William Wells Brown was a prominent African American abolitionist, lecturer, novelist, playwright and historian.

Brown was a slave, who upon escape gave lectures on American slavery.

Brown was a prolific writer, his novel Clotel (1853) is considered the first novel written by an African American. Brown also wrote a play, The Escape (1858) and several historical works including The Black Man (1863), The Negro in the American Revolution (1867), The Rising Son (1873) and two autobiographical works Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847) and My Southern Home (1880).