for the light to get through. So if he's a little plumber, there's more light that he's seen. Yeah, he becomes more colorful, yeah. But also he knew that a little puncture, little, you know, friendly, some friendly curves could make, yeah, yeah, invite people in. The children will love it. People will see it better. They'll make a connection. Yeah.

love it. People who see it better, they'll make a connection. Yeah. Originally, there was some concern about what would happen in terms of the hair. There was an idea that maybe you would see like a middle part, but they were concerned that a part like that would almost look to well, it's a little too much like Hitler, which they were going away from. Yeah, no, we don't. That's they listen. Germany takes Hitler very seriously. Well, we don't. Yeah, that's, they, listen, Germany takes Hitler very seriously. Well, as they should. There was an idea of maybe some like, almost like a bushy curls that's happening here. Okay, okay.

Bigger head. Okay. They were worried that that would be, in his words, a little too stereotypical of southern Germany. And so might exclude some people, which I don't know. I don't either, yeah. So I don't, I can't speak to that. But like kudos on your sensitivity apparently. Yeah. Peg Lau was watching TV kind of pondering this question of the hair, the head of his figure that would appear on the traffic light. And he saw an East German politician on TV wearing a straw hat.

And he was like, let's just put a little hat on him. It's like a classic figure design simplification move. There was some initial concern that a hat would look too bourgeoisie. He would look much too high class. When we're in post-World War II communist Germany, these are things that we need to take very seriously. Totally. And when Peglou submitted his proposal on October 13th, 1961, he was actually quite surprised that it passed approval with the hat. He really thought they were going to come back and say, you've classed this guy up way too far. Let's think of the proletariat a little bit more, okay?

Carl? way too far. Let's think of the proletariat a little bit more. Okay, Carl. I've got nothing to do. You do, yep, you're right. But you know what? Communists wear hats too, so. The sun hits all of us, especially if we are producing, right? As in like means of production, like we're out in the fields, laboring and enjoying the fruits of our individual labor. I get you. As we should. In true East Germany fashion, it took about eight years for the plans to go through all the bureaucratic, you know, factory lines and loopholes and committees. People could be deprived and, you know what I got? Yes, yes. And it was in 1969 that East Berlin Street corners started flashing our friendly and cute ampulman. I love that.

America putting a man on the moon, East Berlin putting a man on the other side of the sidewalk. Yeah. Good shit. With a cute hat. Yeah. Looking and looking fancy, but not too much so evidently. Yeah, there was a designer from West Berlin by the name of Marcus Heckhausen and he was really fascinated by East Berlin and East Germany. He would group on the west side, but as a designer, he kind of saw how

there were so many things that were different between where he grew up and where this, like, just over the wall, what was happening in East Berlin. So he got a day pass, a day visa to travel into East Berlin, and he visited a very famous spot over there, the Alexander Plots, where he crossed the street and saw the Opelman for the first time, and he was absolutely fucking delighted, because it's just a little... A little guy, a little friend-shake man. A little guy, yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, I also love things like that that are like, oh, we have that, but I don't consider it anymore, because it's kind of just running in the background. It's green didn't even have fire hydrants or that color, but it didn't. Right, yeah. Other places would have different colored fire hydrants or whatever. Yeah. And then if you put a little hat on the fire hydrant, it's like, holy fuck.

No, it's a little guy. Yeah. 1989 is when the wall comes down. There's a series of like chain reactions that happen all through Eastern Europe that I will never begin to understand. Oh listen, we've got we've got a few episodes of this podcast still to go before we take a row. We'll try. We'll get to do our best. I mean we all know colloquially that David Hasselhoff single-handedly brought down the Berlin wall though. He

punched through it. Yeah. He had the you know the little floaty He had that under the one arm and he punched it with the other Guys got like a string on it When the wall goes down East Germany and in particular East, because it's proximity to West Berlin, right? Is this whole new foreign landscape? Well, for Marcus Heckhausen, it's a whole new foreign landscape. And he's very excited to go and explore. And compared to West Berlin, it looks like a complete blank canvas.

There's no posters up, there's not a lot of like landscaping. They weren't there gun like a cherry murals in the east. No, not a, not a, not top of list, not top of list. Not a lot of like live, laugh, love, inspirational art in the city streets. That wasn't their vibe. No, no, but at this time when the wall went down it was really exciting because there was so much like kind of cross-cultural interaction that could happen and so much art that could happen in East Berlin that almost couldn't happen anywhere else.

There's this really famous well-known art piece that happened in 1999 called the RAPT Reichstag. Jean-Claude and Crestor are the two artists who had been trying to get this done in other cities for years and years, and they finally were able to do it in East Berlin because they needed art and let's get things going. So, their art practices to wrap buildings. And they wrapped the Reichstag in East Berlin in this like silvery like shiny fabric. They wrapped this like it's like a city block. Yeah, oh really cool. And fabric. Yeah. So there's all this like really hip and cool up and coming art. The club scene, your haircut is taking over Taylor. Maybe, maybe, maybe we are playing our nipples pierced. scene your hair cut is taking over Taylor. Maybe, oh baby, we are playing our nipples pierced.

Yes, we are. Yes. Together. And this, with a James. Just linked together. Yes. And this is the environment where Marcus Hechhausen, the designer from West Berlin, he enters and he's stoked and he sees the apple man around town. And he's like, I fucking love this dude.

I've always loved East Berlin. I love this dude. It's just a little guy. But he's noticing that in the reunification process, the Berlin Authority is trying to quote-unquote update East Berlin and update all the infrastructure. East Berlin gone update all the infrastructure. East Berlin, gone woke. Yes.

Okay. And part of it is they want to standardize everything. So they are dismantling the Amplomond. We can't have this. We really can't. There is quite a bit that is lost from East Berlin that people are still kind of sensitive about, I think. The Opelmann is a good example, but another like social safety net, like there was no unemployment

in East Berlin. Everybody had a job. There was no homelessness. Everybody was taken care of. And then all of a sudden the wall goes down. Capitalism comes in. Yeah. There's a phenomenon particular to Germany called Ostalgia, which is the OSA, which is East. So it's

like a nostalgia for the East, for the Eastern block. Got it. And like any nostalgia is kind of wrapped up in a lot of messy feelings, right? It's not all just like good and bad. It's like this cultural change happened really quickly and was forced upon a lot of people. It's a bit of a whiplash that's happening. And whatever we lost, good or bad it was ours. Exactly. Yeah. And one of the things that gets totally steamrolled is the Uppelman, which is is the Opelman, which is objectively good. Darling. It's a little guy.

A little friend. He's a little friend who keeps you safe. Yes. Yeah, he keeps you safe as you cross the busy, fucking streets. I just love him. So, heck housing the designer. He's of this new Brillenner status where he's like,

we're bringing shit together. We don't want to erase East Berlin. We want to preserve and understand this cultural exchange. So he starts collecting all of the dismantled and trashed implement and he starts building layups that he sells. There are pieces that he puts in his. Yeah, and they're really rad and, you know, he like industrial designs them so they're cool and hip. It's a conversation piece. People ask you what's that about and you're like, well, what have you spined you a yarn? Yeah, and somebody sees it and says, hey, that cousin, do you want to meet the guy who designed that. Do you want to meet Carl? Do you want to meet Carl Ampleman? At first Carl is a little suspicious. I mean we talked about that cultural whiplash happening.

He's like oh this guy from West Berlin. I don't know. They meet and they have a coffee. They totally hit it off. And they decide that they're going to start collaborating on a book about Amplement, about his history, like how Carl came up and decided and how it went through all these committees and made it to the streets, right? And how it was starting to come down as West Berlin was taking over used. The book was published and it automatically gained a devout following and it caught the attention of quite a few politicians who decided, you know what, why are we taking the Umpelmen down? Like this is really kind of silly. And there's actually even some study that is done specifically on the visual psychology of the Amploman.

Dr. Claudia Pesce of Jacob's university stated in her study on the visual effectiveness of the Amploman quote, are finding show that the East German Amplomanchin, which is the old kind of an old name for man, Munchen. The Amplomanchin are not just iconic of the East German nostalgia, but actually have an advantage over the West German Opel Munchen in terms of the signal being perceived. It's a bright, it's a bigger light, and you trust it more because you like it, because it's a little guy. You're going to pay attention. They stopped dismantling the lights

you're gonna pay attention. They stopped dismantling the lights in what was the former East Berlin. And they actually start installing the filters, because all it is is actually like a stencil filter. Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought. It's really not that hard of an installation. You could slide that bitch in and twist it. Yeah, exactly, just like the nipple ring.

Yeah. And they start installing them in West Berlin, on West Berlin streets. They don't have the budget to kind of replace them carte blanche, but as each one needs a repair, they install it with this new implement. Carl Paglou, he and Marcus Huckhausen, I love that name.

They go ahead and decide to start a business together. At this point, Carl's a little bit older and Hacker House is kind of prime time ready to go. That was even close that day, isn't it? Oh my God, how did it? Wow. Josie's reading off a bunch of giant calendar pages. It's really cool.

Those things are tall. They're like it in charge. This was a mistake. It was a piece of character. There we go. Like Nipple put your things. I was just saying, Appleman. That's right.

So Marcus and him go into business and they create the ample man brand. Carl agrees for the use of the copyright to be used by Marcus in the business, but he also maintains control of the license. So it's not quite a 50-50 because Marcus has more time on his hands and wants to start this business. And Carl is a little more in the retired seat. But he's still part of the business. He still shows up to the office that they've built, brings cookies, brings fruit, super

excited. And they have this really lovely friendship that's built around preserving and propagating this Amplemand symbol, which is becomes a symbol of positive reunification. In 2009 at 82 years old Karl Paglau passes away, but his widow is still an integral part of the company and there are shops set up all over Berlin and across Germany that are specifically Ampelmann branded stores.

And you can find anything and everything that you would want to have the Ampelmann on. Like t-shirts, keychains, oven mitts, tote bags, snow gloves. Temporary Ampelmann tattoos. Do people have Ampliment tattoos? I would guess probably so. I mean, you probably Google it and see.

T-pose on the one calf and do-do on the other. Oh my God, are the back of your elbows? Yeah. That'd be so cute. Yeah, it's definitely a symbol of Berlin. Cool. I didn't know about it. I've never been to Berlin.

That's really cool. No, they're not. Apparently the first Umpelman shop was set up at the intersection where the first Umpelman light was installed too. The corner of Umpelman. Yeah, exactly. Right. Where the piercing shop is too. Yeah. Cross from the piss store. Yeah. It's June. It's Friday. I can see whatever I want. It's true. Yeah, okay. Let's go with that.

The design team, they have a very devoted international team that concentrates on innovation and preservation of the Berlin icon. And so they do like high quality kind of innovative stuff. It's not just like the kicksy Cheepy stuff they really try and maintain the brand of the Opelman as a part of preservation and as a part of I mean considering that Marcus started as a designer. It is meant to be innovative in a design way. Yeah, it is dude. Good design is really hard and to design something that this many people respond to and to design something that is like... Exactly.

...becomes a piece of cultural iconography on this scale. It's not easy. No, not at all. And what's also kind of funny too is that this product of communist social design, like carefully planned out, like public psychological testing and all of this consideration has now become this capitalist icon, right? And I'll give Carl Pegglau the last word on why the implement has preserved as a symbol. And he said, presumably, it is due to their special and almost indescribable aura of human sociability and warmth

that so many people feel pleasantly touched and addressed by these symbolic figures, and that they find in them a chunk of honest identification with history, which gives the ample mention the right to represent the positive aspects of a failed social order. I like his hat. He's a little guy. It was just a little buddy. He's got a place to be, but only the bottom one. The top guy, no. He's got nowhere better to be. He's just

all in everybody back on the side. He's like, listen, guys, there's nothing to see here. And I love looking for things to distinguish us from one another that are not just racism. Like, I love you. You know what I mean? I love that this is a difference that like that is completely unproblematic that they just have a little guy who beckons them across the street. Yeah, yeah. And considering too, you know, like East Berlin and West Berlin, it was very contentious like trying to cross it from East West west. It was, there were many people who died trying to get out of east Berlin. And then when reunification happened, there was a lot of erasure. Ampleman being, he could have been a victim of that erasure.

And then it's a result of a friendship between an East Berliner and a West Berliner. It's pretty cool. Reunification. Another symbol. Wow, Jesus Christ, hear that? Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall. Pierce your nobles, connect the West. Gorbachev, if it was good enough for Reagan and Gorbachev to get their nipples pierced to each other, it's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's good enough for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Telling yes, I have I have warned Josie that the first three fifths of this episode are gonna be a bit heavy And then it'll chill out near the end and I'll give you that same warning because I gave it to her You're welcome Josie

Taylor the transatlantic slave trade. Oh, yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I told you I told you Get in this is just just sink in Just like it's we're going there together and it's an important story. Okay, drop drop the shoulders. Drop the shoulders is going to be some cruel shit coming. Okay, I'm ready. The transatlantic slave trade originated in the 1400s as so-called explorers from Portugal spain the Netherlands and other European countries kidnapped and enslaved African people and brought them to other lands. In the 17th century enslaved people began to arrive in the Americas and earnest to be put to work on the sugar plantations of the Caribbean as well as the tobacco plantations of what would become the Chesapeake Virginia area of the United

States. Okay, tobacco, that's right. This trade boomed in the 18th century, which saw three fifths of the total transportation of African slaves to the Americas. The slave trade, I should say, not the tobacco trade, although I'm sure they were intertwined in their boom. The treatment of these enslaved people was obviously atrocious. Yeah. We will go into that in further detail later in the episodes to be aware that we will be frankly discussing all kinds of racist violence, as well as using a specific terminology that is now widely seen as offensive. But for now, suffice it to say these people were abused mentally, emotionally, verbally, physically, sexually, socially, legally, medically.

The list goes on. Yeah. Typically with no consequences to their abusers, who viewed them as less than human. And the law, the entire institution. Oh, and supported structurally every step of the way, which again, we will of course go into. At this time, according to a free slave named Henry Brown, there's a version of Adam and Eve that the Christian creation myth told by the slavers that incorporates the idea that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they had two

black servants, a man and a woman to kind of wait upon them. Jesus. But of course in the Garden of Eden where all the beautiful fruit just like falls decadently off the bush, you don't really need to be waited on, you have no need for servitude. And so Adam and Eve are kind of getting put out by being doded on, I guess. They ask God to basically give these people something to do. And God drops two bags, a big one and a little one, and the black man sprints towards them. And of course, because, you know, black people are by this logic more physically gifted than the white man. He gets the the bigger package and there's the shovel in the hoe, which denotes that God has chosen him for servitude.

And then the white man gets the pen and the paper and the ink, which is sort of like intelligence writing the laws, academic, you know, that sort of thing. And so it's this delusional creation myth that absolves the Christian slave owners of their cruelty to their fellow man. Totally. And around this time white psychologists are also struggling with understanding the mentality of their captives. A Dr. Samuel Cartwright writing an 1851 in Debose Review was the first to propose that many of these enslaved people were suffering from a mental disease known as draped mania. And draped mania is the unexplainable urge of slaves to run away from their captors and seek freedom.

Unexplankable. No one knows where it comes from. No one can say our studies have come up inconclusive. Yeah. Jesus. So he outlines its causes but proposes a solution. And now folks as I will probably continue to issue little warnings to it. This is like, outrageous pre-civil war heart of the tobacco trade southern racism in coming.

Yeah, yeah. It's pretty wild. Like at like 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10 racism in coming. Oh, maybe like a 12 out of 10. You know what? We were refining the scale every day. Yeah.

Quote. If the white man attempts to oppose the deities well by trying to make the Negro anything else than the submissive kneebender, which the Almighty declared he should be, or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow man by being cruel to him, the Negro will run away. But if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the scriptures,

he was intended to occupy, that is the position of submission, and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing toward him without condescension, the Negro is spelled bound and cannot run away. So just some really intense, terrible psychological racism happening here. Yeah. One wonders how Dr. Cartette was able to make psychological sense of his own lack of empathy

if you ever interrogated that he might also want to escape another man's captivity should he find himself in that situation. But perhaps he also wrote that article and it simply didn't pass the debows review board sniff test. Who knows? But Josie today, I'm gonna tell you the story of a man Afflicted by extreme drapedomania that is to say a slave who got the fuck out of there. Yeah In fact, I already mentioned him before his name is Henry Brown, Henry. At the time of his escape from slavery, he is a 34-year-old man living in Richmond, Virginia. After his escape, he will go on to become a prominent abolitionist and public speaker. And without giving too much away, the thing that distinguishes Henry's story from other similar

slavery-escape narratives, and what makes it it infamous is the unusual means by which he pulls off his disappearing act. Intrigued. Let me tell you a little bit more about our man, Henry Brown. Okay, thank you. The majority of what I tell you today comes from Henry's own account written in 1851. He also released another version in 1849, ghostwritten by a guy another abolitionist named Charles Sterns.

Okay. I don't know if Henry had help on this later edition, but in my preliminary research, the 1851 book was said to be less lyrical, more straightforward and easier for a modern reader to follow. So that's what I read. Oh, nice, good idea. It is a memoir of Henry Brown's life and times up until his escape from slavery, but it is also an

anti-slavery polemic. It's a piece of rhetoric meant to sway the sympathies of its readers at a time when white Americans were becoming more attuned to the plight of black slaves. Yeah. And Henry will often directly appeal to the reader about the injustice of his experiences. He'll like, he'll, he'll, something will happen, he'll like turn to the reader about the injustice of his experiences. He'll like, he'll, something will happen, and he'll like turn to the reader and be like, my dear bitch, I ask you. You're like, what did this seem fair to you? Sorry, came out 1851, so he's...

Yes, yes. Okay. Last and certainly not least, it is a blistering takedown of white Christians who traffic in slavery. Yeah. Henry Brown, he he he he he heite he ever met who beat the Bible and then beat their slaves who fanned horror at the idea of breaking up families by selling them separately

and did just that. Yeah. Throughout this story, there's a lot of deeply unscrupulous stealing of money and resources from black people by white people always cloaked in false bono me, or manipulation, or preaching, or just ball-faced lies. I've exercised a lot of the specifics there for time, but know that throughout the book, Henry comes off as totally justifiably deeply embedded by his experiences

with the white Southern Christianity of the time. Yeah, yeah, I can't imagine. That's like... Yeah, God. Fucking wild. Well, let me fill in Okay Henry Brown is born in 1815 possibly 1816 in Louisa County, Virginia on a plantation called hermitage 45 miles from Richmond

He enters the world a slave born to slaves at a time when slavery is too vastly oversimplify, broadly abolished in the northern states, but still practiced in the south. Yes, and I think it's probably worth noting it's abolished in a lot of other countries too. A lot of the European countries that started the slave trade and propagated it, it's no longer part of their economic systems anymore.

A note on terminology, I've noticed lately a move toward using the phrase in slave person over slave because it emphasizes the subject's humanity more. If at various times during the story, Henry or I or Josie describe someone as a slave, always remember that is a human being. When we talk about laws that allow slavers to whip slaves, we are talking about laws that allow certain human beings to own other human beings as property and assault them with a whip without repercussion. These laws were sadistic in their cruelty, though they would not have been perceived that way by

the people whom they benefited, because white supremacy holds the white people are basically justified in doing whatever the fuck they want to anyone at any time. For example, Henry's book cites many laws that, because it's an anti-slavery polemic, he's listed a lot of the most brutal laws of like, again, my dear bitch, I ask you is this fair. Yeah. This one from South Carolina is the one that I chose as an example here. Quote, if a slave, when absent from his plantation, refused to be examined by any white person,

no matter what the moral character of such white person, or for what purpose he wishes to make the examination, such white person may chastise him. And if in resisting his chastisement, he should strike the white person, by whom he is being chastised, he may be killed. They lay out in the law that you can be any shitty person you want as long as your wife. Yeah, yeah, they specified that too. Yeah. Young Henry Slave owner isn't much for the whip though. He seems to be of the pseudo benevolent sort outlined by Dr. Cartwright who treats his slaves politely in an attempt to inspire all in them.

Uh-huh-huh-huh. Another kind of evil, a more like... Yeah, a gross, almost... The indirect evil of saccharin plausible deniability like it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not necessarily grosser It's just gross and such a different way yeah quoting Henry in his 1851 book Our master was uncommonly kind for even a slaveholder may be kind and as he moved about in his dignity He seemed like a god to us, but notwithstanding his kindness, although he knew very well what superstitious notions

we formed him, he never made the least attempt to correct our erroneous impression, but rather seemed pleased with the reverential feelings which we entertained toward him. Exactly, yeah, it was calculated. Yeah, it was calculated. It probably made him feel better about himself. There's a lot in there.

Yeah. Henry has led to believe that his master, who's named Macon Find, creates thunder and the master's son is the savior of Jesus until he overhears a conversation at church that contradicts this and then his mom asked to set him straight. Oh, so as a young kid. Yeah, yeah, we're taught, he's a really young kid

at this point in the story. Yeah. Oh, man Henry grows up waiting on his master and mistress getting trained in the work of a plantation slave and living with dread as all slaves do of Being parted from his family and auctioned off to a stranger at any moment Henry and his brother take the grain to a mill in town like a couple times a year. And by doing that, they're able to interact with other slaves who do the same, they're able to get information about the world outside of their square of property. Yeah. In his encounters in this town, Henry and his brother often meet very cruel people, but also less commonly kinder people in the form of emancipated slaves and sympathetic white folks. They encounter other slaves who live in squalor and misery and have terrible

clothes and are forced to inbreed amongst themselves because their slaver won't let them leave the property. Yeah, it's very fucked. The slavers also frequently abuse their female slaves, says Henry. The greater part of slaveholders are licentious men, and the most respectable and kind masters keep some of these slaves as mistresses. It is for their peculiarity and interest to do so as their progeny is equal to so many dollars and cents in their pockets. Instead of being a source of expense to them, it would be the case if their slaves were

free. It is a horrible idea, but it is no less true than no slave husband has any certainty whatever of being able to retain his wife a single hour, neither has any wife, any more certainty of her husband, their fondest affection may be utterly disregarded and their devoted attachment cruelly ignored at any moment a brutal slaveholder may think fit. Whew, yeah. So as time goes on, Henry's slave's son emancipates 40 slaves to a free state. So Henry starts to become hopeful

that maybe freedom is in his own future. Right. Instead, when the slaveowner passes away, rather than emancipating the Browns upon his death, he splits the family up amongst his four sons as inheritance. Yeah, Henry, his mother and his sister Jane are separated from their other children and siblings and end up with the owner's son William in what Henry calls the most severe trial to his feelings he

has ever endured. And so Henry's story in general is atypical because he doesn't endure much physical abuse as a result of his status as a slave. He seems to have been like relatively well treated, relatively doing a lot of heavy lifting there, no slave is well treated, but he seems to have been relatively well treated by his various slavers. He says he was only ever whipped once, but he emphasizes that like, there are scars that are not physical that have been visited upon me. Yes, oh yeah. Quote. I was that only 15 years of age, but it is as present in my mind as if,

but yesterday, Sun had shone upon the dreadful exhibition. My mother was separated from her youngest child, and it was not till after she had begged as present in my mind as if but yesterday's sun had shone upon the dreadful exhibition. My mother was separated from her youngest child and it was not till after she had begged most pitiously for its restoration that she was allowed to give it one farewell embrace before she had to let it go forever. This kind of torture is a thousand fold more cruel and barbarous than the use of the lash was gelacerates the back, the gashes which the whip or the cow skin makes may heal, and the place which was marked in a little while may cease to exhibit the signs of what it

had endured. But the pangs which elacerate the soul, in consequence of the forcible disruption of the parent, and the dearest family ties only grow deeper and more piercing as memory fetches from a greater distance, the horrid acts by which they have been produced. And I think that speaks to one of the really nefarious things about these kind of cultural genocides is you're breaking up families. How do you recover from being wrenched away from your mother or your wife or your son? Yeah. That's so hard. Fortunately for Henry, William, the son of Henry's former sliver, has received special charge from his father

to take good care of him and not whip her abuse him. So as we were just saying, as long as I'm comparatively better than others in his position, but he's still enslaved. He's working in a tobacco factory enrichment owned by the former master's son. During his time under Williams charge, Henry goes through a lot of overseers, some cooler than others. One of them is a real piece of work named John

F. Allen, whom he names and shames Leslie. He describes Allen as giving one slave 200 lashes for being too sick to work and hitting another in the face with a Bible for being late with a bot Bible Alan is among the many pious slaveholders whose hypocrisy Henry Lowe's He says amongst mr. Alan's other religious offices He held that of superintendent of the Sunday school where he used to give frequent

Exortations to the slaves children and referenced their duty to their master. He told them they must never disobey their master nor lie nor steal for if they did any of these They would be sure to go to hell It's evil. Yeah, it is just pure and That's evil. That's evil. Yeah, it is. Just pure and... That's evil. That's evil. And so deep in. And we're still trying to shake it off. Yeah.

Yeah. The best of us are still trying to shake it off. The worst of us are trying to bring it back. So eventually Henry meets a fellow slave Nancy, whose slave owner, Mr. Lee, works at the bank. Henry pays Lee off, so he won't sell Nancy, which Lee agrees to. Browns get married, and within a year, Mr. Lee sells Nancy away to a Sadler named Joseph Colquette. But he wasn't supposed to. Yeah, well, oh, there's no consequences. It became financially expedient

or he had a whim or who knows. He did that like so much of black people's lives in places like this. At that time, we're subject to the whims of people who did not have their best interests at heart, right? Yeah. Colquitt's wife becomes jealous of Nancy and abuses her, especially after Nancy becomes pregnant with the

the first kid that she and Henry will have. I saw some sources say they had two. I saw others say they had three. Okay. Here is an account of Henry's time with the Colquets that I'll read in his own words with apologies for some of the racial language yet again. Quote, to my surprise Joseph Colquets sent my wife to tell me to come and speak with him. I immediately left my room and went to his bedside, and as soon as he saw me, he caught hold on my hand and said, Henry,

Will you pray for me and ask the Lord to spare my life and restore me to health? I felt it my duty to do the best I could in asking the Lord to have mercy upon him, because although he was a slaveholder and a very cruel man and had used my wife very badly, yet I had no right to judge between him and his God. So I knelt down by his bedside and prayed for him. After I got up, that's a big fucking man. Yeah. Slashy is probably legally obligated to and could die if he doesn't. Right, exactly.

legally obligated to and could die if he doesn't. After I got up, he caught hold of my arm again and said, one more favor I have to ask of you. Go and tell all my slaves that belonged to the Church to come and pray for me. I went, according to his request, and we prayed three nights with him. After our work was done, and although we needed to rest ourselves, yet at the earnest desire of the apparently dying man we were induced to forego our rest and to spend our time in comforting him. At the end of this time he began to get a little better and in a few weeks he was able to sit at a table and to take his meals with the family. I happened to be at his house one day at our breakfast hour.

After he got quite well and his wife appeared as if she wished to joke her husband about the colored people praying for him when he was sick. Mrs. Colquette had been expelled from the Baptist Church, and since that time she had disliked religion. She pretended that she not believe either in God or the devil, and went on at such a rate, plaguing Mr. Colquette about the Negroes praying for him that he grew angry at last and exclaimed with an oath that it was all lies about the Negroes praying for him. He denied asking any person to pray for him, and he said that if he did ask the Negroes praying for him. He denied asking any person to pray for him, and he said that if he did

ask the Negroes to pray for him, he must have been out of his senses and did not, at the time he spoke, remember anything about it, but his wife still persisting in what she said he went to the back door and calling his slaves in one at a time asked them who it was that prayed for him until he got the names of all of those who had been considered in the affair, and when he had done so, he whipped every one of them, which said he had prayed as Mrs. Colquitt had stated. What the fucking fuck? Isn't that the worst thing you've ever heard? What the fucking fuck? Can you imagine demanding people pray for you on your deathbed and then you survive and your wife teases you about it?

So you have them physically maimed. That's fucking disgusting. It's just like the like psychological headspace of that. It's just like what? What? When? Where? Why? Why? It's so confusing. Oh my god. And so Henry, as I mentioned, he doesn't get whipped here because this isn't Colquitt cat whip him. He's not Colquitt's slave. Right. But Colquitt does find a way to punish him. He sells Nancy to a man named Samuel Catrell.

Catrell for praying for him on his death pet. Catrell borrows money off Henry for the purchase, promising to sell the family back to Henry. He of course renags on this and sells the entire family away at auction. Quote, this quoting Henry, I had not been many hours in my work when I was informed that my wife and children were taken from their home, sent to the auction Martin sold, and then lay in prison ready to start away for the next day for North Carolina with the man who had purchased them. I'd not proceeded far however when I met with a gentleman

who, perceiving my anguish of heart, as depicted in my countenance, inquired what was the matter with me. I had no sooner hinted at my circumstances however than he knew all about it, having heard it before. He advised me not to go to the jail. Four said he, that man that bought your wife and family has told your master some falsehoods and has ordered the jailer to seize you and put you in prison if you should make your appearance there. Oh. When you would most likely be sold separately from them

because the Methodist minister that bought your wife does not want any men. So, being thus advised, I thought it better not to go to the jail myself, but I procured a friend to go in my stead and take some money in the things which I had purchased for my wife, and tell her how it was that I could not come myself. And it turned out, in the end, to be much better than I did not go, for as soon as the young man arrived at the jail, he was seized and put in prison the jailer mistaking him for me. Oh. But when he discovered his mistake, he was very angry and vented his rage upon the innocent youth by kicking him out of the prison. He discovered his mistake by asking my wife if that were not her husband. She said he was not, but he was not satisfied with her answer for he asked the children

also if that were not their father. And as they too said no, he was convinced and then proceeded to abuse the young man in the manner before mentioned. So Henry makes some final attempts to buy back his family, but he gets turned away. Quote, my agony was now complete, she with whom I had traveled journey of life and change for the space of 12 years and the dear little pledges got it given us. I could see plainly must now be separated from me forever and I must continue desolate alone to drag my chains through the world.

Eventually Nancy and the kids get sent off to North Carolina. Henry's able to have one last encounter with Nancy as she and the other purchase slaves are being shuffled off. Quote, my wife under the influence of her feelings jumped aside. I seized hold of her hand. While my mind felt unutterable things and my tongue was only able to say, we shall meet in heaven. I went with her for about four miles hand in hand, but both our hearts were so overpowered with feeling that we could say nothing. And when at last we were obliged to part the look of mutual love

which we exchanged was all the token which we could give each other. So now Henry's without his family he's on bad terms with his slaver because of the lies that have been spoken on his character. Yeah. He thinks predictably only of his freedom. The drapedomania is becoming more acute. Henry has a friend, James C.A. Smith. He's a free black man who's an abolitionist and a conductor in the underground railroad. So he starts to scheme his escape. One day he's talking to another friend, a sympathetic white shoemaker named Samuel Smith, no relation to James,

about his escape plans and Smith agrees to help facilitate his escape for I saw 83 to 86 dollars about half a hemorrhuse money. Oh wow yeah it's a lot of money. But we still don't have a plan for escape until quoting Henry as if from above they're darted into my mind these words go and get a box and put yourself in it. All right, baby. Narlie, dude. He's escaping. This is this is the story of a slavery escape via box. I love it.

I love it. Wooden box, cardboard. I guess cardboard is not really a thing. No, we didn't have it yet. We're talking about what kind of sauce. We just got mail. A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a with whom he is able to kind of make contact through his abolitionist friends. Uh-huh. He will mail himself to the Philly office

of Quaker Merchant and White Sympathizer Passmore Williamson. Okay. Disguised as a creative drag goods. Ooh, drag goods. Delicious drag goods. Uh-huh, oats, yeah. Yeah.

He asks his shopkeeper friend Samuel Smith to accompany the delivery and make sure the package is placed right side up. Smith consents, although as it later turns out, he does not fulfill his duties. In order to have an excuse not to do his slave, where a Henry acquires some oil of vitriol and applies it to his hand and of oil of vitriol is, of course, an old timing name for sulfuric acid. Oh, fuck. By burning his hand to the bone. Oh, bones!

We're talking bones! Bones and bones. Henry is now off the hook for completing his work. Oh my god. He and his co-conspirators procure a box, three feet long, two feet wide, and two and a half feet high. No, no. I saw an article in Humanities, which is the magazine of the National Endowment Humanities. It described it as half the size of the casket. Yeah, yeah, it seems like half a casket, yeah. Which I really appreciate

because I was having a really hard time figuring out something to compare it to the closest. I got this park bench and it wasn't quite right. Yeah, because you have a casket. It feels right. Yeah, the only way you could get in there would be to kneel and then kneel down and then put your head down. He's like lying down kind of crouched up. He's six feet, he's 200 pounds, he's not a small dude. Oh my God. And he can't even really like, it should the box get displaced.

He can't even like really sit up or whatever position you go in, and that's how you're riding it out, basically. Yeah, there's no way to flip around in that. Yeah. In order to stave this off, Henry and his collaborators have gone galaxy brain, they've marked the box this side up with care. I'm also remembering that his hand is burned to the bone. So he's just a little, he's a little pickle with this gnarly flesh wound.

Tite,ite,ite,cookookoo. Oh my god. I thought we were going to say he like found some sedative. And he would just be asleep for the whole time. Oh no, he's got like some biscuits and some water and not much else. Oh god. and water and not much else. Oh, good. Quoting Henry. On the morning of the 29th day of March 1849, I went into the box.

Oh, good. Having previously bored three gimlet holes opposite my face for air. Smart. And provided myself with a bladder of water both for the purpose of quenching my thirst and for wetting my face, should I feel getting faint? Ah. I took the gimlet in order that I might bore more holes if I found I had not sufficient air. That's very smart. I thought that was very clever as well.

Being thus equipped for the Battle of Liberty, my friends nailed down the lid and had me conveyed to the express office. Express, please, yes. Adams Express Baby, which was about a mile distant from the place where I was packed. No sooner had I arrived at the city again, no sooner. I think that's just, just everything happens instantly to this port. I had no sooner arrived at the office than I was turned heels up

that some person nailed something on the end of the box. Oh God. I was then put in a wagon and driven off to the depot with my head down, and I had no sooner arrived at the depot than the man who drove the wagon tumbled me roughly into the baggage car, where, however, I happened to follow my right side. Oh, thank God, okay, yeah.

So this happens a few times through Henry's journey that he's left upside down for an hour or more. Oh my God. I'll let Henry put into relief how that felt. Quote, I felt my eyes swelling as if they would burst from their sockets. Oh, cool. And the veins and my temples were dreadfully

distended with the pressure of blood upon my head. In this position, I attempted to lift my hand to my face, but I had no power to move it. I felt a cold sweat coming over me, which seemed to be awarding that death was about to terminate my earthly miseries, Jesus. That's awesome. That's a for, ugh.

My cry was soon heard for I could hear a man saying to another that he had traveled a long way and had been staying there two hours and would like to get somewhere to sit down. So perceiving my box, standing on it, just threw it down and the two sat upon it. I was thus relieved from a state of agony, which may be more easily imagined than described.

To conclude, he says, I could now listen to the men talking and heard one of them asking the other, what do you suppose the box contained? His companion replied that he guessed it was the male. I too thought it was a male, but not such a male as he's supposed to be. That's good. I'm glad.

I'm very glad. There's a little Henry fun happening. Henry, Henry's out here. Yeah. It turns out when you get him in the right circumstances, these aren't the right circumstances. Writing the book was the right circumstances. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Writing the box wasn't, wasn't exactly it, but it was closer. Yeah. Yeah. Once you get him out of the tobacco factory, note of the box, it turns out he's a pretty lighthearted guy. Oh. Henry talks about overhearing a conversation

where one handler employs another to handle the package with care, pray the instructions in the box. Yeah. And another replies that if whatever is inside breaks, the railway company will be able to pay for it. Quote, no sooner. Were these words spoken?

No, shoot! No sooner. Were these words spoken? Then I began to tumble from the wagon and falling on the end where my head was I could hear my neck give a crack as if it had been snapped a sunder and I was knocked completely insensible oh my god he fainted whatever he was I think he was like a yeah Bob just head you know, yeah, the little birdies flying. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Another tribulation, the box almost gets left behind. This is a, so this is like a long six or seven leg journey by wagon by train by, you know, like, there's a bunch of ways this is happened by ship. Oh my God. Box almost gets left behind, quote, pretty sooner, or someone say, there is no room for this box that will have to remain behind. I then again, applied to the Lord,

my health and all my difficulties in a few minutes I heard a gentleman direct the hands to place it aboard as it came with the mail and it must go on with it. Yes. Ah. Finally, after many pit stops, Henry ends up in Philadelphia, as I said, this particular Sam Smith didn't stay with me.

So Henry has traveled on a company, you know, welcome. But to make up for it, Smith sends a message to his friend to pick up the box at the station, so Henry's not stuck there overnight. Oh, okay, good. Yeah, at least there's that. Yeah, these small mercies, right? Yeah. The members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee are now in possession of the box which contains shroding or slave and so far as they have no way of knowing whether this man is alive or dead. I heard a man say, let us wrap up, this is Henry now, let us wrap upon the box and see if he is alive and immediately are rap and sued and a voice said tremblingly. Is all right within, I don't know why they're British.

To which I replied, all right, the joy of the friends was very great when they heard that I was alive. They soon managed to break open the box and then came my resurrection from the grave of slavery. I rose a free man, but I was too weak by reason of long confinement in that box

to be able to stand. So I immediately swooned away. Oh, yeah, no, I beg just like when you sit too long in one position, you crash your legs, you stand up and you're like, oh, yeah, I bet. Oh, my God, but that's like the nth degree. Which has got to suck because he's been imagining the moment he gets out of the box so long and he says the cool thing and everyone's like yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's embarrassing. I understand.

I know. I know no one would hold it against him, but you know, after my recovery from the swoon, the first thing which arrested my attention was the presence of a number of friends, everyone seeming more anxious than another to have an opportunity of rendering me their assistance and of bidding me a hearty welcome to the possession of my natural rights. And Henry then breaks into a song that he's prepared to see again. He had, he has a song plan. He has a time in the box, yeah.

I've had a lot of time in the box. He has a song plan and he's like, I just got to get out the song before I faint and it didn't work out that way. Yeah. Henry then breaks into a song he's prepared based on song 40 in the Bible and it goes in part. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my calling.

In the end, Henry traveled in his box for 27 hours and 350 miles. Word of the extraordinary escape begins to circulate among the abolitionist circles of the north. Henry's exploits are passed along via letters in the mail, appropriately. Yeah. And he appears at anti-slavery conferences across New England to tell his story. In one of them, he is re-criscined with the name that will follow him into infamy. Henry Box brown. Okay.

Oh, baby. The box, duh. But just box. No, box, B-O-X, Henry box brown. Okay, all right, we love an X. It's a cool letter. Yeah. With the help of Charles Sterns, he publishes the first written

account of his saga, narrative of Henry box brown who, who escaped from slavery and closed into Box three feet long and two wide written from a statement of facts made by himself with remarks upon the remedy for slavery. Great title. Yes. Goes off the tongue. Uh-huh. In 1851 he publishes another narrative of the life of Henry Boxbrown written by himself, which is my primary source for this episode. Right, spreads far and wide much to the chagrin of Henry's

new acquaintance legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who says, had not Henry Box Brown and his friends attracted slave-holding attention to the manner of his escape, we might have had a thousand Box Browns per annum. Oh no. What are you gonna do about that? Henry needs to get his bag also. Yeah, he needs the middle name. Uh, I mean. It's branding. It's branding. I get it, I get the unease. But also, you know, the book is written and it becomes a piece of literature,

abolitionist literature, that maybe some person in Pittsburgh Reddit and was like, damn, that's cool. I'm gonna do more in my efforts to help the abolitionist movement. Who knows? For sure. Henry's work with the abolitionist movement

doesn't really stop there. Him and James C.A. Smith, who's the guy who aided him in his escape, collaborate on a tour with Henry, telling his story live with a swagger and showmanship that makes him a celebrity of the day. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Quoting Kevin Monkin for the National Endowment for Humanities, he rode between speaking engagements inside a box identical to the one that

had carried him from Virginia accompanied by marching bands in American flags before emerging on stage from the cramped conveyance. No. No, you're not going back? You're not going back in the box? You're not going back in the box? He gets back in the box and apparently he has shackles that he very theatrically breaks.

Whoa. And he presents scenes from his Mirror of Slavery, which is a painted canvas of 100, this article says 100 scenes. It's really like 49. Okay. 49 scenes mounted on two enormous spools, various iterations of the act which evolved into a kind of Vodville routine, following the end of slavery, were performed in the United States, England, and Canada for decades. Uh-huh.

The actual images of the panorama have unfortunately been lost to time. From primary sources on earth by scholar, Martha J. Cotter, we know that there were probably eight to ten feet high painted onto a canvas school primarily by abolitionist artist, Jiziah Wolcott. Tight. You may have noticed that our friend Henry leaves the States for a while there. Yeah. England and Canada.

England and Canada. England, Canada. That is, in part, because of the fugitive slave law of 1850. A federal law which requires even free states to assist in the capture of fugitive slaves. Right. An unsettled Henry takes a show to England where he performs several hundred anti-slavery shows a year. Damn. He meets and marries a white Cornish tin workers daughter named

Jane Floyd and the two started family. If you're wondering what about his other wife? What about Nancy? Well, it turns out based on recover letters from James C.A. Smith that in the year of Henry's escape 1849, Henry's wife's new slave owner offered to sell his family back to him, and Henry said no. He would never see Nancy and his American children again. So the crucial piece of context missing here is why he said no. Right. Because I feel like the reaction there is immediately like why wouldn't you do that?

Apparently it was a bit of a shameful spot for the abolitionist movement at the time and they kind of tried to hash it up because it wasn't a good look. That Henry wouldn't buy back his family? Yeah, yeah. With that said, I feel like there's so many times throughout this story that I guess Henry has been in financial hawk to white people Either promising not to sell his wife back or this could just be another fucking lying fucking white slave owner to him right like he has no Reasons to keep throwing good like I couldn't and I couldn't find why I really really wanted to know why

Yeah, that's interesting. How do he married the English woman at that point? Not yet. Not yet. No, not yet. This was the year. This was the year that he wrote the box to Philadelphia. Yeah, that is interesting. Yeah, I think my initial reaction would be like, yeah, he just didn't trust that it was even a good deal, that it would, it would never have happened anyway. And he knew. Yeah, I have I but I have no idea it would it would just be like speculation yeah but fuck it's it's it seems like an important piece of the story right so I regret that yeah yeah I bet there's some scholars out there trying to dig it up too um regardless in England Henry starts a new family and begins to drift away from

abolitionist and slavery based content to more conventional feats of theater and magic the prestige if you like. There we go. Okay. A guy named E.G. Burton writes several plays especially for Henry to perform. Henry becomes a mesmerist and a conjurer. Okay, all right. With stage names including including the King of All Mesmerists, the African Chief, and Dr. Henry Brown, Professor of Electro Biology. I like that one. That one's my save. Meanwhile, in 1863, back in the Civil War,

Racked United States, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, permanently freeing 3.5 million enslaved African Americans. In 1875, after the wars died down Henry and his new family returned to the US with a group magic act. There are also reports documenting an act called the Brown Family Jubilee Singers, or Professor Box Brown's Trubidor Jubilee singers. And this is probably Henry's attempt to cash in on the popularity of touring Jubilee singing performances of slave songs and Negro spirituals.

Yeah, so a Von Trapp family situation. Sure. Sure. Mixed race Von Trapp family. Yeah. That's the vibe. Boom. Okay. Unfortunately, Henry's not able to replicate his earlier successes and given his 20 year

absence from the country and the resolution of the war His fame from his slavery panoramidase has listen I have to be succinct for time, okay? Yes, okay If you want to see the resolution ongoing look outside. Yes His fame from his slavery panoramidase has all but disappeared because it is it is seen as a less pressing issue whether or not that's actually true.

Right. Yeah. Nonetheless, he performs pretty consistently as far as we know the Brown family ends up living in Ontario, Canada. Hey, hey, drink some maple syrup, take a shot. Um, Henry performs his last known show with his wife Jane and his daughter Annie in Branford, Ontario in 1889. Branford, yeah baby.

Beautiful Branford. Henry dies a free man in Toronto, Canada in 1897, and you can still visit his grave at the Necropolis cemetery if you wanna pay respects. Wow. Henry's story remains a subject of study, tribute and fictionalization. Scholars like Jeffrey Reggles and Martha J.

Carter have done much to honor with new information in a modern context through tirelessly producing old documents. It is perhaps the magical or spiritual component that carried the story in its day. The idea of this 200 pound six foot block guy unfolding out of this tiny box. Yeah. Yeah.

Having survived. The spectacle of it is pretty dark. The spectacle of it. Yeah. And having survived this trial and tribulation by the grace of Almighty God. Also, it sounds like you wrote a pretty slap in memoir too. Like. Wasn't bad. Quick read.

Yeah. Yeah. Nowadays, we're impressed by the ingenuity amused by the method and heartbroken by the totality of Henry's story. Yeah, but as we like to do on this show You just did a join the Memphis. I'll give Henry the last word. Yeah In the form of his own self-composed autobiographical song uncle Ned Oh I take Ned is short friend, I guess. Which details his voyage via the post, I won't sing it because I don't know the tune, but I'll reach it versus, and I'll end with the chorus.

I have composed the following song in commemoration of my Fet in the box. Here you see a man by the name of Henry Brown ran away from the south to the north, which he would not have done, but they stole all his rights, but they'll never do the like again. Then the orders were given and the cars did start away, roll along, roll along, roll along, down to the landing where the steamboat laid, a bear the baggage off to the north. When they packed the baggage on, they turned him on his head, their poor brown, liked to have died, their were passengers on board who wished to sit down, and they turned the box down on its side. When they got to the car as they

threw the box off, and down upon his head he did fall, then he heard his net crack, and he thought it was broke, but they never threw him off anymore. When they got to Philadelphia, they said he was in port and Brown then began to feel glad. He was taken on the wagon to his final destination and left this side up with care. The friends gathered Brown and asked if it was all right. As down on the box, they did rap. Brown answered them saying yes all is right. He was then set free from his pain. So here's the course. Okay. And this was this should be interspersed amongst all of those, but you know time. Yeah. Brown laid down the shovel in the hoe

Down in the box he did go no more slave work for Henry box brown in the box by express he did go Express baby the expresses you can't put a price on efficiency Mm-hmm, and of course you may recognize the shovel in the hoe that Henry mentions in that song from the bullshit Slaver version of the Adam and Eve story. Yeah. Henry has now swapped the shovel in the hoe for the pen, the ink and the paper of self-expression, which I think is a nice note to end. The story of Henry Boxbrown, a former slave and abolitionist, a mesmerist, a professor

of electro biology, a draped, dominion survivor, and the man who mailed himself to freedom. Gotta love getting mail, you know? Mail cheers everybody's day up. That's a gnarly story. I felt like it was important to tell. Yeah, yeah. Because I think that like,

I don't know, to some degree, people think of white supremacy as an abstract. No, this is a fucked up ideology that is completely devoid of empathy, that is arrogant to the extreme, that sees human beings as property as for a really gross shit. Yeah. We rebuke it in the name of the Lord here. You can put it in the speaking for me. No, I think

American history is pretty horrifying. Yeah And around that one it's a R2 R2. Yeah, yeah No, it's true. It's true history can be can be pretty horrifying and I think the tendency to Say like no, this is two bummers, veil, we're not going to talk about it is also it can be a racer, right? And that's no good either. There are important stories to resurface because I feel there's a thing that white people are very good at. Where we, where we kind of fainseability to avoid discussing awkward subjects or subjects in which we may bear culpability or whatever it is.

And so when we do this show, I want to as much as I cannot be part of that and resurface like, hey, racism isn't an abstract thing. It's brutal, rot that we're still trying to carve out of our society. Totally. Yeah. It's deep in there. Very deep in there. Yeah, I think the civility idea of like, well, it's just not proper to talk about race. That's so unuseful. Yeah, it's not helpful. But Henry Box was ready to take it on, dude. Henry Box Brown was gonna get out of that box and tell you all about it. I love you with that little tidbit about Frederick Douglass, who's like, dude, if you hate just shut up about the mother fuck box,

then you were the trial run. We needed to see if the box works. Boxes, yes! This could have worked. But it's also worth noting that Henry Brown had a lot of circumstances go right for him that could have gone wrong for him. Had those workers not tipped him on his side. If you are upside down forever, you will die. Yeah. Had any of any given set of workers left him overnight somewhere. You only had a limited amount of food and water, right? Right. Yeah. If he hadn't made it onto that boat, if whoever was supposed to...

Was that train or that wagon or whatever it was? Yeah. If whoever was going to pick him up, got somehow delayed by some other situation, then yeah. Do you want to see the little lithograph of Henry Box Brown coming out of his box and everyone being like a very startled? Yes, is it appear in his published book? Yes, it does it does do that He's looking pretty good for being in a box for 27 hours. I got to say if I were in a box for 27 hours, I also would not probably wear a bow tie and waistcoast. You just up to travel, it's very old school.

Yeah. I love how Henry box 2 is like looking straight at the viewer. Yeah, like can you believe this shit? I'm gonna break through, not only am I gonna break through this box, I'm gonna break through the fourth wall, boom, stale and true or so. I ask you my dear bitch, should I be in this box? I answer it now. No.

I'm getting out. Thanks for listening. If you want more in for me, we've got plenty more episodes that are sweet and for me.com. Or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the podcast, shoot us on Instagram at BittersweetInthMe. Or just past podcasts long to a friend you think would do it. Stay sweet. The sources that I used for this episode's minthness

were an article entitled, Umbalman, How a Little Communist Man, Concord the West, published in Experlinner.com, May 12th, 2019. I read an article called, Quaint Crosswalk Symbol, starts a German movement written by Carol J. Williams

in the Los Angeles Times, printed April 28th, 1999, and lastly, I looked at a series of articles on the Uppelman Berlin website. The sources I used for this week's episode were in the narrative of the life Henry Vox Brown written by himself. That was published in 1851 and archived online by documenting the American South, aka Docsouth, a digital publishing initiative sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I read Diseases in Pequilia Aronies and Negro Race by Samuel Cartwright and the Bows Review to pose Southern and Western states volume one in New Orleans 1851 access this via the PBS website Nacenjouvdron from a 1967 publication by A&S Press. Fugitive Mail, the deliverance of Henry Box Brown and Antebellum Postal Politics by Hollis Robbins in American Studies volume 50, issue 1 or 2 Spring Summer 2009, pages 5 to 25. I read this and up, the story of Henry Box Brown's escape from slavery

by Kevin Monkin and Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment Humanities, May June 2013, volume 34 number three. I read Will, the real Henry Box Brown, please stand up by Martha J. Cutter in commonplace, the Journal of Early American Life, is she's 16.1 fall 2015. I read the encyclopedia Britannica article on the Transatlantic slave trade and I

read the Wikipedia articles for Nat, Ternu's slave rebellion, the emancipation proclamation, draped domainia, the entry box for that. Thank you Jonathan Mountain for that monthly donation. We're a bittersweet him for me. He was a proud member of the Six Up Or Podcast Network. Our interstitial music is by Mitchell Collins, the son of your current assistant, and he's T Street by Brian Steele. Happy June Teeth to all our American listeners.