The Tragic Mulatta: The Problematic Term
When William Wells Brown wrote Clotel: Or, The President's Daughter in 1853 , it appeared he had a goal in mind: to expose the tyrannies, cruelties, and bare-faced hypocrisy of slavery as an institution. In a land of churches, there on an auction block stands Clotel, the radiant daughter of a slave mother and an unnamed white father (presumed to be Thomas Jefferson). She is so near-white that the white persons in the room could mistake her for one of their own daughters. Yet, she is a slave by virtue of "one drop" of African American blood. "Why stands she near the auction stand, That girl so young and fair? What brings her to this dismal place, Why stands she weeping there?" ( Clotel , Chapter One) The "Tragic Mulatta" as a term has understandably fallen into disrepute of late, in light of Critical Race Theory, and of many other identity-based dialogues involving biracial, or individuals of mixed heritage. It has been labeled a "stereotype,...