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  The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom

• William Wells Brown

   By William Wells Brown, Ezra Greenspan

• Online Books by

  William Wells Brown

• American writer, a career criminal and addict who wrote his first two novels in prison. Goines's books have inspired a number of lyricists from   Tupac Shakur to Noreaga. They have sold over 5 million copies - according to rumors the figure has reached 10 million. His series about Kenyatta (under the name Al C. Clark) describes a black revolutionary, who campaigns against exploitation and evils of inner city life.

• CHRONOLOGY 

   

  1937 He was born in Detroit, Michigan. 

   

  1952 He joined the army 

   

  1955 His tour of duty ended with the army. 

   

  1970 He was released from prison. 

   

  1971 DOPEFIEND: THE STORY OF A BLACK JUNKIE 

   

  1972 WHORESON: THE STORY OF A GHETTO PIMP; BLACK GANGSTER 

   

  1973 BLACK GIRL LOST; STREET PLAYER; WHITE MAN'S JUSTICE, BLACK MAN'S GRIEF 

   

  1974 DADDY COOL; CRIME PARTNERS; ELDORADO RED; NEVER DIE ALONE; SWAMP MAN; CRY REVENGE!; KENYATTA'S ESCAPE; He died after being shot. (October 21) 

   

  1975 INNER CITY HOODLUM; KENYATTA'S LAST HIT 

• Lead Us to Tweet, and Forgive the Trespassers

• which he read aloud at abolitionist meetings in lieu of the typical lecture.

• Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States. By William Wells Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Author of "Three Years in Europe." With a Sketch of the Author's Life:

• William Wells Brown, 1814?-1884

   

  My Southern Home: or, The South and Its People.

• Narrative of William W. Brown,
  an American Slave. Written by Himself: 
  Electronic Edition.
• 

  • LONDON 1849 (where is the 1847 edition?)
• Experience has taught me that nothing can be more heart-rending than for one to see a dear and beloved mother or sister tortured, and to hear their cries, and not be able to render them assistance.  But such is the position which an American slave occupies.

  • see passage in 1847 on gutenberg http://www.diigo.com/06yo3

  • is this the 1st time he slips into 3rd person to distance himself from his non-writer self?

1 more annotation...

• The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, by William Wells Brown

  • http://www.diigo.com/06yr5
• I heard her voice, and knew it, and jumped out of my bunk, and went to the door. Though the field was some distance from the house, I could hear every crack of the whip, and every groan and cry of my poor mother. I remained at the door, not daring to venture any farther. The cold chills ran over me, and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip ceased, and I returned to my bed, and found no consolation but in my tears. It was not yet daylight.

  • http://www.diigo.com/06yr5 on docsouth

  • see 1849 on docsouth http://www.diigo.com/06ynz
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • this is the end of the 3rd paragraph of the 1847 edition, which omits the 3rd person coda that distances him from the feelings

• Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself: 
   Electronic Edition.

• I heard her voice, and knew it, and jumped out of my bunk, and went to the door. Though the field was some distance from the house, I could hear every crack of the whip, and every groan and cry of my poor mother. I remained at the door, not daring 

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  Page 16

   to venture any farther. The cold chills ran over me, and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip ceased, and I returned to my bed, and found no consolation but in my tears. It was not yet daylight.

  • here is the shorter 1847 ediion on docsouth

•   Sex, Blood, and Hybridity: The Discourse of Racial Anxiety in Antebellum Writing NeMLA 2012 Rochester, Deadline: September 30, 2011        

  Location:	New York, United States
  Call for Papers Date:	2011-09-30
  Date Submitted:	2011-07-30
  Announcement ID:	186893

• "Deadwood Dick" on Uncle Tom

• Submission Guidelines

• Why Did African Slaves Adopt the Bible?

• The Signifying Monkey

• Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy."
• It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly

• From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was  

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  Page 34

      just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
• The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both.

2 more annotations...