![]() ![]() Clotel’s connection to Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, is a comment on the incongruence of slavery in a nation built on the concept of personal freedom. He also condemns Christian slave owners who, rather than embracing their fellow man, manipulate Christianity to oppress them for personal gain. In Clotel, Brown depicts the suffering of the slaves as they endure family separation, sexual exploitation, and dehumanization. Due to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, he was unable to return to America and lived in England until 1854, when friends purchased his freedom from his master. Brown published Clotel in London, having lived there during a stint of speaking engagements on the subjects of slavery and abolition. He also borrows plot details from other stories, a technique critics argue contributes to a sense of shared humanity. The novel is more than the story of a fictional slave, however: Brown includes newspaper articles, advertisements, and real-life anecdotes to present a picture of the horrors of slavery and to add credibility to his account. Drawing on what were, in the 19th century, rumors that Thomas Jefferson had children with his slave Sally Hemings, the novel follows the slave Clotel and her family as they are sold to different masters. Clotel or, The President’s Daughter, published in 1853 by former slave William Wells Brown, is considered the first African-American novel. ![]()
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