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    Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts, originally known as Howe's Tavern, was the inspiration for Longfellow's widely read book of poems, Tales of a Wayside Inn. He based his works on a group of fictitious characters that regularly gathered at the old Sudbury tavern. Lyman Howe was the character featured in "The Landlord's Tale," and where Longfellow penned the immortal phrase, "Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere."

     In his book "The Black Man," Brown argued for blacks' rights to full citizenship, and to make his case he includes a series of life histories of notable blacks, showing their contributions to the nation or region. Brown also highlights slaves' willingness to use violence to gain their freedom, including portraits of a number of revolutionary blacks who revolted against their slave masters. Brown's book opens with his own amazing life story, then is followed by an overview of black heritage going back to Ethiopia, Egypt, Minerva, Jupiter, Tertullian, St. Augustine, Hanno, Hamilcar Barca, and Hannibal---demonstrating the historical nature of the cosmopolitan black community. The remainder of the book is devoted to 57 short biographies of famous black historical figures including Benjamin Baneker, Nat Turner, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Crispus Attucks, Alexander Dumas, Denmark Vesey, Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, James W.C. Pennington, Sir Edward Jordan, and John S. Rock. In describing his view on social justice, Brown writes that "every man must make equality for himself. No society, no government, can make this equality. I do not expect the slave of the south to jump into equality; all I claim for him is, that he may be allowed to jump into liberty, and let him make equality for himself." In describing his views on the high importance of self-improvement, Brown writes that "I have some white neighbors around me in Cambridge; they are not very intellectual; they don't associate with my family; but whenever they shall improve themselves, and bring themselves up by their own intellectual and moral worth, I shall not object to their coming into my society--all things being equal." Other works by the author include: • Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave • Three Years in Europe: Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met • CLOTEL; or the President's Daughter • The American Fugitive in Europe • The Rising Son, or The Antecedents and Advancements of the Colored Race • My Southern Home: or, The South and Its People • The Negro in the American Rebellion Biographies included in Brown's "The Black Man" include: • BENJAMIN BANNEK