ABSTRACT
In 1834, a slave named William Sanford {1815-1884), born in Kentucky and transported to Missouri, made his escape to freedom, following a life of travel and varied labors. He changed his name to William Wells Brown, in tribute to an Ohio benefactor, and took up residence in Cleveland, where he aided fugitive slaves escaping to Canada. In 1844 he became an active aboli tionist. Three years later, he published in Boston his Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. He was disturbed by a panorama of the Mis sissippi River which he believed gave a deceptively mild view of the slavery institution. Brown prepared an illustrated lecture on its reality as he knew it, and offered it on platforms in Great Britain, where he was well received. He was also persuaded to permit friends to purchase his freedom; he had turned down earlier opportunities on grounds that he could not recognize property rights in his person. Brown was a pioneer Negro author, and his Clotel; or the President’s Daughter {1853) is a pioneer Negro novel.
