In his autobiography, Narrative of William Wells Brown, an American Slave (1849), William Wells Brown (1814?-1884) describes his experiences as a slave in St. Louis, Missouri, including his work for Mr. Walker, a slave trader, and his attempt to escape with his mother. When this attempt failed, Brown took a ship north on the Mississippi River, and, with the help of Wells Brown, a Quaker whose name he later adopted, Brown arrived in Canada in 1834. He then describes his life in freedom and the ways he endeavored to help other slaves find their way to freedom through his work on a Lake Erie steamboat, as a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Buffalo, New York, and as an anti-slavery lecturer. Having described his own experiences, Brown includes a series of essays, songs, and poems written either by Brown himself or by others who dedicated the work to him for his devotion to the abolitionist movement. Brown's Narrative was published in several editions and all sold extremely well. The first edition, released in 1847, was followed shortly by a revised second and third edition in 1848, and a fourth expanded edition in 1849. The success of his narrative thrust Brown into the international spotlight, and he enjoyed a long literary career. Brown died in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1884.

Works Consulted: Andrews, William L., The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown, New York: New American Library, 1993; Ripley, C. Peter, et al., eds., The Black Abolitionist Papers, Vol. II: Canada, 1830-1865, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

See also the entry for William Wells Brown from the The Black Abolitionist Papers available on this site.

Harris Henderson