Clotel, or, The president's daughter : a narrative of slave life in the United States

Originally Published In 1853, Clotel Is The First Novel By An African American. William Wells Brown, A Contemporary Of Frederick Douglass, Was Well Known For His Abolitionist Activities. In Clotel, The Author Focuses On The Experiences Of A Slave Woman: Brown Treats The Themes Of Gender, Race, And Slavery In Distinctive Ways, Highlighting The Mutability Of Identity As Well As The Absurdities And Cruelties Of Slavery. The Plot Includes Several Mulatto Characters, Such As Clotel, Who Live On The Margins Of The Black And White Worlds, As Well As A Woman Who Dresses As A Man To Escape Bondage; A White Woman Who Is Enslaved; And A Famous White Man Who Is Mistaken For A Mulatto. In Her Introduction, Scholar Joan E. Cashin Highlights The Most Interesting Features Of This Novel And Its Bold Approach To Gender And Race Relations. This Volume, The Latest In The American History Through Literature Series, Is Suitable For A Variety Of Undergraduate Courses In American History, Cultural History, Women's Studies, And Slavery. William Wells Brown. Includes Bibliographical References.

originally Published In 1853, Clotel Is The First Novel By An African American. William Wells Brown, A Contemporary Of Frederick Douglass, Was Well Known For His Abolitionist Activities. In Clotel, The Author Focuses On The Experiences Of A Slave Woman: Brown Treats The Themes Of Gender, Race, And Slavery In Distinctive Ways, Highlighting The Mutability Of Identity As Well As The Absurdities And Cruelties Of Slavery. The Plot Includes Several Mulatto Characters, Such As Clotel, Who Live On The Margins Of The Black And White Worlds, As Well As A Woman Who Dresses As A Man To Escape Bondage; A White Woman Who Is Enslaved; And A Famous White Man Who Is Mistaken For A Mulatto. In Her Introduction, Scholar Joan E. Cashin Highlights The Most Interesting Features Of This Novel And Its Bold Approach To Gender And Race Relations. This Volume, The Latest In The American History Through Literature Series, Is Suitable For A Variety Of Undergraduate Courses In American History, Cultural History, Women's Studies, And Slavery.

William Wells Brown's Clotel or, The President's Daughter is often considered the first novel an African-American. When the book was published, Brown himself was legally the property of someone else within the United States, having escaped from slavery in Kentucky when he was younger. In the story President Thomas Jefferson and his former mulatto mistress Currer have had two daughters together: Althesea and Clotel. When their master passes away, their relatively comfortable lives are swept away and Currer and Althesea are bought by the harsh slave trader Dick Walker. Originally published in 1853, "Clotel" is one of the first novels by an African American. In it, Brown treats the themes of gender, race and slavery in distinctive ways, highlighting the mutability of identity, as well as the abrudities and cruelties of slavery.