William Wells Brown

Williams Wells Brown was born to an enslaved woman had her master William Wells Brownwho escaped to freedom in 1834 after about 20 years of enslavement, first rose to prominence as an anti-slavery speaker and activist. His 1847 slave narrative, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, made him a bigger draw and he traveled to England. There, in 1853, he published Clotel; or The President’s Daughter, widely considered the first published novel by an African-American. Controversial for its story line of tracing several mixed-race female descendants of Thomas Jefferson, a reference to the long rumored relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Clotel helped pave the way for other African-American novels that explored miscegenation and passing.


This article was written by: Ronda Racha Penrice