O BIOGRAPHY OF AN AMERICAN BONDMAN, BY HIS DAUGHTER. "THEY who sell mothers by the pound, and children in lots to suit purchasers— "LET us not require too much of slavery. Let us not insist that the slaves shall 1 BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY R. F. WALLCUT, 21 CORNHILL. 1856. 8978,67 1667, Aug. 31. Gift of Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five, BY JOSEPHINE BROWN, In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. BOSTON: J. B. YERRINTON AND SON, PRINTERS. PREFACE. WHILE at school in France, I was often beset by my fellow students to know the history of my father, whom they heard was a fugitive from American despotism. To satisfy their curiosity, I wrote out the first ten chapters of the following pages, as I had heard the incidents related. On returning to America last August, and finding that the narrative of my father's life, written by him, and published some years ago, was out of print, I determined to supply its place; and therefore have added a few more chapters to those written while abroad. BOSTON, MASS. JOSEPHINE BROWN. BIOGRAPHY OF AN AMERICAN BONDMAN. CHAPTER I. "Rouse ye, and break the massive chain, And check the sorrow and the pain FIVE different biographies of the subject of the following pages have been published, during the last seven years, two in the United States and three in Great Britain. Of these, one was translated into German, and appeared in Dresden, and another was published in the French language in Paris. The writer of this, however, fancies that the relation which she holds to the author of "SKETCHES OF PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD," gives her an advantage over those who have preceded her. WILLIAM WELLS BROWN was born on the farm of Dr. John Young, near Lexington, Kentucky, on the |