The English edition of his narrative appeared in Manchester in May 1851. Published under the title Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, it was introduced by Reverend Thomas Gardiner Lee. It was the version of the story Brown had the most direct hand in shaping — the one scholars have identified as closer to his own voice, even acknowledging the collaborative circumstances of its production.
In June 1851, the partnership with James C. A. Smith broke apart.
The dissolution was bitter. Smith, who had risked significant legal exposure to help Brown escape and had subsequently joined him in England, raised two grievances publicly: first, that Brown had not made adequate effort to find or buy back Nancy and the children; and second, that Brown had become involved with an English woman. Smith wrote letters to abolitionist figures criticizing Brown on both counts.
The criticism about Nancy is the one that has followed Brown through subsequent historical assessments, and it requires careful handling. What we know is that Brown did not publicly organize a campaign to locate or purchase his family after the escape. What we do not know is what private efforts, if any, he made; what information he had about their whereabouts; whether a purchase was financially feasible or legally possible; and what his own understanding of the situation was. Smith’s letters reflect Smith’s view, and Smith had his own reasons — financial and personal — to be in conflict with Brown by mid-1851.
Brown married Jane Floyd in England in 1855. She was a Cornish woman, a tin worker’s daughter. They had a daughter, Annie. He spent approximately twenty-five years in Britain — performing, evolving, building a show career that eventually had little connection to the antislavery circuit he had arrived on.