ENTRY 2

William Wells Brown was born in 1814 in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the son of a white plantation owner named George Higgins and a slave woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth had seven children, all with different fathers. Brown's siblings were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Millford, and Elizabeth. In January, 1834, Brown escaped to the North and gained freedom. In the summer of 1834 he married Elizabeth Spooner who was also a free slave. They had three children together, one of which passed away soon after birth. From 1849 till 1854, Brown toured through Europe giving lectures over anti-slavery issues. The Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850 and because of his fear of being caught, Brown had British abolitionists purchase his freedom. He eventually returned to the United States where he wrote several other works, including Clotel, St. Domingo, Three Years in Europe and My Southern Home: Or, the South and Its People. During the last years of his life, William Wells Brown continued to travel and give lectures about slavery. Brown died in 1884 in Chelsea, Massachusetts.


"William Wells Brown." Documenting the American South. November 12, 2009. University of North Carolina Press, Web. 12 November 2009. .