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William Wells Brown Research Paper

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William Wells Brown was born a slave but died a free man. He wrote an autobiography about his life as a slave. He went into detail of how he and others were treated so cruelly. His master had owned forty slaves, they lived on a rather large plantation and their main production was of hemp and tobacco. This plantation was located some forty odd miles from St. Charles, Missouri. The master had no family but kept a female slave in the house with him to oversee the plantation. Every morning at four, a bell would sound, this was the signal to get up, eat and get to work. If any slave was late to the fields they would immediately receive ten lashes from the negro-whip. Brown was not a field slave so he had only heard and witnessed from a distance of this lashing. He …show more content…

Colburn's and hired to Elijah P. Lovejoy. Brown worked in a printing office under Mr. Lovejoy. Brown loved Mr. Lovejoy, saying he was the best slave owner he had ever had. The treatment was completely different for what Brown had ever witnessed or dealt with. He was put to work in an office and would often run errands for Mr. Love joy. Brown had a very good relationship withhis employer, something thousands of slaves would never experience. A situation occurred while working in Mr. Lovejoys office. While running an errand for his boss a group of white men had jumped Brown trying to kill him. Brown managed to make it out and run to Mr. Lovejoy and tell him of what just occurred. The ation got turned around, making Brown the guilty man. He was beaten so badly with a cane, he couldn't walk for five weeks and lost his job at the office. As simple as it seemed to work in an office as a slave it was a very dangerous job. To be caught by the wrong slaveholder, could end in near death. The treatment Brown had received just for doing a white mans job was cruel and very avoidable. In some plantation getting beat to death was quiet normal but in other it was very rare and looked down

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