Three Years in Europe | Page 4

slavery. Elizabeth was sold and sent
away south, while her son became the property of a merchant tailor
named Willi. Mr. Brown's description of the final interview between
himself and his mother, is one of the most touching portions of his
narrative. The mother, after expressing her conviction of the speedy
escape from slavery by the hand of death, enjoined her child to

persevere in his endeavours to gain his freedom by flight. Her blessing
was interrupted by the kick and curse bestowed by her dehumanized
master upon her beloved son.
After having been hired for a short time to the captain of the steam-boat
Otto, William was finally sold to Captain Enoch Price for 650 dollars.
That the quickness and intelligence of William rendered him very
valuable as a slave, is favoured by the evidence of Enoch Price himself,
who states that he was offered 2000 dollars for Sanford (as he was
called), in New Orleans. William was strongly urged by his new
mistress to marry. To facilitate this object, she even went so far as to
purchase a girl for whom she fancied he had an affection. He himself,
however, had secretly resolved never to enter into such a connexion
while in slavery, knowing that marriage, in the true and honourable
sense of the term, could not exist among slaves. Notwithstanding the
multitude of petty offences for which a slave is severely punished, it is
singular that one crime--bigamy--is visited upon a white with severity,
while no slave has ever yet been tried for it. In fact, the man is allowed
to form connections with as many women, and the women with as
many men, as they please.
At St. Louis, William was employed as coachman to Mr. Price; but
when that gentleman subsequently took his family up the river to
Cincinnati, Sanford acted as appointed steward. While lying off this
city, the long-looked-for opportunity of escape presented itself; and on
the 1st of January, 1834--he being then almost twenty years of
age--succeeded in getting from the steamer to the wharf, and thence to
the woods, where he lay concealed until the shades of night had set in,
when he again commenced his journey northwards. While with Dr.
Young, a nephew of that gentleman, whose christian name was William,
came into the family: the slave was, therefore, denuded of the name of
William, and thenceforth called Sanford. This deprivation of his
original name he had ever regarded as an indignity, and having now
gained his freedom he resumed his original name; and as there was no
one by whom he could be addressed by it, he exultingly enjoyed the
first-fruits of his freedom by calling himself aloud by his old name
"William!" After passing through a variety of painful vicissitudes, on
the eighth day he found himself destitute of pecuniary means, and
unable, from severe illness, to pursue his journey. In that condition he

was discovered by a venerable member of the Society of Friends, who
placed him in a covered waggon and took him to his own house. There
he remained about fifteen days, and by the kind treatment of his host
and hostess, who were what in America are called "Thompsonians," he
was restored to health, and supplied with the means of pursuing his
journey. The name of this, his first kind benefactor, was "Wells
Brown." As William had risen from the degradation of a slave to the
dignity of a man, it was expedient that he should follow the customs of
other men, and adopt a second name. His venerable friend, therefore,
bestowed upon him his own name, which, prefixed by his former
designation, made him "William Wells Brown," a name that will live in
history, while those of the men who claimed him as property would,
were it not for his deeds, have been unknown beyond the town in which
they lived. In nine days from the time he left Wells Brown's house, he
arrived at Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, where he found he could
remain comparatively safe from the pursuit of the man-stealer. Having
obtained employment as a waiter, he remained in that city until the
following spring, when he procured an engagement on board a
steam-boat plying on Lake Erie. In that situation he was enabled,
during seven months, to assist no less than sixty-nine slaves to escape
to Canada. While a slave he had regarded the whites as the natural
enemies of his race. It was, therefore, with no small pleasure that he
discovered the existence of the salt of America, in the despised
Abolitionists of the Northern States. He read with assiduity the writings
of Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, and others; and after his
own twenty years' experience of slavery, it is not surprising that he
should have enthusiastically