18. William Wells Brown, Novelist
Born into slavery, William Wells Brown is widely regarded as the first black man to publish a novel in the United States. Brown escaped slavery in North Carolina in 1834 and became a noted abolitionist. His most famous work was his controversial novel Clotel: or The President’s Daughter which traces the lineage of the children Thomas Jefferson had with his slave, Sally Hemings. His brutal, tragic book depicted the harsh realities faced by slaves, even those who were mixed-race children of a US President.
