William was born around 1814 close to Lexington, Kentucky. His mother had seven children and she was named Elizabeth, and his father was a relative of his master. He was a slave to Dr. John Young, and since William was half white, he had the privilege to work inside Dr. Young's home …show more content…
In 1849, he moved to england for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and he lectured and wrote many books in the five years he was there, including Clotel, and Three Years in Europe. Since the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, William had to stay in Europe for until 1854 when a few of his friends from Europe bought his freedom from Enoch Price, his last owner. William went back to Boston and worked for the New England Anti Slavery Society. In 1855 he published The American Fugitive, and in 1858 wrote the play The Escape; of, a Leap for Freedom. William married his second wife, Anna Elizabeth Gray in 1860 and had two children; a boy who died as an infant and a girl who died when she was eight from typhoid fever. William continued his life lecturing and writing and he even became a physician. He wrote his last book in 1880, My Southern Home; or, the South and It’s People. He died in 1884 from tumor complications on the