While in England on a lecture tour in 1849, he decided to stay there with his two daughters after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, as he was at risk of being taken by slave catchers. [2] It is the first instance of an African-American writer "to dramatize the underlying hypocrisy of democratic principles in the face of African American slavery. "[24], Chapters predominantly open "with an epigraph underscoring the romance’s urgent message: 'chattel slavery in America undermines the entire social condition of man. They are not portrayed as wanting or seeking freedom, but as existing through love and suffering. Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an 1853 novel by United States author and playwright William Wells Brown about Clotel and her sister, fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. experiences as a model for how to relate to an unjust government: In "Delicate Boundaries: Passing and Other 'Crossings' in Fictionalized Slave Narratives. "[10], Clotel is sold to a planter in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Clotel. After escaping prison with her help, he flees to the free states, evading recapture in Ohio with the help of a Quaker. Surrounded by them on the Long Bridge, she commits suicide by jumping to her death in the Potomac River.[12]. Ten years after arriving in England, he travels to Dunkirk, France, where he re-encounters Mary, and they marry. The narrator is "morally didactic and consistently ironic." According to group, not because they hold the most legitimate viewpoint. Even individuals of mixed-race status who attempt to pass as white nevertheless suffer horrifically. When Green becomes ambitious and involved in local politics, he abandons his relationship with Clotel and Mary. He reaches Canada and migrates to Great Britain. William – An enslaved mechanic who is hired out to work alongside Clotel in Vicksburg. The novel played with known 19th-century reports that Thomas Jefferson had an intimate relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered several children with her. It tells the story of Clotel, the mixed-race daughter of President Thomas Jefferson, her mother and sisters, and the injustices of their lives in slavery. institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war. that voting and petitioning for change achieves little. Recent scholars have also analyzed Clotel for its representations of gender and race. protest of slavery, Thoreau refused to pay taxes and spent a night in Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the DNA of African-American Literary History", William Wells Brown and Summary of 'Clotel', Mitchell, Angelyn. Dressing as a white man, Clotel is accompanied by William acting as her slave; they travel and gain freedom by reaching the free state of Ohio.