The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave

The Narrative of William W.
Brown, a Fugitive Slave

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Title: The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave
Author: William Wells Brown
Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15132]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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NARRATIVE
OF
WILLIAM W. BROWN,
A
FUGITIVE SLAVE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
--Is there not some chosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the stores of
heaven, Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man Who gains his
fortune from the blood of souls?
COWPER.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE,
NO. 25 CORNHILL.
1847.
[Illustration: William W. Brown.]

TO WELLS BROWN, OF OHIO.
Thirteen years ago, I came to your door, a weary fugitive from chains
and stripes. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was hungry, and you
fed me. Naked was I, and you clothed me. Even a name by which to be
known among men, slavery had denied me. You bestowed upon me
your own. Base indeed should I be, if I ever forget what I owe to you,
or do anything to disgrace that honored name!
As a slight testimony of my gratitude to my earliest benefactor, I take
the liberty to inscribe to you this little Narrative of the sufferings from
which I was fleeing when you had compassion upon me. In the
multitude that you have succored, it is very possible that you may not
remember me; but until I forget God and myself, I can never forget
you.
Your grateful friend,
WILLIAM WELLS BROWN.

LETTER FROM
EDMUND QUINCY, ESQ.
DEDHAM, JULY 1, 1847.
TO WILLIAM W. BROWN.
MY DEAR FRIEND:--I heartily thank you for the privilege of reading
the manuscript of your Narrative. I have read it with deep interest and
strong emotion. I am much mistaken if it be not greatly successful and
eminently useful. It presents a different phase of the infernal
slave-system from that portrayed in the admirable story of Mr.

Douglass, and gives us a glimpse of its hideous cruelties in other
portions of its domain.
Your opportunities of observing the workings of this accursed system
have been singularly great. Your experiences in the Field, in the House,
and especially on the River in the service of the slave-trader, Walker,
have been such as few individuals have had;--no one, certainly, who
has been competent to describe them. What I have admired, and
marvelled at, in your Narrative, is the simplicity and calmness with
which you describe scenes and actions which might well "move the
very stones to rise and mutiny" against the National Institution which
makes them possible.
You will perceive that I have made very sparing use of your flattering
permission to alter what you had written. To correct a few errors, which
appeared to be merely clerical ones, committed in the hurry of
composition, under unfavorable circumstances, and to suggest a few
curtailments, is all that I have ventured to do. I should be a bold man,
as well as a vain one, if I should attempt to improve your descriptions
of what you have seen and suffered. Some of the scenes are not
unworthy of De Foe himself.
I trust and believe that your Narrative will have a wide circulation. I am
sure it deserves it. At least, a man must be differently constituted from
me, who can rise from the perusal of your Narrative without feeling
that he understands slavery better, and hates it worse, than he ever did
before.
I am, very faithfully and respectfully,
Your friend,
EDMUND QUINCY.

PREFACE.
The friends of freedom may well congratulate each other on the
appearance of the following Narrative. It adds another volume to the
rapidly increasing anti-slavery literature of the age. It has been
remarked by a close observer of human nature, "Let me make the songs
of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws;" and it may with equal
truth be said, that, among a reading people like our own, their books
will at least give character to their laws. It is an influence which goes
forth noiselessly upon its mission, but fails not to find its way to many

a warm heart, to kindle on the altar thereof the fires of freedom, which
will one day break forth in a living flame