1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Henry Brown knew nothing 5 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: but slavery for most of his life. Despite his upbringing 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: on the Hermitage plantation in Virginia, Henry had a surprisingly 7 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 1: positive outlook on life. He appreciated nature and enjoyed showing 8 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: the children on the plantation the flowers that grew there. 9 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: He was a religious man, with a whole lot of 10 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 1: faith in a world that had done him so much wrong. 11 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: Henry's faith brought him to Nancy, another slave, and the 12 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: two of them got married and had three children of 13 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: their own. He'd been making regular payments to his wife's 14 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: master as a way of keeping him from selling her 15 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: and the children off, but the master had other ideas. 16 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,679 Speaker 1: There was more money in selling Nancy and the kids 17 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,679 Speaker 1: to the highest bidder than there was in taking Henry's 18 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:16,199 Speaker 1: meager payments, so the master separated the family, leaving Henry 19 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: despondent and alone. You might think something like that would 20 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: break Henry's faith in people, but it didn't. In fact, 21 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: he was about to take the biggest leap of faith 22 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: in his life with the help of two men who 23 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: had a plan. After the loss of his family, Henry 24 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: knew he had to get out. He refused to go 25 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,960 Speaker 1: through something as heartbreaking is that again if he could 26 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,960 Speaker 1: help it. So, he contacted a friend, a freed black 27 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: man named James Smith, who helped him orchestrate his escape. 28 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,600 Speaker 1: James and a white shoemaker named Sam Smith came up 29 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: with an ingenious way to get Henry out of Virginia 30 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: and into the North where he could be free. Except 31 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: Henry didn't use the underground railroad or abolitionist safe houses 32 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: to his gape. He chose a very different route, actually 33 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 1: several different routes, including a trip by wagon, then by railroad, 34 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: transferred to a steamboat, another wagon, a second journey by train, 35 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: a ferry, and another railroad, until he finally reached Philadelphia 36 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: after twenty seven grueling hours. Henry was free, and he 37 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: used that freedom to advocate on behalf of other slaves. 38 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: He spoke out as an abolitionist against the South and 39 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: its barbaric practices. To avoid the Fugitive Slave Law of 40 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,799 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty he moved to England and became a magician 41 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: to entertain crowds and earn a living. He eventually remarried 42 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: and began a new family, taking them back to the 43 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: US with him after the end of the Civil War. 44 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: Now you might be asking yourself, what is it about 45 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:55,799 Speaker 1: Henry's story that still resonates today. Many slaves escaped their fates, 46 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: but we never got to hear their stories. Well, Henry's 47 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: tail is a special Like other slaves, he was so 48 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: desperate to leave a life of pain and suffering that 49 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: he embarked on a journey where at any moment he 50 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: could either die or be discovered. But of course his 51 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: efforts were a success, and literature about how he earned 52 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: his freedom found its way back Selth, boosting the morale 53 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: among other slaves. He became a sort of celebrity. For 54 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: better or for worse. You see, Henry Brown was the 55 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: first slave to mail himself to freedom. He spent a 56 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,399 Speaker 1: little over one day in a three ft by two 57 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: ft crate that was hauled from his home in Virginia 58 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: to the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee in Pennsylvania. He survived with 59 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: the help of a single air hole cut in the 60 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: side of the box and a small portion of biscuits 61 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: and water by his side. Any person might be dehydrated, exhausted, 62 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: or even unconscious after such a long, difficult journey. He 63 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: even spent part of that journey upside down. But Henry 64 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: Box Brown never lost his positive attitude. Upon opening the 65 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: crate in Philadelphia, one of the men remembered hearing Henry's 66 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: very first words as a freeman. True to his positive attitude, 67 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: they were anything but frustrated, tired, angry, or even afraid. 68 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: He simply smiled from inside the dark wooden crate, waved 69 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,160 Speaker 1: his hand and cheerfully said, how do you do, gentlemen? 70 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 1: Henry Brown, it seems knew how to deliver a powerful message. 71 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: Long before the age of social media, people kept to themselves. 72 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: More lives were lived in private, and no one had 73 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: to know every little detail about what we had for 74 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: lunch or what we bought at the store. Privacy was 75 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: not a four letter word. Nobody embodied that philosophy more 76 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: than Homer and Langley. They were brothers who lived in 77 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:10,799 Speaker 1: New York City, Harlem in fact, and a brown stone 78 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: with their mother and father. Their childhood was pretty normal. 79 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: They went to public school, attended Columbia University and went 80 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: on to do great things. Langley and engineer and concert 81 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: pianist performed at Carnegie Hall, while Homer practiced maritime law. 82 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: The brothers were close best friends, even having only each 83 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: other and no spouses to speak of. They continued to 84 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:38,360 Speaker 1: live at home with their parents well into adulthood, sadly 85 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: nothing less forever. Their mother and father divorced in nineteen 86 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: o nine, and the boys, wanting to remain in their 87 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:48,440 Speaker 1: home with their mother, stayed in Harlem while their father 88 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,479 Speaker 1: moved downtown. For twenty years, the boys lived in that 89 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: brown stone until two major life events changed them forever, 90 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: the stock market crash of nine and death of their mother. 91 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 1: As the Great Depression ravaged the city, their neighborhood began 92 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: to change as well. Their mother had left them everything, 93 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:13,039 Speaker 1: every known possession, including the brownstone. Their neighbors had not 94 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: been so lucky, and as the people they knew moved away, 95 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: groups of African Americans looking for a better life moved in. 96 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: Harlem was beginning its shift into the jazz capital of 97 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: the world, a place that would cultivate greats like John 98 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:32,280 Speaker 1: Coltrane and Charlie Parker, but Homer and Langley saw things differently. 99 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: With their mother gone and their neighborhood changing into something 100 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 1: they no longer recognized, they retreated from it. They boarded 101 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,400 Speaker 1: up their windows, locked their doors, disconnected their telephone, and 102 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: slipped away from public life. It wasn't that they feared 103 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: certain kinds of people. Homer and Langley were terrified of 104 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: change in all its forms. After divorce, depression, and death, 105 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,600 Speaker 1: I think they had simply taken all they could manage 106 00:06:59,839 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: and just sort of closed themselves off from the world, 107 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:08,760 Speaker 1: both mentally and physically. Rumors began to circulate about the 108 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: brothers unorthodox lifestyle, which brought unwanted attention to their doorsteps. 109 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:16,880 Speaker 1: Some people thought the men were hoarding vast amounts of 110 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 1: money and treasure in their house. After a few attempt 111 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: at burglaries, Langley had to put his engineering knowledge to 112 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,040 Speaker 1: use by building a series of traps to discourage thieves 113 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: from entering uninvited. The thing was the Collier brothers were 114 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: hoarding something in their Harlem brownstone everything boxes, old bicycles, guns, 115 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: camera equipment, part of a horse drawn carriage, over twenty books, 116 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: human organs in jars, and afford model t which Langley 117 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 1: had rigged to provide electricity to the house. The once 118 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: pristine brownstone had become a maze of boxes and debris, 119 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: and the men took to crawling through tunnels to get 120 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: from room to room him As they grew older, however, 121 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,520 Speaker 1: disease took its toll, and Homer was hit the hardest. 122 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: He went blind and eventually succumbed to inflammatory rheumatism, which 123 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: left him paralyzed. Langley took everything upon himself, becoming his 124 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: brother's sole caregiver. He brought him food and water, bathed him, 125 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: and kept the public away. But all that privacy came 126 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: at a cost. Years later, a man who identified himself 127 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: as Charles Smith called the local police, claiming there was 128 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:34,720 Speaker 1: a dead body inside the Collier home. When the police arrived, 129 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: they found it impossible to get in the front door. 130 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: It wasn't just that the windows were barred or that 131 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,200 Speaker 1: the doors were locked. They couldn't get past the stack 132 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,800 Speaker 1: of boxes and old newspapers, or the furniture that had 133 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 1: been piled up in the brownstones entryway. It took seven 134 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: men to haul enough junk out in order to give 135 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:57,120 Speaker 1: police the access they needed. Once inside, they were able 136 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 1: to look around, and what they found astounded them. Over 137 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: one hundred twenty tons of debris had been collected inside 138 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:07,320 Speaker 1: the home, but tucked away in a corner, surrounded by 139 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: boxes that stretched from floor to ceiling was a human corpse. 140 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: The dead body, it turns out, was real, and it 141 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 1: was Homer. Authorities assumed his brother had been the one 142 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,080 Speaker 1: to make the anonymous phone call, but Langley was nowhere 143 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: to be found. There were rumors that he'd managed to 144 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: skip down. Reports came in for over a week about 145 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: Langley being sighted in nine different states, but none of 146 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 1: them turned out to be true. You see, Langley, even 147 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,559 Speaker 1: in his old age, had refused to give up on 148 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,840 Speaker 1: his brother, but his fear of the outside world had 149 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: left him with no options for getting Homer the help 150 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 1: he needed. It wasn't until after more than one hundred 151 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 1: tons of clutter were removed from the brownstone when he 152 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 1: finally resurfaced. It turns out he'd been there the whole time. 153 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,560 Speaker 1: Langley had been in the process of bringing his brother 154 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:05,840 Speaker 1: some food, crawling through a narrow tunnel of rusty bedsprings, 155 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: when he triggered one of his own traps. Moments later, 156 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 1: a massive pile of suitcases and bundled newspapers collapsed on 157 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:20,319 Speaker 1: top of him. Like I said before, Langley Collier had 158 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 1: taken everything upon himself literally. I hope you've enjoyed today's 159 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 160 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:35,840 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 161 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 162 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:44,560 Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 163 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 164 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,520 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 165 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:55,080 Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com. 166 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,559 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.