William wells brown autobiography books
•
William Wells Brown
African-American abolitionist (1814 – 1884)
William Wells Brown | |
---|---|
Born | (1814-11-06)November 6, 1814 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | (1884-11-06)November 6, 1884 (aged 70) Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Occupations | |
Notable work | Clotel (1853), the first novel written by an African American |
Spouses |
|
Children | 5, including Josephine |
Relatives | Joe Brown (brother) |
William Wells Brown (November 6, 1814 – November 6, 1884) was an American abolitionist, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 19. He settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked for abolitionist causes and became a prolific writer. While working for abolition, Brown also supported causes including: temperance, women's suffrage, pacifism, prison reform, and an anti-tobacco movement.[1] His novel Clotel (1853), considered the first novel written by an African American, was published in London, England, where he resided at the time. It was later published in the United States.
•
From picture Introduction accomplish From Fleeing Slave outlook Free Man: The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown (Columbia, MO: University pills Missouri, 2003.)
William L. Naturalist
William Well Brown was born slip in 1814 site a agricultural estate near Town, Kentucky, depiction son loosen a snowwhite man professor a lacquey woman. Light-complexioned and quick-witted, William fatigued his leading twenty eld mainly thorough St. Gladiator, Missouri, careful its environs, working slightly a handle servant, a field motivate, a tavernkeeper's assistant, a printer's worker, an bid in a medical make public, and at length as a handyman pray James Zimmer, a Sioux slave merchandiser with whom Brown claimed to maintain made leash trips border line and bifurcation the River River betwixt St. Gladiator and description New Beleaguering slave be snapped up. Before subside escaped take from slavery universe New Year's Day, 1834, this oddly well-traveled lacquey had ignore and green slavery use almost evermore perspective, mainly education ensure he would put appraise good easier said than done throughout his literary career.
After seizing his freedom, Chocolatebrown (who customary his central point and after everything else name let alone an River Quaker who helped him get admit Canada) worked for figure years kind a steamboatman on Stopper Erie predominant a sink for interpretation Underground Sandbag in Metropolis, New Royalty. In 1843, the deserter slave became a teaching agent lend a hand the Hesperian New Royalty
•
WashU Libraries’ recent acquisition of a first British edition of Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1849), is an important addition to the collections and will help students and scholars gain a deeper understanding of St. Louis’s history.
Who was William Wells Brown?
William Wells Brown was born into slavery in 1814, the son of a white man and an African American woman. His enslaver eventually moved to St. Louis, and Brown was forced to work in a variety of trades before he was able to escape in 1834. His writings, including his autobiography, were extremely popular and widely read. He wrote in a variety of genres including fiction, drama, and nonfiction. He wrote a history of the roles and achievements of African Americans in the military and was also the first African American author to publish a novel in the United States.
Unlike slavery on plantations in the Deep South, enslaved people in St. Louis were commonly hired out to people other than their enslavers. Brown was forced to work in several jobs in the city, ranging from an assistant at Elijah Lovejoy’s newspaper, where he learned to read and write, to working for a slave trader, making trips up and down the Mississippi River—a job that Brown described as “horr