Three Years in Europe | Page 7

two most interesting fugitives, William and Ellen
Craft, arrived in England. They had made their escape from the South,
the wife disguised in male attire, and the husband in the capacity of her
slave. William Craft was doing a thriving business in Boston, but in
1851 was driven with his wife from that city by the operation of the
Fugitive Slave Law. For several months they travelled in company with
Mr. Brown in this country, deepening the disgust created by Mr.
Brown's eloquent denunciation of slavery by their simple but touching
narrative. At length they were enabled to gratify their thirst for
education by gaining admission to Lady Byron's school at Oakham,
Surrey. In the month of May, Mr. Brown and Mr. and Mrs. Craft were
taken by a party of anti-slavery friends to the Great Exhibition. The

honourable manner in which they were received by distinguished
persons to whom their history was known, and the freedom with which
they perambulated the American department, was a salutary rebuke to
the numerous Americans present, in regard to the great sin of their
country--slavery; and its great folly--prejudice of colour. A curious
circumstance occurred during the Exhibition. Among the hosts of
American visitors to this country was Mr. Brown's late master, Enoch
Price, who made diligent inquiry after his lost piece of property--not, of
course, with any view to its reclamation--but, to the mutual regret of
both parties, without success. It is gratifying to state that the master
spoke highly of, and expressed a wish for the future prosperity of, his
fugitive slave; a fact which tends to prove that prejudice of colour is to
a very great extent a thing of locality and association. Had Mr. Price,
however, left behind him letters of manumission for Mr. Brown,
enabling him, if he chose, to return to his native land, he would have
given a more practical proof of respect, and of the sincerity of his
desire for the welfare of Mr. Brown.
It would extend these pages far beyond their proposed length were
anything like a detailed account of Mr. Brown's anti-slavery labours in
this country to be attempted. Suffice it to say that they have everywhere
been attended with benefit and approbation. At Bolton an admirable
address from the ladies was presented to him, and at other places he has
received most honourable testimonials.
Since Mr. Brown left America, the condition of the fugitive slaves in
his own country has, through the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law,
been rendered so perilous as to preclude the possibility of return
without the almost certain loss of liberty. His expatriation has, however,
been a gain to the cause of humanity in this country, where an
intelligent representative of the oppressed coloured Americans is
constantly needed, not only to describe, in language of fervid eloquence,
the wrongs inflicted upon his race in the United States, but to prevent
their bonds being strengthened in this country by holding fellowship
with slave-holding and slave-abetting ministers from America. In his
lectures he has clearly demonstrated the fact, that the sole support of
the slavery of the United States is its churches. This knowledge of the
standing of American ministers in reference to slavery has, in the case
of Dr. Dyer, and in many other instances, been most serviceable,

preventing their reception into communion with British churches. Last
year Mr. Brown succeeded in getting over to this country his daughters,
two interesting girls twelve and sixteen years of age respectively, who
are now receiving an education which will qualify them hereafter to
become teachers in their turn--a description of education which would
have been denied them in their native land. In 1834 Mr. Brown married
a free coloured woman, who died in January of the present year.
The condition of escaped slaves has engaged much of his attention
while in this country. He found that in England no anti-slavery
organization existed whose object was to aid fugitive slaves in
obtaining an honourable subsistence in the land of their exile. In most
cases they are thrown upon the support of a few warm-hearted
anti-slavery advocates in this country, pre-eminent among whom stands
Mr. Brown's earliest friend, Mr. George Thompson, M.P., whose house
is rarely free from one or more of those who have acquired the
designation of his "American constituents." This want has recently
been attempted to be supplied, partly through Mr. Brown's exertions,
and partly by the establishment of the Anglo-American Anti-Slavery
Association.
On the 1st of August, 1851, a meeting of the most novel character was
held at the Hall of Commerce, London, being a soiree given by fugitive
slaves in this country to Mr. George Thompson, on his return from his
American mission on behalf of their race. That meeting was most ably
presided over by Mr. Brown,