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First published in December 1853, Clotel was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The... Read Full Overview

Including selections from the key texts and cultural documents the author drew on to write Clotel in 1853, this novel marks the first book published by an by an African American. It was inspired by the rumored sexual relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.
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William Wells Brown's first novel, Clotel, published in 1853, is consideredby most scholars to be the first novelpublished by an African American. Thenovel is based on the belief, currentat the time, that Thomas Jeffersonhad fathered an illegitimate mulattodaughter with Sally... Read Full Overview

Clotel; or, The President's Daughter is an 1853 novel by United States author and playwright William Wells Brown, an escaped slave from Kentucky who was active on the anti-slavery circuit. Brown published the book in London, where he stayed to evade possible recapture due to... Read Full Overview

William Wells Brown, who is credited with being the first African American novelist, crafts a groundbreaking piece of American fiction in his 1853 work "Clotel; Or, The President's Daughter". The long untouched subject matter of mixed race identity during the antebellum South... Read Full Overview

Clotel Or The President's Daughter is a historical novel written by William Wells Brown and published in 1853. The book is a narrative of slave life in the United States and tells the story of Clotel, a mixed-race slave who is the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress... Read Full Overview

With the growing population of slaves in the Southern States of America, there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of whose fathers are slaveowners and their mothers slaves. Society does not frown upon the man who sits with his mulatto child upon his knee, whilst its mother... Read Full Overview

"Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States" is an 1853 novel written by American author and playwright William Wells Brown. The story revolves around the titular Clotel and her sister, two fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson,... Read Full Overview

Born into slavery, Clotel is a white-passing woman who conceals her identity and uses a disguise to infiltrate a plantation to rescue her loved ones. It's a story of survival that's deeply rooted in the cruelest part of American history.

Clotel and Althesa are... Read Full Overview

Clotel Or The President's Daughter is a novel written by William Wells Brown in 1853. It tells the story of Clotel, a mixed-race slave who is the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress, Sally Hemings. The novel follows Clotel's life as she and her family are sold... Read Full Overview

FOR many years the South has been noted for its beautiful Quadroon women. Bottles of ink, and reams of paper, have been used to portray the "finely-cut and well-moulded features," the "silken curls," the "dark and brilliant eyes," the "splendid forms," the "fascinating smiles,"... Read Full Overview

William Wells Brown (c. 1814 - November 6, 1884) was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834... Read Full Overview

This novel explores slavery's destructive effects on African-American families, the difficult lives of American mulattoes or mixed-race people, and the "degraded and immoral condition of the relation of master and slave in the United States of America." It is a tragic mulatto... Read Full Overview

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... Read Full Overview