David F. Dorr

Born into slavery in New Orleans around 1827 or 1828, David F. Dorr was taken abroad in the early 1850s by his enslaver, Cornelius Fellowes. During those travels he visited parts of Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa, experiences that later became the basis of his book A Colored Man Round the World.

Dorr published that travel narrative in 1858. It is widely noted for recording the perspective of a Black American traveler who was still legally enslaved while moving through places including England, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Sources also credit the book as the first known one published by an African American in Cleveland.

Much of Dorr's later life remains uncertain, which adds to the book's importance. What can be confirmed is that his writing has endured because it blends travel writing, memoir, and a powerful meditation on race, bondage, and selfhood.