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Clotel; Or the President’s Daughter Back in the day, African Americans were considered as slaves. They were degraded, tortured, beaten, and was also known to be illiterate. A man by the name of William Wells Brown was a runaway slave who became very intelligent over the course of time. Brown was born to an African American slave woman named Elizabeth and a white man in Lexington, Kentucky in the year of 1814. After being enslaved for almost twenty years, this courageous man decided to make a run for his freedom. His escape was successful. He did work on a steamboat for a couple of years to remain low-key. Later on in life, Brown moved to the city of Buffalo. He was married by this time and had become a major part of society. He participated in the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement was a way for slaves and others who were against slavery to try to get rid of slavery. William Brown travelled to spread his inputs and thoughts. Some places included Cuba and Haiti. Because Brown was so active in the movement, people were threatening anyone who was apart of it. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed and a group of …show more content…
It includes numerous of events that occurred during the time of slavery and Brown included it in his book. For example, it explains how slaves were sold and traded. One of the slaves that were sold was Clotel. She was the understood to be the daughter of President Thomas Jefferson. She was considered to be very beautiful and a man named Horatio Green fell in love with her, purchased her, married her, and also caused her great pain. All in all, this story is not entirely about Clotel’s life, but it is mainly about the negatives of slavery and the hardships that slaves encountered. It also give different insights on how abolitionists tried to abolish slavery, pursue their happiness, and their liberty. He included dialogues and vivid events to give clarity to his
John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in the town of Torrington Connecticut. When he was five his family moved to Ohio and in 1834 they moved to Pennsylvania. John Brown was no stranger to slavery. His father ran a station in the Underground Railroad. He was taught to respect the slaves they harbored as equals and as good people. Brown learned to respect people different than him. In Pennsylvania, Brown worked with other slave sympathizers to educate the African-American community. He was even able to accept and learn from the Native American's that lived in the area of his home. Slavery was considered inhumane and cruel to Brown and his family.
In 1619, slaves from Africa started being shipped to America. In the years that followed, the slave population grew and the southern states became more dependent on the slaves for their plantations. Then in the 1800s slavery began to divide America, and this became a national conflict which lead to the Civil War. Throughout history, groups in the minority have risen up to fight for their freedom. In the United States, at the time of the Civil War African Americans had to fight for their freedom. African Americans used various methods to fight for their freedom during the Civil War such as passing information and supplies to the Union Army, escaping to Union territory, and serving in the Union’s army. These actions affected the African Americans and the United States by helping the African Americans earn citizenship and abolishing slavery in the United States.
John Brown grew up in a highly religious family with strong beliefs of antislavery, as well as growing up in the free state of Connecticut. He was brought up very disciplined
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” opened the eyes of millions of people worldwide. The book portrayed the brutal life of the black slaves. It went on to sell millions of copies and was given the title “The Greatest Book of the Age”. (pg. 616) It is had been commented that this book had helped “lay the groundwork for the Civil War”, according to Will Kaufman, and is widely regarded to one of the reasons of the Civil War. Langston Hughes refers to this book as a "moral battle cry for freedom." The characters in her book debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the future of freed persons, individualism and racism. The Civil War arose from a combination of causes counting regional conflicts between the Southern and Northern states, economic forces, and humanitarian concerns for the welfare of enslaved people. The four year war opposed one section of the country against each other and nearly rescinded the United States of America. It is no wonder why when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he responded that she was “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war” and I would agree with that statement of his. Whether this is true or not, the gush highlights the public linking between Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Civil War.
Lee, Desmond. “The Study of African American Slave Narratives “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and “Narrative of Frederick Douglass”.” Studies of Early African americans. 17 (1999): 1-99. Web. EBSCO
Uncle Tom's Cabin is said to have been a book that tells the truths of slavery. It does this by telling the actual things that happened to many slaves. By publishing this book, Stowe made those who knew nothing of the evils of slavery realize how cruel it really was, and by doing this she made the South angry. She made the North so angry at the South that the two began to fight over slavery. This is truly one of the reasons why the Civil war began.
Mitchell said that Brown emphasized romantic conventions, dramatic incident and a political view in his novel. Recent scholars have also analyzed Clotel for its representations of gender and race. Sherrard-Johnson notes that Brown portrayed both the "tragic central characters " and the "heroic figures" as mulattoes with Anglo features, similar to his own appearance. She thinks he uses the cases of "nearly white" slaves to gain sympathy for his characters. She notes that he borrowed elements from the abolitionist Lydia Maria Child 's plot in her short story, "The Quadroons" (1842). He also incorporated notable elements of recent events, such as the escape of the Crafts, and the freedom suit court case of Salome, an enslaved woman in Louisiana who claimed to be an immigrant born in Germany. Martha Cutter notes that Brown portrayed his women characters generally as passive victims of slavery and as representations of True Women and the cult of domesticity, which were emphasized at the time for women. They are not portrayed as wanting or seeking freedom, but as existing through love and suffering. Cutter asks, if Mary could free George, why did she not free herself? Although Brown published three later versions of Clotel, he did not seriously change this characterization of the African-American women. Slave women such as Ellen Craft were known to have escaped slavery, but Brown did not portray such women fully achieving
William Edward Burghardt DuBois was born in 1868, two years after slavery was abolished, in Great Barrington, MA. Born a free man in the North, during the dawn of the twentieth century, W.E.B. DuBois was able to receive an extensive education. Throughout his life he grew more and more cognizant of the politics, education, religion, and economics that shaped the American system and separated the peoples that lived there. Although he was granted the fortune of education and freedom, he was forever torn between his dark coloring which distinguished him from others. Furthermore, he was disillusioned by his unfulfillment of American ideals.
The Fugitive Slave Act was a very controversial law when passed. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law that stated runaway slaves should be captured and returned to their owner. If anyone were to interfere and help a runaway slave, there would be severe punishments for the interferer. The Fugitive Slave Act denied slave the right of trial by jury and any citizens who helped any slaves were fined. This act resulted badly in free states. In The Slave Catchers, the author informs the readers that the Act of 1850 imposed “ the possibilities that free Negroes would be kidnapped and sold into slavery posed a constant threat” (Campbell 175). Slave hunters or slave holders would go into free states and enslave free black men. One victim of the Fugitive Slave Act was Northup. Northup was a musician. He was mistaken for a runaway slave and was sold into slavery for twelve years. This act made the Abolitionist mad because the federal government was so quick in enforcing this law. They believed that if the government can enforce this law so quickly, other slave laws could be enforced too. Northerners tried every way to bypass this law and work their way around it. They would help the runaway slaves through various methods, one most famously known as The Underground Railroad. For slaves that started a new life in the North before the act was enacted, it meant
John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington Connecticut. When he was about five years old, his father moved the family to Hudson Ohio. There, John was filled with the heavy anti-slavery sentiment that was present in that area. This, combined with personal observations of the maltreatment of blacks and the influence of Calvinism, started John Brown on his crusade to abolish slavery. While still living in Hudson he married Dianthe Lusk and began to raise a large family. To support his family he worked as a farmer, tanner, and surveyor. In 1849, John Brown moved with his second wife Mary Ann Day, and their seven children to North Elba. He planned to aid the free blacks living in Garrit Smith’s colony, dubbed “Timbucto';, adjust to the hardships of farming in the Adirondacks. After realizing the impossibility of this task, John left, and followed the abolitionist movement to Kansas where five of his sons were already stationed. Here in Kansas, Brown continually struggled to become financially secure, but gained “a reputation as a ferocious opponent of slavery'; (John Brown’s Raid). This reputation was greatly enhanced when Brown and his sons led a brutal mission against the proslavery population, which resulted in five innocent proslavery settlers being mutilated and murdered. After staying in Kansas for a while longer, Brown returned to the North where he gave many speeches and fund raising meetings based on the abolishment of slavery.
The illumination of the brutal treatment of the slaves, both physically and mentally, are also apparent in the works of Stowe and Jacobs. Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, uses the stories of Eliza, Harry, Uncle Tom and Cassy to show how slavery, with both cruel and kind masters, affects different members of the slave community. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs focuses her work on the how the institution is “terrible for men; but is far more terrible for women” (B:933), adding sexual abuse to the atrocities of slavery. Douglass’ Madison gives the reader a masculine perspective on the
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.
A common theme in books that involve slavery, but extremely important. Race can be defined as a group of people who are grouped together because they are related by similar descent. Throughout the book the whites were grouped together and separated by their power. The blacks as well were grouped together and was withheld from freedom. Even in the book when Celia persistently told the lawyer that she worked alone in her crime. They did not want to come to terms with the fact that no other slave helped, especially given her gender and physical state. They categorized the slaves based on there race, in wanting to punish someone for the death of Mr.
The first topic found in these books is the difference in the roles of women and men slaves. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl gives us the women 's point of view, their lifestyle and their slave duties and roles. On the other hand, The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows us the male side of slavery; the duties and role of men slaves and their way of living their situation. Both books state clearly the roles of both men and women slaves. We can easily observe the fact that slaves’ roles were based on their gender, and the different duties they had based on these roles. This gender role idea was based on American society’s idea of assigning roles based only on gender. Slave men’s role was most of the time simple. Their purpose was mainly physical work. In
Unfortunately William Harvey Carneys young life was a struggle and very difficult. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia. William was born into slavery much of a childhood; rather not call it a childhood. Ann Dean Williams mom stayed behind in the plantation, while William and his dad also known as William Carney, Escaped the plantation through the Underground Railroad. Like many other slaves, Williams’s dad adopted their last name from their plantation owner. When they escaped from the Underground Railroad they met Harriet Tubman. Most slaves were harshly born into slavery, blindsided cold, not knowing their names, not knowing where they came from. No education came to mind only work and 100 degree sun. It was Illegal for the slaves to learn to speak. Laws were created to stop slaves from escaping from their plantations.