User:Zamnesic/draft Clotel

Background

Having fled the United States to England and due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, William Wells Brown could not remain free upon return to the United States; and so, Clotel, the first novel by an African American, was published in London in 1853.

The narrative leverages allegations that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with a woman he enslaved. Such allegations were eventually supported by DNA evidence in a 1998 article published in the journal Nature.

Clotel is a "scathing, sarcastic, comprehensive critique of slavery in the American South, race prejudice in the American North, and religious hypocrisy in the American notion as a whole." The novel and the title "walk a precarious line between oral history, written history, and artistic license."

Plot Summary

“ This, reader, is an unvarnished narrative of one doomed by the laws of the Southern States to be a slave. It tells not only its own story of grief, but speaks of a thousand wrongs and woes beside, which never see the light; all the more bitter and dreadful, because no help can relieve, no sympathy can mitigate, and no hope can cheer. ” — —Narrator of Clotel, Page 199

At base, the narrative of Clotel follows the "perilous antebellum adventures" of the daughters of Thomas Jefferson and Currer. In addition to relaying Clotel's story, the plot is structured around "several sub-plots" including other slaves, religion and anti-slavery.

Currer, described as "a bright mulatto," gives birth to two "near white" daughters: Clotel and Althesa. After the death of Currer's master, she, Clotel, and Althesa are sold. Horace Green, Clotel's lover, purchases Clotel, but Currer and Althesa remain "in a slave gang." Currer is eventually purchased by Mr. Peck, a preacher, and remains enslaved by him until she dies from yellow fever.

Althesa marries a white man from the North, with whom she has Jane and Ellen. Her daughters are enslaved after Althesa's husband dies. Ellen commits suicide and Jane dies from heartbreak.

Green and Clotel have a daughter named Mary. Green marries "a white woman who forces him to sell Clotel and enslave his child."

Clotel dresses up as a white man and escapes to Ohio. Her accomplice, William, continues to Canada, but she goes to Virginia in an attempt to free Mary. After being captured in Richmond, she is placed into a pen and eventually escapes. Pursued by slave catchers, she is ultimately surrounded on the Long Bridge and commits suicide by jumping into the Potomac.

Thus died Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, a president of the United States.

— —Narrator of Clotel, Page 182

Mary becomes a servant to her father and his wife. She eventually trades places with George in prison and he escapes to Canada. As a consequence of her actions, Mary is sold to a slave trader and purchased by a French man who takes her to Europe. Ten years later, George and Mary reunite in Dunkirk and the novel ends with their marriage.

Sources

• Brown, William Wells. Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States. 1853. Ed. Robert Levine. Boston: Bedford, 2000.
• Castronovo, Russ. "National Narrative and National History." A Companion to American Fiction, 1780-1865. Ed. Shirley Samuels. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 434-444.
• Cutter, Martha. Unruly Tongue: Identity and Voice in American Women's Writing, 1850-1930. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
• duCille, Ann. "Where in the World Is William Wells Brown? Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the DNA of African-American Literary History." American Literary History 12.3 (Autumn, 2000). 443-462. JSTOR.
• Fabi, M. Giulia. Passing and the Rise of the African American Novel. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
• Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene. "Delicate Boundaries: Passing and Other 'Crossings' in Fictionalized Slave Narratives." A Companion to American Fiction, 1780-1865. Ed. Shirley Samuels. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 204-215.