A New Canvas for Extraordinary Stories

Seeking Freedom is an immersive experience that surrounds visitors on three sides with 10 foot high projections and a powerful soundtrack telling the stories of William and Ellen Craft and Henry “Box” Brown. The sound design includes first person narration pulled from the Crafts’ own account and the song ‘Escape From Slavery’ written by Henry Brown. It was arranged and performed especially for the museum by the Howard University’s Afro Blue Jazz Ensemble. The animations fold visitors into the experience of the people who lived these journeys, conveying both the extreme claustrophobia of Henry Brown’s passage north in a freight box – the walls of the theater turning into the box’s planks – and the panic of the disguised Ellen Craft as she is approached by a friend of her enslaver on a rail
car headed north.

Additionally, visitors can dive into Freedom Journeys, an interactive database and map that highlights the various routes of many others who sought freedom along the B&O Railroad. A custom CMS will allow the museum to add more routes and stories as research continues and more history is uncovered.