William wells brown autobiography book

Genres Nonfiction Memoir History. Loading interface About the author. William Wells Brown books 46 followers. William Wells Brown was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North in , where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer.

His novel Clotel is considered the first novel written by an African American; it was published in London, where he was living at the time. Brown was a pioneer in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama. He has a school named after him in Lexington, Kentucky and was among the first writers inducted to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Lecturing in England when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in the US, which required people in the North to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves, Brown stayed for several years to avoid the risk of capture and re-enslavement. After his freedom was purchased by a British couple in , he and his family returned to the US, where he rejoined the abolitionist lecture circuit.

A contemporary of Frederick Douglass, Wells Brown was overshadowed by the charismatic orator and the two feuded publicly. Write a Review. Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book! Boston : Anti-Slavery Office, Originally published as a collection with commentary: New York Mentor Books, Includes bibliographical references p.

Brown, a fugitive slave -- My southern home, or, The South and its people. Narrative of William W. Brown, a fugitive slave; Brown, William Wells, ? There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write a review. Brown's Narrative, published in , was his first autobiographical writing and was received with wide acclaim, going through four American and five British editions.

Only Frederick Douglass's autobiography sold better, casting a constant shadow over Brown's works. Douglass and his life were touted as extraordinary, while Brown was referred to as the typical "every man's slave. Determined to be a man of letters, Brown was the first African American to write a travel book, Three Years in Europe: or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met , which was based on his time abroad in Paris at an international peace conference and in England on an anti-slavery crusade.

A year later he published Clotel , the first novel written by an African American and the first to exploit the decades-old rumors of an affair between President Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings. Between and , Brown published the first drama by an African American, The Escape: or, A Leap for Freedom, and two volumes of black history, one of which is the first military history of the African American in the United States.

In , Brown wrote his final autobiography, My Southern Home. At the time there were only black people living in Buffalo. In , Brown 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. Given passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of in the US, which increased penalties and more severely enforced capture of fugitive slaves, he chose to stay in England until That year his freedom was purchased by British 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 high bounties to return slaves to their owners, and the new law required enforcement even by free states and their citizens, although many resisted. Brown lectured widely to antislavery circuits in the UK to build support for the US movement.

He often showed a metal slave collar as demonstration of the institution's evils. By dint of resolution, self-culture, and force of character, he [Brown] has rendered himself a popular lecturer to a British audience, and vigorous expositor of the evils and atrocities of that system whose chains he has shaken off so triumphantly and forever.

William wells brown autobiography book

We may safely pronounce William Wells Brown a remarkable man, and a full refutation of the doctrine of the inferiority of the negro. Brown also used this time to learn more about the cultures, religions, and different concepts of European nations. He felt that he needed always to be learning, in order to catch up and live in a society where others had been given an education when young.

In his memoir of travel in Europe, he wrote,. He who escapes from slavery at the age of twenty years, without any education, as did the writer of this letter, must read when others are asleep, if he would catch up with the rest of the world. At the International Peace Conference in Paris , Brown faced opposition while representing the country that had enslaved him.

Later he confronted American slaveholders on the grounds of the Crystal Palace. His travel account was popular with middle-class readers as he recounted sightseeing trips to the foundational monuments of European culture. 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 submissiveness among slaves. Brown constantly refuted the idea of black inferiority. Due to his reputation as a powerful orator, Brown was invited to the National Convention of Colored Citizens , where he met other prominent abolitionists. When the Liberty Party formed, he chose to remain independent, believing that the abolitionist movement should avoid becoming entrenched in politics.

He continued to support the Garrisonian approach to abolitionism. He shared his own experiences and insight into slavery in order to convince others to support the cause. In , he published his memoir, the Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself , which became a bestseller across the United States, second only to Frederick Douglass ' slave narrative memoir.

Brown critiques his master's lack of Christian values and the customary brutal use of violence by owners in master-slave relations. When Brown lived in Britain, he wrote more works, including travel accounts and plays. It portrays the fictional plight of two mulatto mixed-race daughters born to Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves. His novel is believed to be the first written by an African American.

Historically, Jefferson's household was known to include numerous mixed-race slaves, and there were rumors since the early 19th century that he had children with a slave, Sally Hemings. In Jefferson freed five mixed-race slaves in his will; most historians now believe that two brothers, Madison and Eston Hemings , were among his four surviving children from his long-term forced relationship with Sally Hemings.

As Brown's novel was first published in England and not until later in the United States, it is not the first novel by an African American published in the US. Most scholars agree that Brown is the first published African-American playwright. He read the latter aloud at abolitionist meetings in lieu of the typical lecture. Brown continually struggled with how to represent slavery "as it was" to his audiences.

For instance, in an lecture to the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Salem , Massachusetts, he said: "Were I about to tell you the evils of Slavery, to represent to you the Slave in his lowest degradation, I should wish to take you, one at a time, and whisper it to you. Slavery has never been represented; Slavery never can be represented.

Brown also wrote several histories, including: St.