Three Years in Europe
Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met

This 1852 book describes the European travels and impressions of ex-slave and abolitionist William Wells Brown (1814?–84).

William Wells Brown (Author), William Farmer (Assisted by)

9781108075626, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 September 2014

350 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.45 kg

William Wells Brown (1814?–84) 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.

Memoir of William Wells Brown
Author's preface
1. Departure from Boston
2. Trip to Ireland
3. Departure from Ireland
4. Versailles
5. M. de Tocqueville's grand soirée
6. The Tuileries
7. The chateau at Versailles
8. Departure from Paris
9. The British Museum
10. The Whittington Club
11. York Minster
12. Kirkstall abbey
13. Edinburgh
14. Stirling
15. Melrose abbey
16. Miss Martineau
17. A day in the Crystal Palace
18. The London Peace Congress
19. Oxford
20. Fugitive slaves in England
21. A chapter on American slavery
22. A narrative of American slavery
23. Aberdeen.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]