Three Years in Europe

William Wells Brown (1814?â84) was uncertain of his own birthday because he was born a slave near Lexington Kentucky. He managed to escape to Ohio a free state in 1834. Obtaining work on steamboats he assisted many other slaves to escape across Lake Erie to Canada. In 1849 having achieved prominence in the American anti-slavery movement he left for Europe both to lecture against slavery and also to gain an education for his daughters. He stayed in Europe until 1854 since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had made it possible that he could be taken back into slavery if he returned. Meanwhile he had begun to write both fiction and non-fiction and this account of his travels in Europe prefaced by a short biography was published in 1852. Brown was able to return to the United States in 1854 when British friends paid for his freedom. Language: English