William W. Brown Essay, Research Paper

William Wells Brown was the first black novelist. He was besides a Negro reformist and historiographer. Harmonizing to who you talk to, his birth varies from 1814,1815, and 1816. Brown was born in Lexington Kentucky. His female parent was a slave and his male parent is said to be one George Higgins, a white slave owner. As a young person, Brown worked on steamers, but was subsequently employed in a print-shop owned by Elijah P. Lovejoy, so editor of the St Louis Times. Working in this capacity, Brown got his start in instruction. Soon he was returned back to working on steamboats. In 1834, he escaped into Ohio, meaning to traverse Lake Eire into Canada. On the manner he was sheltered by a Quaker, Wells Brown, whose name he assumed in add-on to the name William. He now took up steamboating on Lake Erie and obtained the place of steward in which he was able to assist many a fleeting to freedom. In the twelvemonth of his flight, he married a former slave who was now free and had two girls.

Profiting from school direction and aid from friends, he acquired considerable cognition of the basicss of English. In the North he shortly learned to talk the English linguistic communication so fluently that he could easy show the claim of the Negro for freedom. During 1843-49, he was diversely employed as a lector of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In 1849, he visited England and represented the American Peace Society at the Peace Congress in Paris. Highly recommended by the American Anti-Slavery Society as an apostle of freedom, he was welcomed by celebrated Europeans such as Victor Hugo, James Haughton, George Thompson, and Richard Cobden. He remained abroad until 1854. During these old ages of his activity as a reformist, Brown found clip besides to analyze medical specialty. Like many of the doctors of his clip, he did non undergo formal preparation in this field. He attended talks in medical scientific discipline and obtained in private other cognition required to serve as a practician. Although he knew sufficient medical specialty to be utile in the profession, the pressing demand for contending conflicts of the Negro kept him in the working of reform. Browns & # 8217 ; repute rests mostly on his ability as an hisotrian. His Hagiographas covered assorted Fieldss. The first to look was his Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fleeting Slave ( 1847 ) . His following of import book was Three Old ages in Europe ( 1852 ) . In 1853, he published Clotel, or the President & # 8217 ; s Daughter, a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States. The latter, could be his most celebrated book because it deals with something that was really common but seldom spoken of during his twenty-four hours.

Brown based this novel on the claim that Thomas Jefferson, who wrote many plants on human freedom while go oning to purchase, sell, and work slaves, had fathered many slave

kids. Harmonizing to the narratives, one of these illicit kids, a beautiful immature miss, was sold at an auction. Although the narrative may or may non be true, Brown used the narrative to assail bondage and the people for bondage. Clotel, or The President’s Daughter is besides used as a mention to what break one’s back life truly was. Brown described in graphic item about how and what it felt like to travel to the auction block. He discussed how his maestro would do him shave the older slaves’ caputs to do them look younger. Brown talked in length about how households are broken up on the auction block. Since Brown himself was separated from his female parent, this may hold been the hardest for him to accept. He besides talked about the many darks he was going while seeking to make Canada. In this book, he discusses how he was self-educated. He would corrupt white kids with sugar confect to learn him how to read and understand letters. Clotel, or The President’s Daughter follows this immature slave through life. She experiences first manus the hurting of bondage, everything from the inhuman treatments of her maestro to losing her ain girl to the slave auctions.

Another book Brown is celebrated for is The Negro in the American Rebellion. In this book, Brown goes over things, such as when the first inkinesss arrived in the settlements, Crispus Attucks, the mulatto slave who some say was the first victim of the Revolutionary War, he besides discusses the function that inkinesss played in the War of 1812. Later in the book, Brown goes in deepness over the Nat Turner rebellion and what came approximately from that. Overall, this book was merely a list of chronological events that the inkinesss went through went they foremost came over to this state in 1620 all the manner to when they were leaders in the Army in 1863.

William Wells Brown was much more than merely the first black novelist. Brown & # 8217 ; s battle for anti-slavery was non the lone thing he stood for. He made bases against moderation, adult female & # 8217 ; s right to vote and prison reform. He was associated with the most fervent emancipationists like William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. He was a adult male that beat the odds and stood his land for something he believed in. His plants although may be controversial, was direct and to the point. He made people believe and recognize that no 1, irrespective of race should be hypocritical to what he or she says or does. Brown received a batch of controversial feedback for non cognizing all the facts, non cognizing any personal relations of Jefferson, and the chronological incompatibilities in his narrative. The mistiming in Brown & # 8217 ; s Clotel, or the President & # 8217 ; s Daughter, detracted nil from his portraiture of American bondage as he had come to cognize it. Presumably, hence, they were from his point of position and from how he felt about things. Yes, William Wells Brown is much more than merely the first black novelist.