From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Brown, William W.
(born: 1814 - died: November 6, 1884)William Wells Brown was born in Lexington, KY. His mother, Elizabeth, was a slave; his father, George Higgins, was white. Since his mother was a slave, Brown too was a slave. He eventually escaped and made his way north, where he participated in abolitionist activities.
William Wells Brown wrote a play, poems, songs, and books, including Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, the first novel published by an African American. He was also an historian and practiced medicine.
William Wells Brown lived in several locations before dying in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He is buried in the Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge Cemetery.
For more, see From Slave to Abolitionist, by W. W. Brown and L. S. Warner; Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself [full-text at UNC University Library Documenting the American South]; and the William Wells Brown entry in Britannica online and another in the William Wells Brown entry at BlackPast.org.
