Go There To Know There

Clotel, Or The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown is the author's fictionalized account of Sally Hemings, the woman alleged to have borne children to President Thomas Jefferson. The novel imagines the plight of Hemings whose fictional counterpart is Currer and her daughter Clotel. While the novel exposes many of the systemic hypocrisies and injustices of slavery, as well as the plague of prejudice that infested the northern, free states at the time, Clotel examines many of the social conventions and practices that attended the Peculiar Institution. Among these and most apparent is the dramatic scene of the Slave Auction, where many a family was torn apart. Older slaves were transformed in appearance to give the impression of youth and vitality to a potential buyer; mothers were separated from children; and young "Quadroon" women were in high demand by white males to become 'seamstresses,' 'laundresses,' and 'governesses,' while suf...

Students: If you are interested, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an excellent website called Documenting the American South . At this site, you can access full-text of Frederick Douglass's narrative, My Bondage and My Freedom . Here, I have excerpted a portion from the Covey episode, pages 223-232. Thanks! CHAPTER XVI. ANOTHER PRESSURE OF THE TYRANT'S VICE. EXPERIENCE AT COVEY'S SUMMED UP--FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN THE SECOND--PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANGE--REASONS FOR NARRATING THE CIRCUMSTANCES--SCENE IN THE TREADING YARD--AUTHOR TAKEN ILL--UNUSUAL BRUTALITY OF COVEY--AUTHOR ESCAPES TO ST. MICHAEL'S--THE PURSUIT--SUFFERING IN THE WOODS--DRIVEN BACK AGAIN TO COVEY'S--BEARING OF "MASTER THOMAS"--THE SLAVE IS NEVER SICK--NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES TO FEIGN SICKNESS--LAZINESS OF SLAVEHOLDERS. THE foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking features, may be taken as a fair representation of the first six months o...