William Wells Brown
Brown, William Wells, 1814-1884, was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North, where where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. Brown was a pioneer in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama, and wrote what is considered to be the first novel by an African American.
| Contents |
Brown's Early Years
Brown was born into slavery near Lexington, Kentucky in 1814. His mother, Elizabeth, was owned by a Dr. Young and had seven children by different fathers (In addition to Brown, her children were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Millford, and Elizabeth). Brown's father was George Higgins, a white plantation owner and relative of the owner of the plantation where Brown was born.
Brown was owned by several slave masters until, on New Year's Day in 1834, he slipped away from a steamboat at a dock in Cincinnati, Ohio. He adopted the name of a Quaker friend of his, Wells Brown, who had helped him obtain his freedom. After nine years as a conductor for the Underground Railroad and as a steam boatman on Lake Erie (a position he used to ferry escaped slaves to freedom in Canada), Brown began lecturing for the abolition movement in New York.
Abolition Orator and Writer
With a reputation as one of the abolition movement's best speakers, Brown was soon hired by the American Anti-Slavery Society, where he worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. After settling in Boston, Brown published his autobiography, Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1847). He then lectured on slavery and the temperance movement in Europe, which he wrote about in his travel memoir Three Years in Europe (1852).
Brown's Literary Works
In 1853 Brown published Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, a novel based on what was at that time considered to be a rumor about Thomas Jefferson fathering a daughter with his slave Sally Hemings. The book is considered to be the first novel written by an African American. However, because the novel was published in England, the book is not considered the first African-American novel published in the United States. This honor goes instead to a black American woman, Harriet Wilson, whose novel Our Nig (1859) details the difficult lives of Northern free blacks.
Brown also wrote a play, The Escape (1958) and several historical works including The Black Man (1963), The Negro in the American Revolution (1867), The Rising Son (1873) and another volume of autobiography, My Southern Home (1880).
Brown died on November 6, 1884, in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
See also
External Links
- Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave. Written by Himself: Electronic Edition.
- The Negro in the American rebellion; his heroism and his fidelity ...
- Brown, William Wells (1815-1884). Three years in Europe, or places I have seen and people I have met. with a Memoir of the author. 1852.