William Wells Brown (1814 - 1884)

Born 6 Nov 1814 in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky, United States

Died 6 Nov 1884 at age 70 in Chelsea, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message] and K Raymoure [send private message]

William Brown is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

William Brown was a part of the Abolitionist Movement.

William Brown is Notable.

William was a Freemason, Prince Hall Affiliated

William Wells Brown was an American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. He was noted for being the first published playwright of African descent. He was also the first published novelist of African descent, but is not usually recognized for this since his novel was published in England and not until later in the United States. In his later years he studied homeopathic medicine.

William was born into slavery near the town of Mount Sterling, Kentucky about 1814. ^[1] He escaped to the free state of Ohio when he was about nineteen years old, eventually making his way to Boston, Massachusetts. ^[2] While there, he worked for abolitionist causes and became a prolific writer. ^[3] He also supported temperance, women's suffrage, pacifism, prison reform, and an anti-tobacco movement. ^[4] He traveled to Europe before the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in the United States. He remained there several years, lecturing and traveling. ^[5] In 1854, British Quakers, Henry and Anna (Atkins) Richardson, and Henry's sister Ellen, for 300 dollars, purchased his freedom, ^[6]since by now he was well-known and would be a target for capture as a fugitive, and he and his two daughters soon returned to the United States where he re-joined the abolitionist circuit. ^[7] He was a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, but they were not necessarily friends. ^[8]

In 1853, while he was lecturing in England, he published his first novel, Clotel. ^[9] This was the first published novel written by an African American. ^[10] He was not just just a novel writer; he also wrote about travel, fiction, and drama. ^[11] In 1858 he published the first play by an African American playwright and often read from this first work during his lectures. ^[12] He penned the first history of African Americans in the Revolutionary War. ^[13]

Early Life

William's mother was born into slavery and was of both Native American and African American ancestry. ^[14] She was held by Dr. John Young and each of her seven children were by different fathers. ^[15] His siblings were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Milford, and Elizabeth. ^[16] His father, George W. Higgins, a white planter, is a descendant of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins and a cousin to Dr. Young. ^{[17] [18]} He was acknowledged by his father and Dr. Young was made to promise not to sell William. ^[19] However, William and his mother were sold, William being sold several times before the age of twenty. ^[20] He spent most of his early life in St. Louis, Missouri and was hired out to work on steamboats along the Missouri River. ^[21] He was able to see many places during his work on steamboats and in 1833, he and his mother attempted to escape. They got as far as Illinois before being captured. ^[22] The following year, 1834, William successfully escaped while his steamboat was docked in Cincinnati, Ohio. ^[23] He took the name of a Quaker friend, Wells Brown, who aided him in his escape by providing food, clothing, and money. ^[24] He soon learned to read and write and was a voracious reader. ^[25] He was hired by the famed abolitionist, Elijah Lovejoy, in his printing office. ^[26]

Married Life

William married Eliabeth Schooner in 1834 and they had two daughters who survived to adulthood, Clarissa and Josephine. ^[27] Josephine later became a teacher, anti-slavery lecturer, and a biographer. ^[28] He lived in Buffalo, New York, and worked on steamboats on Lake Erie. ^[29] He aided many fugitive slaves by hiding them on the steamboat and carrying them to Buffalo, Detroit, Michigan, or across Lake Erie to Canada. ^[30]

Unfortunately, William and Elizabeth became estranged and she did not accompany the rest of the family to Europe between 1849 and 1854 when William lectured against slavery. ^[31] By 1860 Elizabeth had died and William married a second time to Anna Elizabeth Gray in Boston, Massachusetts. ^{[32] [33]} Their marriage took place in Boston, Massachusetts on 12 April 1860. ^[34]

Siblings

• Joseph has been identified by researchers Ron L. Jackson Jr. and Lee Spencer White as Joe, the slave of William B. Travis, commander of the Alamo. Joe survived the battle. ^[35]

Legacy and Honors

• An article in the Scotch Independent, 20 June 1852, proclaimed:

"By dint of resolution, self-culture, and force of character, he [Brown] has rendered himself a popular lecturer to a British audience, and vigorous expositor of the evils and atrocities of that system whose chains he has shaken off so triumphantly and forever. We may safely pronounce William Wells Brown a remarkable man, and a full refutation of the doctrine of the inferiority of the negro."

• First African American to publish a novel in London, England (Clotel, or, The President's Daughter: a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, 1853
• An elementary school in Lexington, Kentucky is named after him
• An historic marker has been placed at the location of his home in Buffalo
• Inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame established in 2013.
• His portrait, by Buffalo artist, Edreys Wajed, is depicted on the Freedom Wall, commissioned by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and completed in 2017.

Occupations

• 1870, 1876-1878, 1880: Physician

Residences

• 1880: 28 East Canton Street, Boston, Massachusetts with his wife Annie and siblings-in-law Henrietta and Thomas S. Calvin
• 1870: Cambridge, Massachusetts with 31-year-old Clotilda Brown, and 8-year-old Annie G. Brown

Race

• 1870, 1880: Mulatto

Death

He passed away in 1884 and is buried at Cambridge Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
2. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
3. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
4. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
5. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
6. ↑ Farrison, William Edward., (1969)., William Wells Brown: author & reformer. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (Here;) Accessed 28 Feb 2024.
7. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
8. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
9. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
10. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
11. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
12. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
13. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
14. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
15. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
16. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
17. ↑ Marriage Record
18. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
19. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
20. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
21. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
22. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
23. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
24. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
25. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
26. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
27. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
28. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
29. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
30. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
31. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
32. ↑ Marriage Record
33. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
34. ↑ Marriage Record
35. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors

Wikidata: Item Q961244

• Wikipedia contributors, "William Wells Brown," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Wells_Brown&oldid=995962028 (accessed January 6, 2021.
• "Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWYP-FJG : 24 May 2018), George Higgins in entry for William Wells Brown and Anna E. Gray, 12 Apr 1860; citing Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 1,433,018.
• 1870 United States Federal Census Year: 1870; Census Place: Cambridge Ward 2, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_623; Page: 439B; Family History Library Film: 552122
• 1876, 1877, 1878 Boston, Massachusetts city directories
• 1880 United States Federal Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 558; Page: 78B; Enumeration District: 716
• Brown, William Wells. The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. 1847.
• Brown, William Wells. Three Years in Europe. 1852.
• Brown, William Wells. Clotel: or, The President's Daughter. 1853.
• Brown, William Wells. The Black Man. 1863.
• Brown, William Wells. The Negro in the American Revolution. 1867.
• Brown, William Wells. The Rising Son. 1873.
• Brown, William Wells. My Southern Home: Or, the South and Its People. 1880.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #7234157
• The Evening Telegraph (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Friday, 8 February 1867, pg. 1, col. 6; digital images, "Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers," Library of Congress (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 18 February 2021).