From Fugitive Slave to Free Man: The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown

by William Wells Brown (editor), William L. Andrews (Editor)

Growing up as a slave in an urban area of Missouri allowed William Wells Brown to live a life that was different from that of the plantation slave so often discussed in slave histories. Born in 1814, the son of a white man and a slave woman, Brown spent the first twenty years of his life mainly in St. Louis and the surrounding areas working as a house servant, a field hand, a tavern keeper’s assistant, a printer’s helper, an assistant in a medical office, and a handyman for James Walker, a Missouri slave trader. During his time with Walker, Brown made three trips up and down the Mississippi River. These trips allowed him to encounter slavery from every perspective and provided experiences he would draw on throughout his writing career.
In From Fugitive Slave to Free Man , two of Brown’s best-known writings, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself and My Southern or, The South and Its People, are reprinted together with an expanded introduction by William L. Andrews. Brown’s Narrative, published in 1847, 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.” However, the life of William Brown and his writings prove otherwise.
Determined to be a man of letters, Brown was the first African American to write a travel book, Three Years in 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 1854 and 1867, Brown published the first drama by an African American, The 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 1880, Brown wrote his final autobiography, My Southern Home. In it he endeavors to explain the complex interrelationships between blacks and whites in the South. Taken together, both of the books included in this volume provide fascinating contrasts, especially in their depictions of slavery, and illustrate the creative innovations Brown developed in various forms of life writing—some of which were more experimental than Douglass’s and more prophetic of the future of African American literature.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

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 1834, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. His novel Clotel (1853) 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 1850 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 1854, 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.

Reviews

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading William Wells Brown's autobiography, I recognized his parlance to reflect someone that is educated and well-read. Throughout this read I referred to my dictionary frequently which was fine with me, I warmly welcome any new words to my own personal vernacular. I enjoyed it in the beginning, but started to grow bored as I neared the end. The book compiles several short stories in which Brown tells about different encounters during his time as a slave and freeman. I did not grasp any explicit plot, just the overarching theme of a man whose moral understanding of his rights leads him to abhor the deplorable condition of slavery.

[Sonya Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written.

[Documenting Books]

From Fugitive Slave to Free Man. Discovering the amazig life and story of William Wells Brown; his life in bondage and his freedom. His first autobiographical writing.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0oRS...
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[Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

You learn more about the day to day activities in the life of an intelligent & courageous man. If given the opportunity, one would learn more about the ideology of the different types of masters & slaves. No worries, it does not dwell too long -however long enough, on the brutality of the whipping post and sexual abuse that was frequently used as a tool to oppress. This book will empower anyone who dislikes any form of oppression.

[Kristina Mosley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are things in this book. History books in schools leave out about Slavery. Slavery and all its many roles in America. This is why slavery should not be ignored. WOW! I've learned so much. This book makes you face an ugly truth.

[Deaver T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Like all enslave persons narratives it’s tough. But well Worth it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Wells Brown was a remarkable person from the abolition movement you have probably never heard of.