John Brown

John was born in 1810 in Eastern Virginia. He and his mom, at the age of ten, were moved to a tobacco company in North Carolina. Soon after he was sold as a slave and was forced to leave him mother to go work in Georgia. He grew up on the cotton farm there. He did not like his master, and he came to dream of living free in the country of England. He did try several times to escape but every time he was brought back to the United States and was heavily beaten for his bad deed. His owner died, and he then became property of the owners son who was worse and more harsh then his father. He ran away again and made it all the way to Louisiana where he was put back into the slavery and was sold to Theodore J. James a planter in Mississippi. He soon left again following the Mississippi River north into territory where he would be free. He worked as a carpenter in a free black community in Marshall, Michigan. He worked another year and a half with English Miners, in the northwestern part of Michigan. He then moved again to a runaway black refuge called the Dawn Institute in Ontario Canada. He then finally sailed east to England working as a carpenter. While in London, he contacted the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. There he talked about his hardships about being a slave. He gave him memoirs to the company and they published it in proper English. It was one of the few writings of its kind, at the time. He stayed in London and married a woman. He earned his living as an herb doctor. He remained a free person and never returned to
America again. He died in 1876.