Clotel

by William Wells Brown

The death of Clotel. Page 218.

Clotel;

OR,

The President's Daughter:

A Narrative of Slave Life

IN

The United States.

By

William Wells Brown,

A Fugitive Slave, Author of "Three Years in Europe."

With a Sketch of the Author's Life.

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."—Declaration of American Independence.

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London:
Partridge & Oakey, Paternoster Row;
and 70, Edgware Road.

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1853.

Partridge and Oakey, Printers, Paddington.

PREFACE.

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More than two hundred years have elapsed since the first cargo of slaves was landed on the banks of the James River, in the colony of Virginia, from the West coast of Africa. From the introduction of slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation of the Colonies from the British Crown, the number had increased to five hundred thousand; now there are nearly four million. In fifteen of the thirty-one States, Slavery is made lawful by the Constitution, which binds the several States into one confederacy.

On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, the negro is considered common property, on which any white man may lay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population of the United States, North and South, are bound by their oath to the constitution, and their adhesion to the Fugitive Slave Law, to hunt down the runaway slave and return him to his claimant, and to suppress any effort that may be made by the slaves to gain their freedom by physical force. Twenty-five millions of whites have banded themselves in solemn conclave to keep four millions of blacks in their chains. In all grades of society are to be found men who either hold, buy, or sell slaves, from the statesmen and doctors of divinity, who can own their hundreds, down to the person who can purchase but one.

Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves, and thereby giving the system a reputation, and especially professed Christians, Slavery would long since have been abolished. The influence of the great "honours the corruption, and chastisement doth therefore hide his head." The great aim of the true friends of the slave should be to lay bare the institution, so that the gaze of the world may be upon it, and cause the wise, the prudent, and the pious to withdraw their support from it, and leave it to its own fate. It does the cause of emancipation but little good to cry out in tones of execration against the traders, the kidnappers, the hireling overseers, and brutal drivers, so long as nothing is said to fasten the guilt on those who move in a higher circle.

The fact that slavery was introduced into the American colonies, while they were under the control of the British Crown, is a sufficient reason why Englishmen should feel a lively interest in its abolition; and now that the genius of mechanical invention has brought the two countries so near together, and both having one language and one literature, the influence of British public opinion is very great on the people of the New World.

If the incidents set forth in the following pages should add anything new to the information already given to the Public through similar publications, and should thereby aid in bringing British influence to bear upon American slavery, the main object for which this work was written will have been accomplished.

W. WELLS BROWN.

22, Cecil Street, Strand, London.

Contents

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		Page
Memoir of the Author		1
The Negro Sale		55
Going to the South		65
The Negro Chase		73
The Quadroon's Home		79
The Slave Master		83
The Religious Teacher		87
The Poor Whites, South		101
The Separation		107
The Man of Honour		112
The Young Christian		114
The Parson Poet		122
A Night in the Parson's Kitchen		126
A Slave Hunt		132
A Free Woman Reduced to Slavery		139
To-day a Mistress, To-morrow a Slave		143
Death of the Parson		147
Retaliation		153
The Liberator		156
Escape of Clotel		164
A True Democrat		178
The Christian's Death		183
A Ride in a Stage Coach		191
Truth Stranger than Fiction		203
The Arrest (not in original TOC)		210
Death Is Freedom		215
The Escape		221
The Mystery		231
The Happy Meeting		235
Conclusion		244