![]() ![]() In introducing his work, Brown describes his purpose in writing the book as "to meet and refute misrepresentations, and to supply a deficiency, long felt in the community, of a work containing sketches of individuals who, by their own genius, capacity, and intellectual development, have surmounted the many obstacles which slavery and prejudice have thrown in their way, and raised themselves to positions of honor and influence." In 1863, former slave William Wells Brown, a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, pioneering novelist, playwright, and black historian published perhaps his greatest work, "The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements." "Scholars have called William Wells Brown the first African American to achieve distinction in belles lettres, or literature." – Africana (2004) "A writer whose literary career is a remarkable catalog of firsts." -Arkansas Review (2004) "William Wells Brown truly dominated the market of Black historical works in the postbellum period." -Van Hove, Congoism (2017) "The first really important work in black history … perhaps his best book." Goezmann, Beyond the Revolution (2009) ![]()
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