For Samuel Smith, who was not present at the arrival, the morning was the success that would, two months later, embolden him to try the same thing again. He had made an $86 profit and a method had worked. The temptation to try it again was understandable. The consequences of doing so were severe.
For James C. A. Smith, still in Richmond and still at risk, the morning’s success was news that arrived through whatever channels connected him to Philadelphia — a letter, a trusted messenger, the report of someone who had been there. He was still exposed. His association with the escape was known to enough people that arrest remained possible for months afterward. The success of March 24 did not immediately make him safe.
One morning, several lives, several different kinds of stakes. The arrival in Philadelphia was a collective event even though it was one man who climbed out of the box.
## Toronto and the Final Chapter
Toronto in the 1880s and 1890s was a growing city of about 100,000 to 200,000 people — smaller than the major American cities Brown had moved through, but a real city with a diverse population, cultural institutions, and a significant Black community that had roots in both the Underground Railroad era and in earlier settlement.
Canada had been a destination for freedom seekers for decades before the Civil War. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had made American soil dangerous even in the nominally free states, and for people who wanted to put themselves beyond the reach of American slave law, Canada was the logical destination. Communities of formerly enslaved people and their descendants had established themselves in Ontario in particular — in cities like Toronto, Chatham, Windsor, and smaller communities throughout the province.