July 25, 2025 • 14 mins
Delve into the captivating life of an American Bondman, as lovingly presented by his daughter, Josephine Brown. This biography not only revisits the significant experiences documented in her fathers own narratives, but also introduces fresh anecdotes and her unique perspective on his life. While the book draws heavily from previously published autobiographical accounts, it is enriched by a narrative style brimming with humor and wit. As observed by Andrews, the biographys exceptional contribution to the legacy of William Wells Brown is the insights it provides into the rhetorical strategies employed by both father and daughter in their united stand against slavery.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapters twenty three and twenty four of Biography of an
American Bondman by his Daughter by Josephine Brown. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty three. I
bettered not by creed or clan, or gold, or land
(00:22):
or sea. You roam through the world of light and life,
rejoicing you are free. In the spring of eighteen fifty four,
a few ladies, personal friends of mister Brown in England,
wishing to secure to him the right of returning to
the United States at any time that he might feel
(00:42):
inclined without the liability of being arrested as a fugitive slave,
negotiated with his old master for the purchase of his freedom.
As it may be interesting to the reader to know
how an American disposes of his neighbours, we give below
the bill of sale called a deed of emancipation. Know
(01:06):
all men by these presents that I enoch price of
the City and County of Saint Louis and State of Missouri,
for and in consideration of the summer three hundred dollars
to be paid to Joseph Greeley, my agent in Boston, Massachusetts,
by Miss Ellen Richardson or her agent on the delivery
(01:27):
of this paper to emancipate, set free, and liberate from slavery.
A Mulatto man named Sandford Higgins, alias William Wells Brown,
that I purchased a Samuel Willie on the second of
October eighteen thirty three. Said Brown is now in the
fortieth year of his age. And I do acknowledge that
(01:50):
no other person holds any claim on him as a
slave but myself in witness whereof I hereunto set my hand,
and see this twenty fourth day of April eighteen fifty
four Enoch Price, Witness Oliver Harris, John A Hassen, State
of Missouri, County of Saint Louis SS, in the Saint
(02:14):
Louis Circuit Court, April term eighteen fifty four April twenty
fifth be it remembered that on this twenty fifth day
of April eighteen hundred and fifty four, in the open court,
came Enoch Price, who is personally known to the court
to be the same person whose name is subscribed to
(02:34):
the foregoing instrument of writing, as a party there too,
and he acknowledged the same to be his act and
deed for the purposes therein mentioned, which set acknowledgment is
entered on the record of the Court of that day
in testimony, whereof I hereto set my hand and affixed
the seal of said Court at office in the City
(02:58):
of Saint Louis, the day and dad year last, afore said,
William J. Hammond, Clerk, State of Missouri, County of Saint Louis,
ss I. William J. Hammond, Clerk of the Circuit Court
in and for the County, aforesaid, certify the four going
to be a true and correct copy of the deed
(03:20):
of emancipation from Enich Price to Sandford Higgins alias William
Wells Brown, as fully as the same remains in my
office in testimony, whereof I hereto set my hand and
affix the seal of said Court at office in the
City of Saint Louis, this twenty fifth day of April
eighteen hundred and fifty four, William J. Hammond, Clerk, State
(03:44):
of Missouri, County of Saint Louis, ss I. Alexander Hamilton,
Sole Judge of the Circuit Court within and for the
eighth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, composed of
the County of Saint Louis, certify the William J. Hammond,
whose name is subscribed to the foregoing certificate, was at
(04:05):
the date thereof, and now is Clerk of the Circuit
Court within and for the County of Saint Louis, duly
elected and qualified that his certificate is in due form
of law, and that full faith and credit are and
should be given to all such his official acts given
under my hand at the City of Saint Louis, this
(04:26):
twenty sixth day of April eighteen hundred and fifty four.
A Hamilton judge. July seventh, eighteen fifty four, I have
received this day William I. Bowditch's check on the Globe
Bank for three hundred dollars in full for the consideration
of the foregoing instrument of emancipation Joseph Greeley, by Thomas
(04:50):
Page's authority. The foregoing reader is a true copy of
the bill of sale by which a democratic Christian American
will his fellow countrymen for British gold. Let this paper
be read and the fact wrung in the ears of
our nervous Negro aristocracy, who are upholding an institution which
(05:13):
withers and curses the land, which blasts everything that it touches,
which lies like an incubus on the nation's breast, which
overshadows the genius of the American Revolution, and makes our
countrymen the scorn and by word of the inhabitants of
monarchical Europe. End of Chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty four, Hail,
(05:42):
noble hearted, sympathetic band men of hope, giving speed and
ready hand, followers of the lowly one who first began
to plead for charity to fall in man. As it
regards social position, any government is preferable to that of
the United States. For a colored person to live under.
(06:04):
The prejudice which exists in most of the American states
against people of color is unknown in any European country. This, therefore,
is a great inducement to colored Americans to take up
their residence abroad. Although recognized as a man and treated
with deference by all he met, mister Brown wished to
(06:24):
return to the United States. His feelings and inclinations were
all with the slave and his friends, and his so
yearned to be where the great battle for freedom was
being fought. With such feelings, he had no wish to
remain in England. When informed by his friends that his
liberty had been secured. He therefore made preparations to return
(06:47):
home immediately. The following from sketches of places and people abroad,
will give some idea of the now free man's feelings
when preparing for his departure from London. A change five
years make in one's history. The summer of eighteen forty
nine found me a stranger in a foreign land, unknown
(07:09):
to its inhabitants. Its laws, customs, and history were a
blank to me. But how different the summer of eighteen
fifty four. During my sojourn, I had traveled over nearly
every railroad in England and Scotland, and had visited Ireland
and Wales. Besides spending some weeks on the continent, I
(07:31):
had become so well acquainted with the British people and
their history that I had begun to fancy myself an
Englishman by habit if not by birth. The treatment which
I had experienced at their hands had endeared them to
me and caused me to feel myself at home wherever
I went. Under such circumstances, it was not strange that
(07:52):
I commenced with palpitating heart the preparations to return to
my native land, native land. How harshly that word sounds
in my ears. True America was the land of my birth.
My grandfather had taken part in her revolution, had enriched
the soil with his blood. Yet upon this soil I
(08:14):
had been worked as a slave. I seemed to hear
the sound of the auctioneer's rough voice as I stood
on the block in the slave market at Saint Louis.
I shall never forget the savage grin with which he
welcomed a higher bid when he thought he had received
the last offer. I had seen my mother sold and
(08:34):
taken to the cotton fields of the far South. Three
brothers had been bartered to the sole drivers in my presence.
A dear sister had been sold to the Negro dealer
and driven away by him. I had seen the rusty
chains fastened upon her delicate wrists. The whip had been
applied to my own person, and the marks of the
(08:56):
brutal driver's lash were still on my body. Yet this
was my native land, And to this land was I
about to embark. Mister Brown came home in the steamship
city of Manchester and landed at Philadelphia, where a reception
was given to him. The meeting says the Anti Slavery
(09:17):
Standard was held in the brick Wesley Church, which was
crowded to its utmost capacity, with the friends of mister
Brown and the public generally to extend to him the
most cordial token of regard. The fact that he had
faithfully and nobly represented his enslaved countrymen while in Europe
was too obvious in the estimation of those who had
(09:40):
assembled to welcome and greet him on his return to
admit of a shadow of doubt. During the five years
that mister Brown had passed in Europe, his numerous friends,
especially the colored man, have had great cause of satisfaction
and gratification in looking over his labors as elected, presenting
(10:00):
the claims of his brethren in bonds, as an author,
constantly using his pen in enlightening the British people on
the monstrous iniquities of slavery, and likewise contributing to the
demands of literature and knowledge in other respects, two of
his works having been published and creditably noticed by the
(10:21):
press of Great Britain. Robert purvis Es, one of the
most devoted friends of the slave, presided over the meeting
and at its close the following resolutions were unanimously adopted.
Resolved that we rejoice in the opportunity afforded by this
meeting of greeting our friend William Wells Brown on his
(10:41):
return to this country, and that we hereby avail ourselves
of it to extend to him our heartiest assurances of welcome.
Resolved that our thanks are due to mister Brown for
the zeal and fidelity with which he has advocated the
cause of freedom and the interest of the colored man
in Great Britain, And that we are severally grateful to
(11:04):
him for leaving our country, where a black man labors
under no disabilities, and where there is no prejudice against color,
to return to this land of slavery and labour for
the disenthrallment of his brethren from the hate of the
white man and the chains of the slaveholder. At Boston.
A meeting was held in on at which Francis Jackson Esquire,
(11:29):
the stanch Friend of Humanity, presided. Speeches were made by
William Lord Garrison, William C. Nell, and Wendell Phillips. The
last named speaker, in welcoming mister Brown, said, I rejoice
that our friend Brown went abroad. I rejoice still more
that he has returned the years. Any thoughtful man spends
(11:50):
abroad must enlarge his mind and store it richly. But
such a visit is to a colored man more than
merely intellectual. At Uk, he lives for the first time
free from the blighting chill of prejudice. He sees no society,
no institution, no place of resort or means of comfort
(12:12):
from which his color debars him. After mentioning some amusing
instances of the surprise of Americans at this absence of
prejudice abroad, mister Phillips said, we have to thank our
friend for the fidelity with which he has amid many
temptations stood by those whose good name religious prejudice is
(12:34):
trying to undermine in Great Britain that land is not
all paradise to the colored man. Too many of them
allow themselves to be made tools of the most subtle
foes of their race. We recognize tonight the clear sightedness
and fidelity of mister Brown's course abroad, not only to
thank him, but to assure our friends there that this
(12:57):
is but the abolitionists of Boston endorse. Mister Phillips proceeded,
I still more rejoice that mister Brown has returned, returned
to what not, to what he can call his country.
The white man comes home. When Milton heard in Italy
the sound of arms from England, he hastened back, young, enthusiastic,
(13:21):
and bathed in beautiful art as he was in Florence.
I would not be away, he said, when a blow
was struck for liberty. He came to a country where
his manhood was recognized to fight on equal footing. The
black man comes home to no liberty, but the liberty
of suffering, to struggle in fetters for the welfare of
(13:44):
his race. It is a magnanimous sympathy with his blood
that brings such a man back. I honor it. We
meet to do it. Honor. Franklin's motto was Ubi libertas
ibby patriae. Where liberty is there is my country. Had
our friend adopted that for his rule, he would have
(14:07):
stayed in Europe. Liberty for him is there. The colored man,
who returns, like our friend to labor, crushed and despised
for his race, sails under a higher flag. His mother is.
Where my country is? There will I bring liberty? End
(14:27):
of Chapter twenty four. End of Biography of an American
Bondman by his daughter, by Josephine Brown,
Chapters twenty three and twenty four of Biography of an
American Bondman by his Daughter by Josephine Brown. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty three. I
bettered not by creed or clan, or gold, or land
(00:22):
or sea. You roam through the world of light and life,
rejoicing you are free. In the spring of eighteen fifty four,
a few ladies, personal friends of mister Brown in England,
wishing to secure to him the right of returning to
the United States at any time that he might feel
(00:42):
inclined without the liability of being arrested as a fugitive slave,
negotiated with his old master for the purchase of his freedom.
As it may be interesting to the reader to know
how an American disposes of his neighbours, we give below
the bill of sale called a deed of emancipation. Know
(01:06):
all men by these presents that I enoch price of
the City and County of Saint Louis and State of Missouri,
for and in consideration of the summer three hundred dollars
to be paid to Joseph Greeley, my agent in Boston, Massachusetts,
by Miss Ellen Richardson or her agent on the delivery
(01:27):
of this paper to emancipate, set free, and liberate from slavery.
A Mulatto man named Sandford Higgins, alias William Wells Brown,
that I purchased a Samuel Willie on the second of
October eighteen thirty three. Said Brown is now in the
fortieth year of his age. And I do acknowledge that
(01:50):
no other person holds any claim on him as a
slave but myself in witness whereof I hereunto set my hand,
and see this twenty fourth day of April eighteen fifty
four Enoch Price, Witness Oliver Harris, John A Hassen, State
of Missouri, County of Saint Louis SS, in the Saint
(02:14):
Louis Circuit Court, April term eighteen fifty four April twenty
fifth be it remembered that on this twenty fifth day
of April eighteen hundred and fifty four, in the open court,
came Enoch Price, who is personally known to the court
to be the same person whose name is subscribed to
(02:34):
the foregoing instrument of writing, as a party there too,
and he acknowledged the same to be his act and
deed for the purposes therein mentioned, which set acknowledgment is
entered on the record of the Court of that day
in testimony, whereof I hereto set my hand and affixed
the seal of said Court at office in the City
(02:58):
of Saint Louis, the day and dad year last, afore said,
William J. Hammond, Clerk, State of Missouri, County of Saint Louis,
ss I. William J. Hammond, Clerk of the Circuit Court
in and for the County, aforesaid, certify the four going
to be a true and correct copy of the deed
(03:20):
of emancipation from Enich Price to Sandford Higgins alias William
Wells Brown, as fully as the same remains in my
office in testimony, whereof I hereto set my hand and
affix the seal of said Court at office in the
City of Saint Louis, this twenty fifth day of April
eighteen hundred and fifty four, William J. Hammond, Clerk, State
(03:44):
of Missouri, County of Saint Louis, ss I. Alexander Hamilton,
Sole Judge of the Circuit Court within and for the
eighth Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri, composed of
the County of Saint Louis, certify the William J. Hammond,
whose name is subscribed to the foregoing certificate, was at
(04:05):
the date thereof, and now is Clerk of the Circuit
Court within and for the County of Saint Louis, duly
elected and qualified that his certificate is in due form
of law, and that full faith and credit are and
should be given to all such his official acts given
under my hand at the City of Saint Louis, this
(04:26):
twenty sixth day of April eighteen hundred and fifty four.
A Hamilton judge. July seventh, eighteen fifty four, I have
received this day William I. Bowditch's check on the Globe
Bank for three hundred dollars in full for the consideration
of the foregoing instrument of emancipation Joseph Greeley, by Thomas
(04:50):
Page's authority. The foregoing reader is a true copy of
the bill of sale by which a democratic Christian American
will his fellow countrymen for British gold. Let this paper
be read and the fact wrung in the ears of
our nervous Negro aristocracy, who are upholding an institution which
(05:13):
withers and curses the land, which blasts everything that it touches,
which lies like an incubus on the nation's breast, which
overshadows the genius of the American Revolution, and makes our
countrymen the scorn and by word of the inhabitants of
monarchical Europe. End of Chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty four, Hail,
(05:42):
noble hearted, sympathetic band men of hope, giving speed and
ready hand, followers of the lowly one who first began
to plead for charity to fall in man. As it
regards social position, any government is preferable to that of
the United States. For a colored person to live under.
(06:04):
The prejudice which exists in most of the American states
against people of color is unknown in any European country. This, therefore,
is a great inducement to colored Americans to take up
their residence abroad. Although recognized as a man and treated
with deference by all he met, mister Brown wished to
(06:24):
return to the United States. His feelings and inclinations were
all with the slave and his friends, and his so
yearned to be where the great battle for freedom was
being fought. With such feelings, he had no wish to
remain in England. When informed by his friends that his
liberty had been secured. He therefore made preparations to return
(06:47):
home immediately. The following from sketches of places and people abroad,
will give some idea of the now free man's feelings
when preparing for his departure from London. A change five
years make in one's history. The summer of eighteen forty
nine found me a stranger in a foreign land, unknown
(07:09):
to its inhabitants. Its laws, customs, and history were a
blank to me. But how different the summer of eighteen
fifty four. During my sojourn, I had traveled over nearly
every railroad in England and Scotland, and had visited Ireland
and Wales. Besides spending some weeks on the continent, I
(07:31):
had become so well acquainted with the British people and
their history that I had begun to fancy myself an
Englishman by habit if not by birth. The treatment which
I had experienced at their hands had endeared them to
me and caused me to feel myself at home wherever
I went. Under such circumstances, it was not strange that
(07:52):
I commenced with palpitating heart the preparations to return to
my native land, native land. How harshly that word sounds
in my ears. True America was the land of my birth.
My grandfather had taken part in her revolution, had enriched
the soil with his blood. Yet upon this soil I
(08:14):
had been worked as a slave. I seemed to hear
the sound of the auctioneer's rough voice as I stood
on the block in the slave market at Saint Louis.
I shall never forget the savage grin with which he
welcomed a higher bid when he thought he had received
the last offer. I had seen my mother sold and
(08:34):
taken to the cotton fields of the far South. Three
brothers had been bartered to the sole drivers in my presence.
A dear sister had been sold to the Negro dealer
and driven away by him. I had seen the rusty
chains fastened upon her delicate wrists. The whip had been
applied to my own person, and the marks of the
(08:56):
brutal driver's lash were still on my body. Yet this
was my native land, And to this land was I
about to embark. Mister Brown came home in the steamship
city of Manchester and landed at Philadelphia, where a reception
was given to him. The meeting says the Anti Slavery
(09:17):
Standard was held in the brick Wesley Church, which was
crowded to its utmost capacity, with the friends of mister
Brown and the public generally to extend to him the
most cordial token of regard. The fact that he had
faithfully and nobly represented his enslaved countrymen while in Europe
was too obvious in the estimation of those who had
(09:40):
assembled to welcome and greet him on his return to
admit of a shadow of doubt. During the five years
that mister Brown had passed in Europe, his numerous friends,
especially the colored man, have had great cause of satisfaction
and gratification in looking over his labors as elected, presenting
(10:00):
the claims of his brethren in bonds, as an author,
constantly using his pen in enlightening the British people on
the monstrous iniquities of slavery, and likewise contributing to the
demands of literature and knowledge in other respects, two of
his works having been published and creditably noticed by the
(10:21):
press of Great Britain. Robert purvis Es, one of the
most devoted friends of the slave, presided over the meeting
and at its close the following resolutions were unanimously adopted.
Resolved that we rejoice in the opportunity afforded by this
meeting of greeting our friend William Wells Brown on his
(10:41):
return to this country, and that we hereby avail ourselves
of it to extend to him our heartiest assurances of welcome.
Resolved that our thanks are due to mister Brown for
the zeal and fidelity with which he has advocated the
cause of freedom and the interest of the colored man
in Great Britain, And that we are severally grateful to
(11:04):
him for leaving our country, where a black man labors
under no disabilities, and where there is no prejudice against color,
to return to this land of slavery and labour for
the disenthrallment of his brethren from the hate of the
white man and the chains of the slaveholder. At Boston.
A meeting was held in on at which Francis Jackson Esquire,
(11:29):
the stanch Friend of Humanity, presided. Speeches were made by
William Lord Garrison, William C. Nell, and Wendell Phillips. The
last named speaker, in welcoming mister Brown, said, I rejoice
that our friend Brown went abroad. I rejoice still more
that he has returned the years. Any thoughtful man spends
(11:50):
abroad must enlarge his mind and store it richly. But
such a visit is to a colored man more than
merely intellectual. At Uk, he lives for the first time
free from the blighting chill of prejudice. He sees no society,
no institution, no place of resort or means of comfort
(12:12):
from which his color debars him. After mentioning some amusing
instances of the surprise of Americans at this absence of
prejudice abroad, mister Phillips said, we have to thank our
friend for the fidelity with which he has amid many
temptations stood by those whose good name religious prejudice is
(12:34):
trying to undermine in Great Britain that land is not
all paradise to the colored man. Too many of them
allow themselves to be made tools of the most subtle
foes of their race. We recognize tonight the clear sightedness
and fidelity of mister Brown's course abroad, not only to
thank him, but to assure our friends there that this
(12:57):
is but the abolitionists of Boston endorse. Mister Phillips proceeded,
I still more rejoice that mister Brown has returned, returned
to what not, to what he can call his country.
The white man comes home. When Milton heard in Italy
the sound of arms from England, he hastened back, young, enthusiastic,
(13:21):
and bathed in beautiful art as he was in Florence.
I would not be away, he said, when a blow
was struck for liberty. He came to a country where
his manhood was recognized to fight on equal footing. The
black man comes home to no liberty, but the liberty
of suffering, to struggle in fetters for the welfare of
(13:44):
his race. It is a magnanimous sympathy with his blood
that brings such a man back. I honor it. We
meet to do it. Honor. Franklin's motto was Ubi libertas
ibby patriae. Where liberty is there is my country. Had
our friend adopted that for his rule, he would have
(14:07):
stayed in Europe. Liberty for him is there. The colored man,
who returns, like our friend to labor, crushed and despised
for his race, sails under a higher flag. His mother is.
Where my country is? There will I bring liberty? End
(14:27):
of Chapter twenty four. End of Biography of an American
Bondman by his daughter, by Josephine Brown,
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