Brown, William Wells

William Wells Brown (1814 - 1884) was an American novelist, abolitionist lecturer, playwright, and historian. He was born near Lexington, Kentucky to a white father and African slave mother and escaped slavery in 1834. After serving as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and a steam boatman, Brown worked for abolitionist causes and became a lecturer and a prolific writer. His best - known works include The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1842) and Clotel (1853). ;

The first Afro-American author of a published novel, Brown is internationally renowned as a writer, dramatist, lecturer, historian and an abolitionist. His reputation as a skilled public speaker led to his representing the New York Anti-Slavery Society.;