William Wells Brown (c.1814–1884)
DOI link for William Wells Brown (c.1814–1884)
William Wells Brown (c.1814–1884) book
In 2014, historian Ezra Greenspan published a book on William Wells Brown that, amongst other things, sought to recover the memory of the abolitionist from historical oblivion. In it, he suggested that Brown was ‘the most pioneering and accomplished African American writer and cultural impresario of the nineteenth century’. Due to a combination of the Queen’s visit to the country and the shortness of Brown’s visit to Ireland, there was only time for one public lecture. Brown spoke in the Rotundo Rooms on 16 August 1849. The publicity described him as ‘a self-emancipated slave’, adding that his daring escape meant that he had achieved ‘at last in his own person the triumph of perseverance in the cause of freedom’. One of Brown’s main purposes in Ireland was to oversee the reprinting of his Narrative, which had first appeared in 1847. In 1864, Brown embarked on a rigorous lecture tour, during which he argued that freedom should also mean equality.