Clotel Summary: Key Issues and Arguments

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Family Ties in William Wells Brown’s Clotel, or, the President’s Daughter It is now customary to see Toni Morrison being awarded with a Nobel Prize for fiction and hear literary critics saying that the mainstream of world literature has moved to the suburbs of the world, specifically to African and Arabic countries.

Furthermore, strong Afro-American presence on the U. S. literary arena is currently an acknowledged fact. In this regard, William Wells Brown (1815-1884) remains an indicative figure in American literature.

He is the author of “the first African American written novel” – “Clotel” (Brown, 6). William Wells Brown was also the first African American “to publish a novel, a play, a travel book, a military study of his people, and a study of black sociology” (Internet). Brown had himself escaped slavery in Kentucky and therefore devoted his life to the idea of abolition of slavery, making passionate speeches for the reformation of the society.

In 1849, the writer participated in World Peace Congress as a delegate. Later Brown became engaged in the temperance movement.

Clotel, or, the President’s Daughter was published in England in 1853. The book became notorious for “the unconfirmed rumors regarding Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings”; at the time of its publication Brown was still regarded as a slave (Brown, 6). The novel shows the life of women under the yoke of slavery.

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To be more specific, Brown explores the effect of slavery on the American family, especially in mixed marriage, which produces mulattos and quadroons. The protagonists of the novel represent three generations of African American women.

William Wells Brown Clotel Summary

The female personages Isabella and Clotel, as the literary critics claim, embody the popular “tragic octoroon” stereotype (Brown, 6). Family is the smallest indivisible unit of any society. It exists regardless of political collisions and economic breakdowns. However, the latter factors have a multi-faceted influence on family. Brown’s novel vividly shows that racial discrimination destroys the foundation of the U. S. family and has a pernicious impact on the next generations of mixed blood. As the writer uneasily notes, “there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of whose fathers are slave-owners and their mother’s slaves.

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” (Brown, 44). This status quo contradicts the very essence of family, which is supposed to unite people into a harmonious whole. “A fearful increase of half-whites” does not mean the acceptance of the African race into the American society. Conversely, it implies that as black people are considered inferior, white men are allowed to engage into a connection with their female African slaves without any of the obligations that the marriage presupposes.

On the one hand, it destroys the white families, for adultery has never been a family-strengthening factor, even if it is committed with an “inferior” slave woman, who may not even hope for marriage. On the other hand, it delivers black women of the social guarantees that the matrimony provides. Moreover, in fact it means that the black people are not allowed to build up families, especially with white Americans. The protagonist of the novel is the quadroon girl that gave her name for the book – Clotel.

She is married to Horatio, a young slave owner in “a marriage sanctioned by heaven, although unrecognized on earth (Brown, 39). The home of the family couple is a relative home. Due to the fact that a non-white woman may not live in the mansion of the white slave owner, Clotel lives in a separate cottage. Horatio spends his day away from “home” and away from Clotel, in a world, to which she is not allowed. Gradually, “the edicts of society had built up a wall of separation between the quadroon and them [Horatio and his friends] (Brown, 40).

Family should be founded on understanding. The abyss between Clotel and Horatio is increasing every day. Clotel does not understand Horatio’s life outside the home, as she is not allowed there. In turn, Horatio feels superior to the quadroon. Hence, as in this society, white citizens are more equal than their black and semi-white counterparts. He becomes interested in politics and fancies the blond Gertrude, the daughter of an influential and wealthy politician. The man is looking for some “variety in love”, which would be impossible, if his wife was not considered to be inferior.

The family of Clotel and Horatio is destroying due to misunderstanding. Clotel has a daughter who is lucky to be almost white. However, her social status is still uncertain. In the 19-th century America being black, mulatto or quadroon is a criminal offence, and thus Clotel is asking Horatio “to remove to France or England, where both her [sic] and her child would be free, and where colour was not a crime” (Brown, 40). Vertical and horizontal family ties are also corrupted due to slavery. Clotel is pleading her husband to buy out her mother and sister.

Finally, the protagonist, Clotel, is sold to Mr. French in Vicksburgh, which ends her attempts to maintain a family with Horatio. To conclude, Brown condemns slavery by showing its destructive effect on the family in all of its representations: marriage, home, children, and the ties between parents and the next generation. Clotel lives apart from her husband; she is not sure if she is in the favorable future of her daughter or the whereabouts of her mother and sister. Furthermore, Horatio starts putting the premium on his political ambitions and fancies another woman.

This disintegration of the family ties occurs due to slavery, which imprisons Clotel and makes her inferior to white people. Brown chooses a literary, personalized form of showing the inhumanity of this racial discrimination, and the need of emancipation from slavery.

References Brown, William Wells. Clotel, or the President’s Daughter, New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Internet. Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century: William Wells Brown (1814-1884). 27 July 2005. <