The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race — Edition Insights

CAUSES OF THE DIFFERENCE IN FEATURES 84

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 90

WESTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA 101

THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA 129

PROGRESS IN CIVILIZATION 135

SUCCESS OF TOUSSAINT 150

CAPTURE OF TOUSSAINT 159

TOUSSAINT A PRISONER IN FRANCE 168

DESSALINES AS EMPEROR OF HAYTI 173

WAR BETWEEN THE BLACKS AND MULATTOES OF HAYTI 185

CHRISTOPHE AS KING, AND PÉTION AS PRESIDENT OF HAYTI 201

PEACE IN HAYTI, AND DEATH OF PÉTION 209

BOYER THE SUCCESSOR OF PÉTION IN HAYTI 218

INSURRECTION, AND DEATH OF CHRISTOPHE 222

UNION OF HAYTI AND SANTO DOMINGO 229

SOULOUQUE AS EMPEROR OF HAYTI 234

GEFFRARD AS PRESIDENT OF HAYTI 236

SALNAVE AS PRESIDENT OF HAYTI 241

CUBA AND PORTO RICO 258

INTRODUCTION OF BLACKS INTO AMERICAN COLONIES 265

SLAVES IN THE NORTHERN COLONIES 270

COLORED INSURRECTIONS IN THE COLONIES 276

BLACK MEN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 282

BLACKS IN THE WAR OF 1812 286

THE CURSE OF SLAVERY 291

DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTION 296

GROWING OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY 319

MOB LAW TRIUMPHANT 322

RELIGIOUS STRUGGLES 336

JOHN BROWN’S RAID ON HARPER’S FERRY 340

LOYALTY AND BRAVERY OF THE BLACKS 342

THE PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM 347

BLACKS ENLISTED, AND IN BATTLE 352

NEGRO HATRED AT THE NORTH 382

CASTE AND PROGRESS 387

THE ABOLITIONISTS 393

RACE REPRESENTATIVES.

Pinchback, P. B. S. 517

Pennington, J. W. C. 461

_MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR._

Thirty years ago, a young colored man came to my father’s house at Aurora, Erie County, New York, to deliver a lecture on the subject of American Slavery, and the following morning I sat upon his knee while he told me the story of his life and escape from the South. Although a boy of eight years, I still remember the main features of the narrative, and the impression it made upon my mind, and the talk the lecture of the previous night created in our little quiet town. That man was William Wells Brown, now so widely-known, both at home and abroad. It is therefore with no little hesitancy that I consent to pen this sketch of one whose name has for many years been a household word in our land.

William Wells Brown was born in Lexington, Ky., in the year 1816. His mother was a slave, his father a slaveholder. The boy was taken to the State of Missouri in infancy, and spent his boyhood in St. Louis. At the age of ten years he was hired out to a captain of a steamboat running between St. Louis and New Orleans, where he remained a year or two, and was then employed as office boy by Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was at that time editor of the St. Louis Times. Here William first began the groundwork of his education. After one year spent in the printing office, the object of our sketch was again let out to a captain of one of the steamboats plying on the river. In the year 1834 William made his escape from the boat, and came North.

He at once obtained a situation on a steamer on Lake Erie, where, in the position of steward, he was of great service to fugitive slaves making their way to Canada. In a single year he gave a free passage across the lake to sixty-five fugitives. Making his home in Buffalo, Mr. Brown organized a vigilance committee whose duties were to protect and aid slaves, while passing through that city on their way to the “Land of the free,” or to the eastern States. As chairman of that committee, Mr. Brown was of great assistance to the fleeing bondmen. The Association kept a fund on hand to employ counsel in case of capture of a fugitive, besides furnishing all with clothing, shoes, and whatever was needed by those who were in want. Escaping from the South without education, the subject of our sketch spent the winter nights in an evening school and availed himself of private instructions to gain what had been denied him in his younger days.

In the autumn of 1843, he accepted an agency to lecture for the Anti-slavery Society, and continued his labors in connection with that movement until 1849; when he accepted an invitation to visit England. As soon as it was understood that the fugitive slave was going abroad, the American Peace Society elected him as a delegate to represent them at the Peace Congress at Paris.

Without any solicitation, the Executive Committee of the American Anti-slavery Society strongly recommended Mr. Brown to the friends of freedom in Great Britain. The President of the above Society gave him private letters to some of the leading men and women in Europe. In addition to these, the colored citizens of Boston held a meeting the evening previous to his departure, and gave Mr. Brown a public farewell, and passed resolutions commending him to the confidence and hospitality of all lovers of liberty in the mother-land.

Such was the auspices under which this self-educated man sailed for England on the 18th of July, 1849.