"William-Wells-Brown" [1814-November 6 1884]

Was a prominent African American abolitionist lecturer,novelist,playwright,and historian in the United States.Born into Slavery in Montgomery County,Kentucky,near the town of Mount Sterling,William escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 20. He settled in Boston,where he worked for abolitionist causes and became a prolific writer.His novel Clotel (1853), considered the first novel written by an African American was published in London,where he resided at the time: it was later published in the United States.


William was a pioneer in several different literary genres,including travel writing,fiction and drama. In 1858 he became the first published African American playwright,and often read from this work on the lecture circuit.Following the Civil War.In 1867 he published what is considered the first history of African Americans in the Revolutionary War.He was among the first writers inducted to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. A public school was named for him in Lexington,Kentucky.


William was lecturing in England when the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was passed in the US; as it provisons increased the risk of capture an re-enslavement,he stayed he stayed overseas for several years.William traveled throughout Europe.After his freedom was purchased in 1854 by a British couple,he and his two daughters returned to the US,where he rejoined the abolitionists lecture circuit in the North.A contemporary of Frederick Douglass,William was overshadowed by the charismatic orator and the two feuded publicly.


William was born into slavery near Mount Sterling,Kentucky where his mama Elizabeth was a slave.Elizabeth was held by Dr.John Young and had seven children,by each by different daddies.(in addition to William,her children were Solomon,Leander,Benjamin,Joseph,Miford,and Elizabeth.)William's daddy was George W.Higgins,a white planter and cousin of his master Dr.Young.George had formally acknowledged William as his son and made his cousin Dr.Young promise not to sell William.Dr.Young did sell him with his mama.Will was sold several times before he was twenty.


William spent the majority of his youth in St.Louis. His masters hired him out on steamboats on the Missiouri River,then a major thoroughfare for steamships and the slave.His work allowed him to see many new places.In 1833,he and and his mama escaped together across the Mississippi River,they were captured in Illinois.In 1834,William make a second attempt,successfully slipping away from a steamboat when it docked  in Cincinnati,Ohio,a free state.In freedom,he took the names of Wells Brown,a Quaker friend who helped him after his escape by providing food,clothes,and some money.William learned to read and write,and eagerly sought more education,reading reading extensively to make up for what he had been deprived.


In 1834,his first year of freedom,at age 20 William married Elizabeth Schooner,with whom he had two surving daughters,Clarissa & Josephine.William & Elizabeth later became estrangled.Elizabeth died in the United States.

From 1836 to about 1845,William made his home in Buffalo New York,where he worked as a steamboat man on Lake Erie.He helped many fugitive slaves gain their freedom by hiding them on the boat to take them to Buffalo,or Detriot,Michigan or across the lake to Canada.He later wrote that during the seven-month period of time from May to December 1942,he had helped 69 fugitive reach Canada.William became active in the abolitionist movement in Buffalo by joining several anti-slavery socities and the Negro Convention Movement.

Tens of thousands of slaves escaped to Canada.The first report of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada estimated that by 1852,30,000 "Negro refugees"had reach Canada.

In 1849,William left the United States with his two young daughters to travel in the British Isles to lecture against slavery.He wanted them to gain the education he had been denied.He was also selected as a representative of the US that at the that year at the International Peace Congress in Paris.Given passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in the US,he choose to stay in England until 1854,when his freedom was purchased by friends.As a highly visible public figure in the US,he was at risk for capture as a fugitive and re-enslavement.Slave catchers were paid him bounties to return slaves to their owners,and the new law required enforcement even by free states and their citizens, although many resisted.

At the International Peace Conference in Paris,William faced opposition while representing the country that had enslaved him.Later he confronted American slaveholders on the grounds of the Crystal Palace.

Based on this journey,William wrote Three Years in Europe: or Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met..His travel account was popular with middle-class readers as recounted sightseeing trips foundational of Europe culture.In his letter XIV,William wrote about his meeting with the Christian philosopher Thomas Dick in 1851.

After his return to the US,William gave lectures for the abolitionist movement in New York and Massachusetts.He soon focused on anti-slavery efforts.His speeches expressed his belief in the power of moral suasion and the importance of nonviolence.He often attacked the supposed American ideal of democracy and the use of religion to promote.

Due to his his reputation as powerful orator,William was invited to the National Convention of Colored Citizens,where he met other prominent abolitioniststs.When the Liberty Party formed,he chose to remain independent,believing that abolitionist movement should avoid becoming entrenched in politics.He continued to support the Garrisonian approached to abolitionism.He shared experiences and insight into slavery in order to convince others to support the cause.

In 1847,he published his memoir,the Narrative of William W.Brown,a Fugitive Slave,Wriiten by Himself,which became a bestseller across the United States,second only to Frederick Douglass' slave narrative memoir.William critiques his master's lack of Christian values and the customary brutal use of violence by owners in master-slave relations.

When he lived in Britain,he wrote more works,including travel accounts and plays.William first novel,entitled Clotel,or The President's Daughter: a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States,was published in London in 1853.It portrays the fictional plight of two mulatto daughters born to Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves.His novel is believed to be the first written by an African American.

He also wrote several histories,including The Black Man: His Antecedents,His Genius and his Achievements (1863); The Negro in the American Rebellion (1867), considered the first historical work about African American soldiers in the American Revolutionary War;and The Rising son (1873).His last book was another memoir, My Southern Home (1880).

William stayed abroad until 1854.Passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law had increased his risk of capture even in the free states.Only after the Richardson family of Britain purchased his freedom in 1854 (they had done the same for Frederick Douglass),William return to the United States.He quickly rejoined the anti-slavery lecture circuit.

William died in Chelsea,Massachusetts.