William wells brown
William wells brownWilliam Wells Brown was the first black novelist. He was also a Negro reformer and historian. According to who you talk to, his birth varies from 1814,1815, and 1816. Brown was born in Lexington Kentucky. His mother was a slave and his father is said to be one George Higgins, a white slaveholder. As a youth, Brown worked on steamships, but was later employed in a print-shop owned by Elijah P. Lovejoy, then editor of the St Louis Times. Working in this capacity, Brown got his start in education. Soon he was returned back to working on steamboats. In 1834, he escaped into Ohio, intending to cross Lake Eire into Canada. On the way he was sheltered by a Quaker, Wells Brown, whose name he assumed in addition to the name William. He now took up steamboating on Lake Erie and obtained the position of steward in which he was able to help many a fugitive to freedom. In the year of his escape, he married a former slave who was now free and had two daughters.
Profiting from school instruction and help from friends, he acquired considerable knowledge of the fundamentals of English. In the North he soon learned to speak the English language so fluently that he could easily present the claim of the Negro for freedom. During 1843-49, he was variously employed as a lecturer of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In 1849, he visited England and represented the American Peace Society at the Peace Congress in Paris. Highly recommended by the American Anti-Slavery Society as an apostle of freedom, he was welcomed by famous Europeans such as Victor Hugo, James Haughton, George Thompson, and Richard Cobden. He remained abroad until 1854. During these years of his activity as a reformer, Brown found time also to study medicine. Like many of the physicians of his time, he did not undergo formal training in this field. He attended lectures in medical science and obtained privately other knowledge required to service as a practitioner. Although he knew sufficient medicine to be useful in the profession, the urgent need for fighting battles of the Negro kept him in the working of reform. Browns' reputation rests largely on his ability as an hisotrian. His writings covered various fields. The first to appear was his Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1847). His next important book was Three Years in Europe (1852). In 1853, he published Clotel, or the President's Daughter, a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States. The latter, could be his most famous book because it deals with something that was very common but rarely spoken of during his day.
Brown based this novel...
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