Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.
Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave.
Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, No. 25 Cornhill, 1847. 12mo (7” x 4.75”), brown cloth, gilt title label at spine and gilt title on upper cover. Frontis. portrait engraving, 110 pp. CONDITION: Good, moderate wear, contents with some damp-stains and soiling. First edition. William Wells Brown’s firsthand account of his life as a slave, culminating in his successful escape to freedom at the age of nineteen. One of the most popular slave narratives, the work describes the psychological toll of enslavement, questions the hypocrisy of “Christian” slaveholders, and connects education to freedom. Brown was born in Kentucky to a white father and enslaved mother, and brought to Missouri at a young age. His early recollections of whippings—including that of his own mother—stand out as among the most devastating parts of the work, which is generally restrained in its narration. Brown also describes being hired out to St. Louis, an early failed escape attempt, and being heartbroken at the sale of his mother and siblings. A bright spot came when he worked for newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy—who would later become famous as a radical abolitionist martyr—from whom he received a basic education. Brown was subsequently hired to a slave trader, witnessing all manner of abuses while traveling up and down the Mississippi. He coped by engaging in deception, in one instance tricking a free man of color into receiving a whipping intended for himself at the local jailhouse, an incident he came to deeply regret. When Brown learns of his new master’s coming business visit to Ohio, he feigns a hatred for free states in order to be allowed to join. There, on New Year’s Day, 1834, he escapes. After nearly freezing to death in the winter cold, he is taken in by a Quaker named Wells Brown, whose name he adopts. The work concludes with Brown describing his new life as a free man in Ohio, his growing commitment to the abolitionist cause, and newfound life’s mission “pleading for the victims of American slavery.” Also included here are a letter of gratitude by the author to his Quaker namesake, an editor’s letter, and a preface by J. C. Hathaway. William Wells Brown (ca. 1814–1884) was an abolitionist writer and speaker. After escaping slavery, Brown settled in Buffalo, which in 1843 hosted the National Convention of Colored Citizens. There, Brown met notable Black abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and Charles Lenox Remond. He began speaking publicly and gained recognition, lecturing at the 1844 American Anti-Slavery Society meeting in New York. In 1847, Brown moved to Boston and published Narrative of William W. Brown that same year. Two years later, Brown traveled to Britain for a lecture tour, but the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act compelled him to extend his stay, and he spent several years traveling and writing in Europe. He published his first novel, Clotel—considered the first novel written by an African American—in London in 1853. The following year, British abolitionists preemptively “purchased” Brown’s freedom, enabling him to return to the United States, where he continued to lecture and write fiction, a play, his travelogue, and history. REFERENCES: Blockson 9749; Afro-Americana 1729; “Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself” at Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina) online.
Item #10497
On Hold
Price: $7,500.00
Add to Wish List