William Wells Brown
| William Wells Brown | |
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| Born | 1814 or March 15, 1815 near Lexington, Kentucky |
| Died | November 6, 1884 Chelsea, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | abolitionist, writer, historian. |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Elizabeth "Betsey" Schooner, 1835; (2) Annie Elizabeth Gray, 1860 |
| Children | Clarissa Brown, Josephine Brown, Henrietta Helen Brown, William Wells Brown, Jr., Clotelle Brown |
William Wells Brown (circa 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 20. He settled in Boston, where he worked for abolitionist causes and became a prolific writer. Amongst working for abolitionist causes, Brown also supported causes including: temperance, women's suffrage, pacifism, prison reform, and anti-tobacconism. His novel Clotel (1853), considered the first novel written by an African American, was published in London, where he resided at the time; it was later published in the United States.
Brown was a pioneer in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama. In 1858 he became the first published African-American playwright, and often read from this work on the lecture circuit. Following the Civil War, in 1867 he published what is considered the first history of African Americans in the Revolutionary War. He was among the first writers inducted to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. A public school was named for him in Lexington, Kentucky.
Brown was lecturing in England when the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was passed in the US; as its provisions increased the risk of capture and re-enslavement, he stayed overseas for several years. He traveled throughout Europe. After his freedom was purchased in 1854 by a British couple, he and his two daughters returned to the US, where he rejoined the abolitionist lecture circuit in the North. A contemporary of Frederick Douglass, Wells Brown was overshadowed by the charismatic orator and the two feuded publicly.
William was born into slavery in 1814 (or March 15, 1815) near Lexington, Kentucky, where his mother Elizabeth was a slave (of Native American and Black ancestry). She was held by Dr. John Young and had seven children, each by different fathers. (In addition to William, her children were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Milford, and Elizabeth.) William's father was George W. Higgins, a white planter and cousin of his master Dr. Young. Higgins had formally acknowledged William as his son and made his cousin Young promise not to sell the boy. But Young did sell him with his mother. William was sold several times before he was twenty years old.
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