Three Years in Europe Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition Series

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.