Alexander McClure Sought freedom by shipping himself in box

From Indiana Historical Bureau: “On April 15, 1860, employees at the Seymour railroad depot discovered a damaged shipping box that contained Alexander McClure, a Black man seeking freedom from enslavement in Nashville, Tennessee.

McClure had been shipped in the box from Nashville, 229 miles away, with instructions for abolitionist Levi Coffin of Cincinnati to pick it up. Coffin strongly denied any knowledge of the escape plan. Adams Express Company agents took McClure to a Louisville jail, from whence authorities returned him to enslavement in Nashville.

Learn more about McClure’s story here: https://bit.ly/3NIE0H7

The image depicts the more famous 1849 escape of Henry “Box” Brown, and is courtesy of the Library of Congress.