The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave | Page 2

to consume oppression.
This little book is a voice from the prison-house, unfolding the deeds of
darkness which are there perpetrated. Our cause has received efficient
aid from this source. The names of those who have come from thence,
and battled manfully for the right, need not to be recorded here. The
works of some of them are an enduring monument of praise, and their
perpetual record shall be found in the grateful hearts of the redeemed
bondman.
Few persons have had greater facilities for becoming acquainted with
slavery, in all its horrible aspects, than William W. Brown. He has been
behind the curtain. He has visited its secret chambers. Its iron has
entered his own soul. The dearest ties of nature have been riven in his
own person. A mother has been cruelly scourged before his own eyes.
A father,--alas! slaves have no father. A brother has been made the
subject of its tender mercies. A sister has been given up to the
irresponsible control of the pale-faced oppressor. This nation looks on
approvingly. The American Union sanctions the deed. The Constitution
shields the criminals. American religion sanctifies the crime. But the
tide is turning. Already, a mighty under-current is sweeping onward.
The voice of warning, of remonstrance, of rebuke, of entreaty, has gone
forth. Hand is linked in hand, and heart mingles with heart, in this great
work of the slave's deliverance.
The convulsive throes of the monster, even now, give evidence of deep
wounds.
The writer of this Narrative was hired by his master to a
"_soul-driver_," and has witnessed all the horrors of the traffic, from
the buying up of human cattle in the slave-breeding States, which
produced a constant scene of separating the victims from all those
whom they loved, to their final sale in the southern market, to be
worked up in seven years, or given over to minister to the lust of
southern Christians.
Many harrowing scenes are graphically portrayed; and yet with that
simplicity and ingenuousness which carries with it a conviction of the
truthfulness of the picture.
This book will do much to unmask those who have "clothed themselves
in the livery of the court of heaven" to cover up the enormity of their

deeds.
During the past three years, the author has devoted his entire energies
to the anti-slavery cause. Laboring under all the disabilities and
disadvantages growing out of his education in slavery--subjected, as he
had been from his birth, to all the wrongs and deprivations incident to
his condition--he yet went forth, impelled to the work by a love of
liberty--stimulated by the remembrance of his own sufferings--urged on
by the consideration that a mother, brothers, and sister, were still
grinding in the prison-house of bondage, in common with three
millions of our Father's children--sustained by an unfaltering faith in
the omnipotence of truth and the final triumph of justice--to plead the
cause of the slave, and by the eloquence of earnestness carried
conviction to many minds, and enlisted the sympathy and secured the
co-operation of many to the cause.
His labors have been chiefly confined to Western New York, where he
has secured many warm friends, by his untiring zeal, persevering
energy, continued fidelity, and universal kindness.
Reader, are you an Abolitionist? What have you done for the slave?
What are you doing in his behalf? What do you purpose to do? There is
a great work before us! Who will be an idler now? This is the great
humanitary movement of the age, swallowing up, for the time being, all
other questions, comparatively speaking. The course of human events,
in obedience to the unchangeable laws of our being, is fast hastening
the final crisis, and
"Have ye chosen, O my people, on whose party ye shall stand, Ere the
Doom from its worn sandal shakes the dust against our land?"
Are you a Christian? This is the carrying out of practical Christianity;
and there is no other. Christianity is practical in its very nature and
essence. It is a life, springing out of a soul imbued with its spirit. Are
you a friend of the missionary cause? This is the greatest missionary
enterprize of the day. Three millions of Christian, law-manufactured
heathen are longing for the glad tidings of the Gospel of freedom. Are
you a friend of the Bible? Come, then, and help us to restore to these
millions, whose eyes have been bored out by slavery, their sight, that
they may see to read the Bible. Do you love God whom you have not
seen? Then manifest that love, by restoring to your brother whom you
have seen, his rightful inheritance, of which he has been so long and so

cruelly deprived.
It is not for a single generation alone, numbering three
millions--sublime as would be