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Analysis of Clotel
In Clotel, Brown illustrates the hypocrisy of slavery by
condemning Christian white slave owners. He allows
the reader to see the idiocy behind calling yourself a
“Christian” and then committing heinous acts against
enslaved people. As he writes in Clotel, “the very man
who but a few hours before, had arrested poor panting,
fugitive slaves, now read a chapter from the Bible and
offered a prayer to God”. Brown also allows us to see
that Christian slave owners would use the Bible to
justify their behavior. Religious instruction was
calculated and only preached to enslaved people to
further dehumanize and subjugate them.
The mulatto racial category refers to the unique social,
cultural, psychological experiences of individuals of
mixed racial heritage, typically one white and one
black parent, particularly in societies with a history of
racial segregation and hierarchy. Clotel delves into the
many complexities that come from being of mixed
race, especially during that time period. The book is a
potent critique of slavery and its degrading effects on
people and families in addition to being a work of
fiction. Apart from its thematic associations with
abolitionism, Clotel held a noteworthy position in the
literary and cultural context of that century.
Clotel and ABOLITIONISM
William Wells Brown:
Activism and Life as Slave
Brown was born into slavery in 1814? near Mount
Sterling, Kentucky by his mom Elizabeth and a white
planter who was the cousin of their owner. Brown lived
most of his early life as a slave learning many trades
but would later escape from his owner’s steamboat,
which had been docked in Cincinnati, OH. He declared
himself a free man on January 1, 1834. Brown settled
down in Boston where he started to get into the
abolitionist movement and advocate for the end of
slavery. Brown was forced to move to London, England
following the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. There he wrote
the novel Clotel, the first novel written by an African
American. A British couple paid for Brown’s freedom
which allowed him to return to the US. He would then
rejoin the abolitionist movement. He spent the greater
half of his life advocating for the abolitionist movement.
He gave many lectures around New York and
Massachusetts for the movement, and later focused on
anti-slavery advocacy.
AAS/EN 4343
Studies in African American Literature
Minna Ibrahim and Demir Leflore
Abolitionist Writings
and Comparisons
Clotel and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, are two
novels that help readers see the injustice and cruelty behind slavery.
An instance of these novels achieving this goal is done through the
portrayal of two white women. In Clotel, there is a woman named
Georgiana. She lives on the plantation and she is able to see the
hypocrisy and evil in slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin features Eva who,
like Georgiana, advocates for anti-slavery.
The reasoning behind implementing these characters in the novels is
to show how wrong slavery is through feminine ideals and morality.
The North Star was a newspaper published by Frederick Douglass. It
was a newspaper where Douglass spoke out against slavery. Clotel
and The North Star were both written to serve the same purpose. ,
the key difference between the two is that The North Star is nonfiction whereas Clotel is a fictional story. Regardless, both pieces of
writing were very influential to the abolitionist movement against
slavery.
Works Cited
Aiken, George L, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. [Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life
among the Lowly. A Domestic Drama, in Six Acts. Dramatized by G.L. Aiken
[from the Novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe], Etc.]. London, 1883.
Fabi, M. Giulia. “The “Unguarded Expressions of the Feelings of the Negroes”:
Gender, Slave Resistance, and William Wells Brown’s Revisions of
Clotel.” African American Review, vol. 27, no. 4, 1993, p. 639, https://doi.org/
10.2307/3041902. Accessed 16 Mar. 2021.
Pace, Lorenzo. Frederick Douglass and the North Star. The Rosen Publishing
Group, Inc, 15 Jan. 2015.
West, Elizabeth J. “The Enigmatic “Clear Black” in William Wells Brown’s
“Clotel.”” CLA Journal, vol. 56, no. 2, 2012, pp. 170–183, www.jstor.org/stable/
pdf/44325821. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
William Wells Brown. Clotel. New York, Random House International ; London,
2000.
In Clotel, Brown illustrates the hypocrisy of slavery by
condemning Christian white slave owners. He allows
the reader to see the idiocy behind calling yourself a
“Christian” and then committing heinous acts against
enslaved people. As he writes in Clotel, “the very man
who but a few hours before, had arrested poor panting,
fugitive slaves, now read a chapter from the Bible and
offered a prayer to God”. Brown also allows us to see
that Christian slave owners would use the Bible to
justify their behavior. Religious instruction was
calculated and only preached to enslaved people to
further dehumanize and subjugate them.
The mulatto racial category refers to the unique social,
cultural, psychological experiences of individuals of
mixed racial heritage, typically one white and one
black parent, particularly in societies with a history of
racial segregation and hierarchy. Clotel delves into the
many complexities that come from being of mixed
race, especially during that time period. The book is a
potent critique of slavery and its degrading effects on
people and families in addition to being a work of
fiction. Apart from its thematic associations with
abolitionism, Clotel held a noteworthy position in the
literary and cultural context of that century.
Clotel and ABOLITIONISM
William Wells Brown:
Activism and Life as Slave
Brown was born into slavery in 1814? near Mount
Sterling, Kentucky by his mom Elizabeth and a white
planter who was the cousin of their owner. Brown lived
most of his early life as a slave learning many trades
but would later escape from his owner’s steamboat,
which had been docked in Cincinnati, OH. He declared
himself a free man on January 1, 1834. Brown settled
down in Boston where he started to get into the
abolitionist movement and advocate for the end of
slavery. Brown was forced to move to London, England
following the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. There he wrote
the novel Clotel, the first novel written by an African
American. A British couple paid for Brown’s freedom
which allowed him to return to the US. He would then
rejoin the abolitionist movement. He spent the greater
half of his life advocating for the abolitionist movement.
He gave many lectures around New York and
Massachusetts for the movement, and later focused on
anti-slavery advocacy.
AAS/EN 4343
Studies in African American Literature
Minna Ibrahim and Demir Leflore
Abolitionist Writings
and Comparisons
Clotel and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, are two
novels that help readers see the injustice and cruelty behind slavery.
An instance of these novels achieving this goal is done through the
portrayal of two white women. In Clotel, there is a woman named
Georgiana. She lives on the plantation and she is able to see the
hypocrisy and evil in slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin features Eva who,
like Georgiana, advocates for anti-slavery.
The reasoning behind implementing these characters in the novels is
to show how wrong slavery is through feminine ideals and morality.
The North Star was a newspaper published by Frederick Douglass. It
was a newspaper where Douglass spoke out against slavery. Clotel
and The North Star were both written to serve the same purpose. ,
the key difference between the two is that The North Star is nonfiction whereas Clotel is a fictional story. Regardless, both pieces of
writing were very influential to the abolitionist movement against
slavery.
Works Cited
Aiken, George L, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. [Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life
among the Lowly. A Domestic Drama, in Six Acts. Dramatized by G.L. Aiken
[from the Novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe], Etc.]. London, 1883.
Fabi, M. Giulia. “The “Unguarded Expressions of the Feelings of the Negroes”:
Gender, Slave Resistance, and William Wells Brown’s Revisions of
Clotel.” African American Review, vol. 27, no. 4, 1993, p. 639, https://doi.org/
10.2307/3041902. Accessed 16 Mar. 2021.
Pace, Lorenzo. Frederick Douglass and the North Star. The Rosen Publishing
Group, Inc, 15 Jan. 2015.
West, Elizabeth J. “The Enigmatic “Clear Black” in William Wells Brown’s
“Clotel.”” CLA Journal, vol. 56, no. 2, 2012, pp. 170–183, www.jstor.org/stable/
pdf/44325821. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
William Wells Brown. Clotel. New York, Random House International ; London,
2000.