Henry's Freedom Box



(Levine, E., & Nelson, K. (2007). Henry's freedom box. New York: Scholastic Press.)

Summary: Henry Brown was born into slavery. He married his love and they had three children. Henry yearned to be free but saw no easy way out. After Henry’s wife and children are sold away from him, Henry’s sadness fuels his imagination and he finds a very creative way to freedom.

Reading Level: Ages 4-8, Lexile AD380L

Key words/phrases:

1.      Slavery

2.      Freedom

3.      Creativity

4.      Family

5.      African Americans

Suggested Delivery: Read aloud

Electronic Resources:

1.  National Geographic The Underground Railroad: This interactive website guides you though the journey of a slave traveling through the underground railroad to freedom.
2. Henry Box Brown Event video and gives background and provides a reenactment of Henry's experience.



Map of the Underground Railroad



Teaching Suggestions:

   Key Vocabulary: master, slave, quilt, factory, mistress, slave market, warehouse, oil of vitriol, baggage car.

   Reading strategies to increase comprehension:

Before: Have the students make predictions about the book based on the title, subtitle, and the front cover. Then read the back jacket and have students add to revise their predictions.  Predictions will be written on the board with a reason to justify their answer. They will be revisited after reading the book to see which predictions were correct/incorrect and what assumptions the ones which were incorrect were based on.  

During: Have students focus on the imagery used in this text and how it helps the reader understand the depth of Henry’s feelings. Fill in the first column of the chart while reading.

Phrase	Emotion	Why is the phrase powerful?

After:  Fill in the second two columns, revising the phrase and analyzing the emotion that the phrase is expressing and why the phrase is so powerful. Why is it more powerful than directly stating the emotion, such as just saying “I was sad”?

  

Ellen Levine

Writing activity demonstrating inferential comprehension: Have students think of an emotion they have felt in the past couple of days. The students will then describe this emotion in one sentence without directly stating what the emotion is. Students will share their description with a partner and have the partner guess the emotion they are describing. Revise the phrase until the partner is able to guess the emotion.