332 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
Th e slave thanked the man the only way he knew how, by
using his name as a badge of freedom.
Brown worked on Lake Erie steamboats, married Eliz-
abeth Schooner, and became active in the Underground
Railroad. He also became fervently committed to temper-
ance reform, arguing that alcohol could become its own
kind of master and alcoholics a type of slave. Brown moved
to Buff alo, a safer location because it was not so close to
the South. Th ere he continued his involvement in helping
fugitive slaves and became a lecturer for the Western New
York Anti-Slavery Society in 1843. He was an immediate
success as a speaker and moved to Boston to become a paid
lecture for the Anti-Slavery Society. Th e fugitive slave gave
literally thousands of speeches denouncing slavery and be-
came one of the Anti-Slavery Society’s most successful ora-
tors. Brown’s success on the lecture tour encouraged him
to write his life story. Th e book was an immediate success;
Brown became second only to Frederick Douglass as the
most infl uential escaped slave.
Th e man who claimed to own Brown took notice of
the escaped slave and wrote the Anti-Slavery Society off er-
ing to sell Brown for $325. Brown rejected this off er, saying
that God had made him as free as his owner. Even though
Brown refused his owner’s off er, he had to be concerned
with being arrested by slave catchers. He traveled to Europe
in 1849, a journey that was unexpectedly extended aft er the
passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. Brown gave speeches in
England, attended the Paris Peace Conference, and wrote
the fi rst African American travel book.
Brown also became the fi rst African American to write
a novel when he penned Clotel; or the President’s Daugh-
ter while he lived in London in 1853. Th e novel incorpo-
rated large portions of contemporary writing, sections of
Southern newspapers, and elements of Brown’s own life.
Th e novel was based on rumors that Th omas Jeff erson had
fathered several children with one of his slaves. Th e book
began with the auction sale of Jeff erson’s slave mistress and
two of their children. Th e three women were split up and
lived in various parts of the South, giving Brown an op-
portunity to discuss Southern regional diff erences and the
poisonous eff ects of slavery. Clotel anticipated many themes
in modern African American scholarship—categories of
race, the interstate slave trade, Th omas Jeff erson’s relation-
ship with Sally Hemings, and slave resistance. In one of the
play’s most memorable scenes, a slave says he participated
in the Nat Turner rebellion aft er he heard his master read
the Declaration of Independence.Toledo, Gregory. Th e Hanging of Old Brown: A Story of Slaves,
Statesmen, and Redemption. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
Villard, Oswald. John Brown, 1800–1859, A Biography Fift y Years
Aft er. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1943.
Brown, William Wells
William Wells Brown (1815–1884) escaped from slavery in
1834 and became a noted antislavery activist and author.
He was the most prolifi c African American author of the
mid-19th century and second in public visibility to Fred-
erick Douglass. Brown was born on a plantation near Lex-
ington, Kentucky, in 1814, the son of a slave mother and a
white father. He worked a variety of jobs for a series of mas-
ters who oft en hired out his time. Brown was even hired out
to Elijah Lovejoy, who later became an abolitionist and was
martyred for his beliefs. If Lovejoy was Brown’s best master,
he also endured a series of diffi cult owners. Brown wrote
frequently of masters who doled out drunken beatings or
whippings for no apparent reason. He was eventually pur-
chased by a slave trader who forced Brown to assist him
in transporting slaves down the Mississippi River to New
Orleans. Brown was forced to alter the appearance of some
of the slaves—plucking their gray hairs or rubbing grease
into wrinkles to make them look younger.
Brown was not content to remain in bondage and be-
came aware of the possibilities of a world outside of slav-
ery once he started moving up and down the Mississippi
River. In St. Louis, Brown snuck off to listen to Fourth of
July Speeches about liberty and became determined to seek
his own independence. He convinced his mother to escape
with him, and in 1833, they fl ed. Both were quickly recap-
tured and sold to new owners. Brown’s mother was “sold
down the river” to Louisiana and never saw her son again.
A St. Louis merchant and steamboat owner named Enoch
Prince purchased Brown and put him to work on his boat.
Brown wasted little time in running away again, but he used
the previous experience he had gained to good eff ect. When
Prince’s steamboat docked in Cincinnati, Brown fell into
line with the roustabouts who were unloading the steam-
er’s cargo. He casually carried a trunk on shore and kept
walking from the boat. Once in the woods, he followed the
North Star, walking at night and sleeping during the day.
Aft er about three weeks, he was exhausted and starving, so
he approached two men on an isolated road. One, a Quaker
named Wells Brown, helped the fugitive travel to Cleveland.