Page:The American fugitive in Europe.djvu/325

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

OPINIONS OF THE BRITISH PRESS.




"While all the world is reading 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' it is quite possible that what a real fugitive slave has to say for himself may meet with less attention than it deserves. Mr. Brown's book is pleasingly written."—The Critic, Dec. 16, 1852.

"When he writes on the wrongs of his race, or the events of his own career, he is always interesting or amusing."—The Athenaeum, Nov. 15, 1852.

"The appearance of this book is too remarkable a literary event to pass without a notice. At the moment when attention in this country is directed to the state of the colored people in America, the book appears with additional advantage; if nothing else were attained by its publication, it is well to have another proof of the capability of the negro intellect. Altogether, Mr. Brown has written a pleasing and amusing volume. Contrasted with the caricature and bombast of his white countryman Mr. Willis' description of 'People he has Met,' a comparison suggested by the similarity of the title, it is both in intellect and in style a superior performance, and we are glad to bear this testimony to the literary merit of a work by a negro author."—The Literary Gazette, Oct. 2, 1852.

"That a man who was a slave for the first twenty years of his life, and who has never had a day's schooling, should produce such a book as this, cannot but astonish those who speak disparagingly of the African race."—The Weekly News and Chronicle, Sept. C, 1852.

"It is something new for a self-educated slave to publish such a work.

27*