John Brown (fugitive slave)

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For the abolitionist, see John Brown.

John Brown (1810 - 1876) also known by his slave name of 'Fed', was a slave in Virginia. He moved at age ten to North Carolina where he was separated from his mother. He was moved to Georgia where he worked some years on a cotton farm in Milledgeville under harsh conditions.

After several attempts Brown finally managed to escape and moved round the country, eventually sailing to England in 1850 where he worked as a carpenter in London. He contacted the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and in 1855 he dictated the book Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England. This is one of the many descriptions of slave life in the south known as "slave narratives"

Brown married a local woman and remained in London until his death. Brown's body was exhumed by a pro-slavery act, and has never been seen again. ^{[citation needed]}