Letters from Negro Leaders to Gerrit Smith
- Henry Box Brown
- places to annotate
but though my body has escaped the lash of the whip, my mind has groaned under tortures which I believe will never be related, because, language is inadequate to express them, but those know them who have them to endure, The whip, the cowskin, the gallows, the stocks, the paddle, the prison, the perversion of the stomach–although bloody and barbarous in their nature–have no comparison with those internal pangs which are felt by the soul when the hand of the merciless tyrant plucks from one’s bosom the object of one’s ripened affections, and the darlings who in requiring parental care, confer the sweet sensations of parental bliss.
Distinction between the body and mind, talk about black physicality and need to express oneself through the body
they robbed me of myself before I could know the nature of their wicked arts, and ever afterwards–until I forcibly wrenched myself from their hands–did they retain their stolen property.
What makes an art wicked? Element of deceit
I tried exceedingly hard to perform what I thought was my duty, and escaped the lash almost entirely, although I often thought the over seer would have liked to have given me a whipping, but my master’s orders, which he dared not altogether to set aside, were my defence; so under these circumstances my lot was comparatively easy.
Idea of performance and how it plays out in the behaviour of black Americans around white Americans- idea of speech we’ve discussed later on in class and how things are said
The story has built into it you can’t blame a slave for being cunning and calculating, there’s this critique of cunning and deception and lack of truthfulness and then there’s a living into it and doing something with it
On the one hand-something operating within and already wicked arts which doesn’t allow for much else and taking up a kind of artifice to fight artifice, there’s also a re-conception of what artifice can do
To appreciate fully the boldness and risk of the achievement, you ought to see the box and hear all the circumstances. The box is in the clear three feet one inch long, two feet six inches deep, and two feet wide. It was a regular old store box such as you see in Pearl-street;–it was grooved at the joints and braced at the ends, leaving but the very slightest crevice to admit the air. Nothing saved him from suffocation but the free use of water–a quantity of which he took in with him in a beef’s bladder, and with which he bathed his face–and the constant fanning of himself with his hat. He fanned himself unremittingly all the time. The “this side up” on the box was not regarded, and he was twice put with his head downward, resting with his back against the end of the box, his feet braced against the other,–the first time he succeeded in shifting his position; but the second time was on board of the steam boat, where people were sitting and standing about the box, and where any motions inside would have been overheard and have led to discovery; he was therefore obliged to keep his position for twenty miles. This nearly killed him.
The box itself and the idea of the liminal, I just think the above passage would be a good one to annotate because of its physicality
3) Briefly describe what kind of sources you are looking at (and/or intend to look at) in order to draft these annotations.
I think Brook’s discussion of the peristrephic revolution is one useful source to use in order to draft these annotations, as if we look into the history of how this narrative was staged it can indicate what Brown felt was important to highlight in the performance of the text. As such, I would need to look at newspaper articles or letters from around the time of the staging.
I also think it would eb useful to look at critics work who analyse what Henry Box Brown was achieving ‘outside the box’ in the context of antislavery. Some articles I have been looking at include:
Outside the Box: Henry Box Brown and the Politics of Antislavery Agency John Ernest
An International Fugitive: Henry Box Brown, Anti-Imperialism, Resistance & Slavery, Spencer Suzette
Letters from Negro Leaders to Gerrit Smith, In this I have found one letter addressed to Gerrit Smith by Henry Box Brown
4) How do your proposed annotations work together? Do they echo a similar aspect of the text? Do they complicate a particular aspect? Do they locate the text within a particular historical tension or within a particular political or theological question?
I think my proposed annotations are linked in terms of physicality, performance and artifice. I guess they work together in terms of how the performer utilises their physicality and artifice in order to perform or for what purpose they utilise such aspects. Daphne Brooks claims that Brown “exemplifies the role of the alienated and dislocated black fugitive subject” in the antebellum era, so I believe this is the particular historical/ political tension that is being explored.
5) What are you biggest questions/concerns in terms of conducting the research and gathering content for your annotations?
I think there is a wealth of information analysing Brown’s narrative in later contexts, however I’m concerned about finding sources around the time of writing and performance, I don’t really know where to look.
What are your biggest questions/concerns in terms of form and/or the technical side of presenting your annotations?
I think it would be cool to present my annotations in the style of the style we discussed Henry Brown used in the Colosseum theatre but I don’t really know how I’d go about doing this.
Just Playin' 
Leave a comment