Josephine Brown presents a detailed biography of her father, William Wells Brown, who was born on a plantation but escaped to become a successful abolitionist. Biography of an American Bondman by His Daughter is a viable supplement to the original Narrative of William W. Brown: A Fugitive Slave Biography of an American Bondman by His Daughter gives new insight into William Wells Brown's eventful life. Josephine Brown presents a vivid account of his origins which began on a Kentucky plantation. She explains the glaring power imbalance between enslaved people, their overseers and plantation owners. She also explains how her father was hired out to perform various odd jobs including innkeeper, steamboat captain and even slave trafficker. It was a brutal existence where patience and persistence were key to survival. An illuminating record of one of the most prominent figures in the abolitionist movement. Josephine Brown provides an updated history of her father's personal and professional achievements. It's an eye-opening account of William Wells Brown's revolutionary life. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Biography of an American Bondman by His Daughter is both modern and readable.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

FIVE different biographies of the subject of the following pages have been published, during the last seven years, --two in the United States and three in Great Britain. Of these, one was translated into German, and appeared in Dresden, and another was published in the French language in Paris. The writer of this, however, fancies that the relation which she holds to the author of "SKETCHES OF PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD," gives her an advantage over those who have preceded her. WILLIAM WELLS BROWN was born on the farm of Dr. John Young, near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 15th of March, 1815. His father's name was George Higgins, half brother to Dr. Young. The Doctor removed to the State of Missouri, and took with him William and his mother, the former being then an infant. Dr. Young located himself in the interior of the State, sixty miles above St. Louis, in a beautiful and fertile valley, a mile from the river. A finer situation for a farm could scarcely have been selected in any part of the country. With a climate favorable to agriculture, and soil rich, the most splendid crops of tobacco, hemp, flax and grain were produced on the new plantation. On this farm, Elizabeth (William's mother) was put to work at field service. Distinguished for her strength both of body and mind, and a woman of great courage, Elizabeth was considered one of the most valuable slaves on the place. Although Dr. Young was not thought to be the hardest of masters, he nevertheless employed, as an overseer, a man whose acts of atrocity could scarcely have been surpassed in any of the slave States. Grove Cook was a large, tall man, with rough features, red hair, grey eyes, and large, bushy eyebrows, which gave his face the appearance of a spaniel dog. Like most negro drivers, Cook was addicted to drunkenness, and when the least intoxicated, would use the whip without mercy upon those with whom he came in contact. This was the man selected by Dr. Young to look after his plantation, and superintend its affairs

Narrative of the author's experiences as a slave in St. Louis and elsewhere.

To Tell A Free Story traces in unprecedented detail the history of Black autobiography from the colonial era through Emancipation. Beginning with the 1760 narrative by Briton Hammond, William L. Andrews explores first-person public writings by Black Americans. Andrews includes but also goes beyond slave narratives to analyze spiritual biographies, criminal confessions, captivity stories, travel accounts, interviews, and memoirs. As he shows, Black writers continuously faced the fact that northern whites often refused to accept their stories and memories as sincere, and especially distrusted portraits of southern whites as inhuman. Black writers had to silence parts of their stories or rely on subversive methods to make facts tellable while contending with the sensibilities of the white editors, publishers, and readers they relied upon and hoped to reach.

Our Nig is a classic of African American Literature that has proven to be an enduring contribution to our understanding of free blacks in the nineteenth century. Originally published in 1859, it was neglected for over a hundred years and is now the subject of renewed scholarly interest. A fascinating fusion of two literary modes of the nineteenth century--the sentimental novel and the slave narrative--Our Nig traces the trials and tribulations of Frado, a mulatto girl who grows up as an indentured servant to a white Massachusetts family. And now, as new scholarship sheds light on the author's life, our appreciation for Our Nig is enhanced. With a new afterword by Barbara A. White.

Bevat: 'Biography of an American bondman, by his daughter' - Boston: R.F. Wallcut, 1856 en 'Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delancy' - Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1883.