Clotel - William Wells Brown (good books to read for beginners txt) 📗

Clotel

By William Wells Brown.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Preface to the 1853 Edition Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown Epigraph Clotel I: The Negro Sale II: Going to the South III: The Negro Chase IV: The Quadroon’s Home V: The Slave Market VI: The Religious Teacher VII: The Poor Whites, South VIII: The Separation IX: The Man of Honour X: The Young Christian XI: The Parson Poet XII: A Night in the Parson’s Kitchen XIII: A Slave Hunting Parson XIV: A Free Woman Reduced to Slavery XV: Today a Mistress, Tomorrow a Slave XVI: Death of the Parson XVII: Retaliation XVIII: The Liberator XIX: Escape of Clotel XX: A True Democrat XXI: The Christian’s Death XXII: A Ride in a Stagecoach XXIII: Truth Stranger Than Fiction XXIV: The Arrest XXV: Death Is Freedom XXVI: The Escape XXVII: The Mystery XXVIII: The Happy Meeting XXIX: Conclusion Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Preface to the 1853 Edition

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.

Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown

Shall tongues be mute when deeds are wrought
Which well might shame extremest Hell?
Shall freemen lack th’ indignant thought?
Shall Mercy’s bosom cease to swell?
Shall Honour bleed?⁠—shall Truth succumb?
Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb?

Whittier

William Wells Brown, the subject of this narrative, was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky, not far from the residence of the late Hon. Henry Clay. His mother was the slave of Doctor John Young. His father was a slaveholder, and, besides being a near relation of his master, was connected with the Wicklief family, one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most aristocratic of the Kentucky planters. Dr. Young was the owner of forty or fifty slaves, whose chief employment was in cultivating tobacco, hemp, corn, and flax. The Doctor removed from Lexington, when William was five or six years old, to the state