William Wells Brown Publishes The Escape: First Play by a Black American

William Wells Brown — already the author of the first novel published by an African American (Clotel, 1853) — published The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, the first play published by a Black American. A satirical drama about a light-skinned enslaved man and his wife who escape from a hypocritical Southern minister, it was performed as readings at abolitionist meetings throughout New England.