Other essays and articles in the History and Literature Archives related to this topic include: Slavery in America’s South : Implications and Effects • Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps: Heroes, History, and Narrative • Narrative Strategy and the Construction of “Otherness” in Oroonoko by Aphra Behn • Slavery in Brazil and The Quilombo at Palmares • Freedom, Liberty, and Meaning in the Slave Narrative: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Olaudah Equiano
William Wells Brown’s novel, Clotel stands to teach modern readers a great deal about the historical setting, especially because of his use of reiterated primary source documentation and his proximity to the actual period of slavery. Although the reader must remind himself that Clotel is a fictionalized account, the actual instances of cruelty toward slaves as well as the instances of children being born and sold into a sort of sexual slavery are not only true, but because of their format in the novel, are made more vivid.
By presenting a number of different characters with opposing views on slavery, William Wells Brown is able to demonstrate through his summary of Clotel in terms of themes that slavery was not a simple issue—it was divisive and multifaceted and thus the reader is granted insights into the slavery that do not seem regimented or biased. To offer a short summary of “Clotel : Or The President’s Daughter” by William Wells Brown it should be noted that the author presents a number of complex characters who, even though they may be recognizable literary stereotypes of the period, have equally complex relationships to the institution of slavery. For instance, the reader sees white men who fall in love with slave women as well as the opposite case as well as white men with abolitionist leanings as well as their exact opposite. Through his use of extensive characterization as well as the sheer number of characters presented, the reader is not left with just one impression of the historical period (as the case would be if this was a pseudo-slave narrative presented by one narrator) but a host of different ways of thinking about the period of slavery in question.
Clotel Or The President’s Daughter presents readers with a great deal of information about the historical period by giving us so many events as well as documentation and viewpoints. Clotel offers an accurate portrayal of the historical setting of slavery because instead of just relying on his fictional stories to speak about slavery, the author engages with a number of primary documents. Even if they are not actual, they do lend a degree of authenticity to the narrative that normal fiction does not always give. For instance, when speaking of the city of Natchez and how it “enjoyed a notoriety for the inhumanity and barbarity of its inhabitants,” the author tells us of the “following advertisements…from a newspaper published in the vicinity” (73) and goes on to quote this newspaper to prove his point. Again, while this might not be a traceable source, it does allow readers to consider that the author was writing from experience with written materials of the day and we can get a good sense of actual texts that verify instead of merely state his claims of vast cruelty and racism.
William Wells Brown reassures his audience every once in a while (in terms of the events that were really supposed to have taken place that, “the various incidents and scenes… are founded in truth” (245) and tells us on occasion that, “This, reader, is no fiction: (148). Furthermore, even though it is, in fact, fiction, the author makes us of real historical figures to highlight how rampant the occurrence of masters (even powerful ones) sleeping with their slaves was. Although certainly we are not to expect that Althea and Clotel are the real daughters of the President, William Wells Brown gives his account of the period and of slavery in general an air of credibility by presenting the possible based on his experiences. His descriptions of the many conditions of slavery—from relatively comfortable to dire and bad enough to induce one to commit suicide—are also based on his life as a slave and this, above all else, makes his story seem to be an accurate representation of the historical period.
Clotel or The Presidents Daughter wavers between optimism and pessimism. For instance, at the very beginning of Clotel the narrator tells us, “Society does not frown upon the man who sits with his mulatto child upon his knee whilst its mother stands a slave behind his chair” (55). He seems to be disappointed in the state of this society but recognizes that there are also men such as Mr. Peck, for instance, a white man who can make powerful statements such as one of the important quotes from “Clotel or The President’s Daughter” by William Wells Brown, “Look at our great Declaration of Independence….and see what it said in these about liberty” (89). By offering the reader different characters he shows us that there is no way to feel optimistic or pessimistic since there are so many viewpoints about the issue out there. In sum, however, the fact that the main characters come to tragic ends shows that there is still no hope for a slave—especially a slave woman and thus the novel ends with the same more pessimistic tone with which it ends.
