Forced Feminization in Prison

'Naked News' Picks Anchorwoman (CBS News)

Henry Box Brown - The First FedX'er

The box that arrived in Philadelphia that day was the plain-looking sort typically used to transport dry goods. Just over 3 feet long, it was 2 feet 8 inches deep and not quite 2 feet wide. Written on the side were the words “this side up with care.’’ Safe to say, the recipient of the box was not fully prepared for what was inside: a 200-pound man named Henry Brown.

As an African-American living in the South, Mr. Brown was a slave when he left Virginia on March 23, 1849, concealed in the box he had designed for this purpose.

When he arrived in Pennsylvania a day later, by express mail, he was a free man.Having himself shipped as if he were an order of dry goods was an audacious act to those eager to strike a blow against slavery. Yet, the story of Mr. Brown’s flight from slavery — several hours of which he endured upside down — never quite earned the recognition it deserved.

His is hardly a household name, and even the circumstances of his death have been lost to history. “I’ve never been able to find an obituary,’’ said Jeffrey Ruggles, a curator at the Virginia Historical Society who wrote one of the few treatise-length books on the topic, “The Unboxing of Henry Brown,’’ in 2003.

Civil rights leaders no doubt found Mr. Brown’s moxie inspiring, but some feared that publicity would only make it harder for other slaves to follow the same path to freedom.

A Flight to Freedom
An eye-witness account from the man who opened a box and found a human being inside. FOLLOW THIS LINE TO Annotated Letter and Other Records »

Certainly, that was true of James Miller McKim, the man who accepted delivery of the box. He shared a dramatic account of the event with a confidante, but urged him to keep it quiet. “And now I have one request for Heaven’s sake don’t publish this affair or allow it to be published,’’ Mr. McKim wrote, warning that it might “prevent all others from escaping in the same way.’’

To help correct this century-old oversight, the New-York Historical Society has made available to The New York Times, in celebration of Black History Month, its copy of the account that Mr. McKim wrote within days of Mr. Brown’s stepping out of the box and into his life.

“He came to me on Saturday morning last in a box tightly hooped, marked ‘this side up’ by overland express, from the city of Richmond!!’’ Mr. McKim wrote an associate in New York named Sydney Howard Gay. “Did you ever hear of any thing in your life to beat that? Nothing that was done on the Barricades of Paris exceeded this cool and deliberate intrepidity.’’

The letter, which you can read here or at the society’s library on 170 Central Park West, goes on to describe how Mr. Brown spent 27 grim hours entombed in a tight-fitting box that was tossed and turned repeatedly during the 350-mile journey.

Upside down at one point in a noisy freight car, Mr. Brown was able to shift enough to relieve the pressure on his head. But when it happened again on the steamboat ride, passengers were too close. He had to remain still for 20 miles or face detection. “This nearly killed him,” Mr. McKim reported.

To assure speedy delivery, Mr. Brown’s accomplices had hired Adams Express, a private shipper that promised next-day delivery from Richmond to Philadelphia.

Mr. McKim, a Philadelphia abolitionist whose son Charles became the noted New York architect, had agreed to accept delivery. But after one too many delays, he was fairly sure that any man transported in this manner would not have survived. He wrote that he could hardly “describe my sensations when in answer to my rap on the box and question – ‘all right?’ the prompt response came ‘all right sir.’ ”

As Mr. Brown later recounted in published narratives of his life, he continued on to Boston, adopted the middle name “Box” as a reminder of his ordeal and turned his deliverance from the box into something of a theatrical spectacle.

Mr. Ruggles said, “The good thing about that McKim letter was it was so early on, it is before Brown enhanced the story or improved it.’’

And while Mr. Brown’s tale thrilled the antislavery crowd and got picked up by some newspapers, Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist, decried those who had publicized details about the escape, making it unlikely that anyone else could replicate it.

Twice more, in fact, Mr. Brown’s accomplices in Richmond tried to ship human “cargo,” but failed, according to Mr. Ruggles. Alerted by the publicity, Adams Express had warned its agents to be “suspicious of boxes that emitted grunts” and “the two slaves on the second expedition were not as stoic as Henry Brown and gave out little noises.’’

It was not long before Mr. Brown was also back on the run. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had put him at heightened risk of being apprehended as a runaway slave. So he embarked for England later that year.

He was described as a “lodger” on this British census form the following March, as was James C.A. Smith, one of his accomplices from Richmond. He and Mr. Smith are each listed as an “antislavery advocate” on the form.

A ship manifest from 1875, archived at Ancestry.com, records a Henry Brown returning to the United States after the Civil War – this time, not as human cargo, but as something even more precious: a passenger.

Julie Chang - All Fine On All Coasts

Julie Chang of Fox 5 is way hot. But wait - there's another fine Julie Chang on the left coast. As an art dealer, this Julie is shakin' it up on the San Francisco art scene. Check her out online.

Are We On A Collision Course to World War III?

When you look at what's happening out there, when you read the front page of the major U.S. newspapers & sites, you will notice a few things one should at least take tacit note:

1) Tensions growing with Iran over its development of nuclear power and production capability.

2) Israel stepping up pressure on the U.S. and other nations, especially those of the UN Security Council, to move against Iran (sanctions supposedly, but destruction preferably).

3) A contradiction: apparent subtle but certain U.S. military buildup is occurring, while we are using our limited financial resources in the furtherance of "foreign policy interests" (that means the interests of the Corporate Ruling Class in English), while at the same time debate is going on in our domestic politics about needed domestic buildup (i.e. jobs, flow of money throughout the economy, economic security and development for all Americans, etc) and whether we can "afford these expenditures".

How does furthering Israel's Middle East interests further the needs of the citizens of the U.S.?

4) Obama sounding more and more like Bush. And with pitbulls like Clinton, Emmanuel and Summers on your team, how could you not have some Cheney-like wolf in the fold? The state of the Presidency at the moment, while I have the fullest faith and happiness in him being our President, is starting to look more like puppetry every day. We are being controlled - emphasize "CONTROLLED" - by the Corporate Ruling Class who dominates much of the world thru its various triads or other oligopolies that maintain regional order and flow of capital to further their interests throughout the world, places like Dubai, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, New York, Moscow, London, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Lagos, Buesnos Aires, Rio, Montreal, and all over the world where they hold geopolieconomic control.

These are but a few of my unfavorite things. I am very concerned about a world that is moving rapidly towards what might become a global war, a true world war, within the next ten years, perhaps as early as 2014. All elements point to the perception at least that the United States is currently agitating for a foreign policy win of some sort, most likely focused on that region of the world. Whether it be in Afghanistan, Pakistan (witness the Taliban leader caught in Peshewar yesterday), Iran, or in covert state in Dubai (like the possible Mossad/CIA/MI6 mission that assasinated the Hamas leader over the Valentines Day weekend), or Clinton's agitory remarks in Doha, Qutar the same weekend, there is agitation everywhere outside the U.S., while gridlock and no progress on the single most important issue of interest to the remaining 300 million of us; the work that needs to be done to provide a better standard of living for our citizens now, not to mention the millions of jobs and foreclosure saves needed by our families immediately!

Do you get a sense there's a miss of priorities here?

America needs to worry less about Iran getting the bomb, while not the best thing to happen it's also not for us to decide. Instead, America needs to worry a lot more about what to do about this economic mess we've created. This is not about just fixing up and building a safety net. This is about changing the formula of greed that we've pursued, putting some laws back in place that were broken (like we've been living thru a Toyota brake defect problem for the past 10 years), creating a consumer climate more in line with Americans putting Americans to work. If we manufactured and consumed more of what we made ourselves, we would promote small business growth, we would increase manufacturing and sales, thus creating more jobs to fill. Money would be generated by the growth in workers and economic activity (buy/sell/trade/exchage) - what could be simpler?

It is simple. The problem is we have more barriers in place against small sustainable economic growth that we do sanctions against Iran. The barriers are big business that is not in tune anymore with its people. Many of our businesses either go offshore, and many more are dependent on the foreign parts produced elsewhere to sell affordable products. We have so many barriers (local regulation-most often bribery & fees, trade agreements, lack of financing, etc) to domestic business and job development today that it would take a total shutdown of our borders for a year to figure it out. Nothing so drastic should be done, but we do need to build from inside more, and a lot less projecting our values to a disinterested planet outside.

They have a point: America, you need to clean your own house up first.

Bitch Assed Men Speech

you knew this was coming, if not by me by someone else. In fact that someone has come out. Check out this new You-Tube sensation Alexyss K. Tryor git her shit on and expressing what she's been wanting to say on here. Hit the title above to link up.

Lovelies in WInter Wonderland Upper East Side NY

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A cold and bitter day to have to be out & about. But not to make the worse of it, there were still a few sights to see. Yes, you see little as they're all crumpled up and bundled up, but I saw them and they look as good as you think.

Getting around New York in this blizzard is one thing. Making sure you take in the sights on the way is what counts!

Cold winds and snow all outside, sometimes in it and sometimes insulated under it in the subway, or insulated through it in a cab . . .

I'll take my chances but prefer to take it underground where's it's drier and warmer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 - IT'S WHAT YOU MAKE IT.

Well once again a new year and a way late post from me. sorry bout that. well now I might as well report that the New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl 44 last nite with a score of 31-17 over the Indianapolis Colts. They deserved it on so many levels, but most of all for the folks of post-Katrina Big Easy, and the strong and focused play of their athletes. they played well against a truly worthy and formidable opponent in the Indianapolis Colts.

Whatever you do out there this year, be good. Never give up. Remember it's not just you, but so many of you. So c'mon, let's give each other a helping hand, a shout-out, and whatever other help we can to all who need it in 2010. That's a happy new year!