Okay, so it’s 1814. On a small plantation somewhere out by Lexington, Kentucky Elizabeth, an enslaved woman, gives birth to a lil baby boy named William. Elizabeth was being held captive on the estate of a doctor named John Young. William’s father was George W. Higgins. Higgins also worked on the plantation and was John Young’s cousin…it was all bad. George formally acknowledged William as his child and asked his cousin not to sell William. John Young was like, “Suuuuuure, cousin, of course, I won’t.” …and then he did. William and his mother would be literally sold as property several more times before he reached the age of nineteen.
William and Elizabeth eventually ended up in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1833 the mother and son duo said, “To hell with ALL all of this” and escaped from their St. Louis plantation, making it all the way across the Mississippi River before ultimately being captured and separated. The next year William made a second escape on a steamboat. That steamboat was heading straight for Cincinnati, Ohio which was a free state at the time.
In Ohio, he started calling himself Wells Brown and began kicking it with the Quakers. He got himself educated, quickly learning how to read and write and just DEVOURING every piece of text he could get his hands on. He fell in love with reading, something he certainly didn’t have the chance to do before! He soon caught the eye of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an abolitionist, and journalist. Elijah hired Wells at his printing office.
He meets a young woman, ALSO named Elizabeth and the two marry and have two daughters. In 1836 the family moves to Buffalo, New York where Wells takes up work on a steamboat. Well, y'all know my guy Wells knows what to do with a steamboat. He started helping a BUNCH of formerly enslaved folks get to freedom on his vessel. He joined several anti-slavery societies, became a community organizer, and got in tight with the local abolitionist movements in Buffalo.
In 1847 Wells published his memoir, Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself. The book became a bestseller. Wells told the WHOLE story and spared no details about the horrors he had experienced before the age of twenty.
But, look, he was also a father! He wanted his daughters to get the education he was denied, so in 1849 he and his daughters get up out of the country and head to England. He traveled around the UK giving lectures against slavery and became a super popular public speaker. He published an account of his travels in 1852 titled, Three Years in Europe: or Places I Have Seen And People I Have Met.
This was where he also wrote his first novel in 1853, Clotel, which was a fictionalized story of Thomas Jefferson’s two Black daughters. Now, this would've made him the first published Black novelist in the US, but because it was first published in England another novelist has the US title. But like…Wells wrote it first, I don’t know what to tell y’all!
He spent five years in the UK before returning back to America, where he wrote two plays called (and I’m not making this up): The Escape and Experience; or How to Give a Northern Man a Backbone! DAMN! This also made him America’s first Black playwright.
During the Civil War, William Wells Brown became one of the most prolific writers of his era. He would also be very active in finding Black recruits to join the Union Army.
So, after the war, he started studying homeopathic medicine and ended up owning his own medical practice in Boston. He was practicing medicine all the way up until 1882. He left Boston for the nearby city of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Two years after his move he would pass away on November 6, 1884 at the age of 70.
Okay, so on my checklist we got: first Black novelist, first Black playwright, abolitionist, escaped from slavery…twice, helped many other folks escape from slavery, and then become a medicine man? Yeah, as far as a historic life, I’d say he’s pretty much hitting all the boxes. In all seriousness though, the bravery and fortitude of this man were incredible, and I’m so grateful to be able to once again share the story of Black triumph. Thank you, William Wells, Thank you!
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