Image: By Christian Gallichio, PhD Candidate, Department of English, University of Georgia Second only to Frederick Douglass’s The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in “popularity and sales,” William Wells Brown’s 1847 autobiography Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, published in the US,recounts Brown’s life during slavery (Andrews 3). While working as a “house servant – a situation preferable to that of a field hand” in Kentucky, Brown eventually plotted “an opportunity to make my escape from slavery,” realized eventual freedom, and worked with the Liberator antislavery newspaper by devoting “time to the cause of my enslaved countrymen” (Brown, Fugitive Slave 15, 89, 108). Brown’s memoir was immensely popular in the nineteenth century, going through nine editions, in total, before becoming overshadowed by Douglass’s writing and Brown’s own fictional work. Despite this critical neglect, Fugitive Slave “typifies in its subject matter and development the basic plot structure of the antebellum slave narrative” (Andrews 5). In addition to his abolitionist work in America, Brown truly made a name for himself in England. He moved there after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and remaining until 1854. Yet Brown’s lasting influence on the transatlantic abolitionist movement is clear in the preface to the English edition of memoir, retitled Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave. Brown makes clear in the introductionhis “desire, in common with every abolitionist, to diminish [slaveholders’] influence [through] the promulgation of truth, and the cultivation of a correct public sentiment at home and abroad” (Brown, American Slave iv). Unlike the original printing of Fugitive Slave, Brown’s English edition subtly revises the original memoir. He removes “fugitive” from the title and authoritatively declares his “American” identity in its place. Brownincludes two hand-drawn images not seen in the American edition. The first, shown above, and printed after the preface, foreshadows Brown’s perilous journey to freedom. The image corresponds to Brown’s first failed attempt at escape, when he “ran away, and went into the woods [where he] heard the barking and howling of dogs” (Brown, American Slave 21). These images, the second detailing a slave-trader “driving a gang of slaves” occurring midway through the narrative, helped galvanize his transatlantic popularity. He continued to publish memoirs, including Three Years in Europe, or Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met (1852), the “first travel book authored by an African American” (Brown, American Slave 48; Andrews 4). Works Cited Andrews, William L. “Introduction.” From Fugitive Slave to Free Man: The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Brown, William Wells. Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself. 1st ed. Boston: The Anti-Slavery Office, No. 25 Cornhill, 1847. Brown, William Wells. Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave. Written by Himself. 6th ed. London: Charles Gilpin, Bishopgate-St. Without, 1849.
