Clotel Analysis

In the works we discussed, a mulatto was usually the offspring of a black woman and a white man; however, the key to comprehending the racial identity of a mulatto is much more deeper. A mulatto is constantly faced with the difficult task of struggling between two races that in the past have been in conflict with each other. In addition, they are faced with mixed feelings from the fellow pure bread black members. For example, in Blacker the Berry, Emma character, a mulatto encounter constant resentment and possible envy by not only blacks because of her lighter skin tone, but also from white peers. Even in present society, this is a reality of which many non-blacks are unaware, and which most blacks would prefer to overlook, rather than resolve. It was these revelations that authors like Chesnutt, Wilson, and Thurman attempted to bring insight on.

Slaves’ future lives all depended on who would “win” them and buy them. For Douglass, it was unbearable to observe human beings cry in desperation and pain. Frederick’s mistress was the only person, besides himself, that was able to experience pure dismay; causing them to ache together and understand the terror.

In the midst of the most progressive era in the history of the United States, people seem to be choosing to compare their current situation with the one in the 1930’s, where most African Americans were dehumanized. Women and Blacks have had a history of patronization which is displayed throughout To Kill A Mockingbird. Even though there are some disagreements in certain subject matter between the races today, relations and ideals of injustice have evolved.

Early American Literature reflects many conflicting differences in the presentation of slavery during that time period. Through the two chosen texts, the reader is presented with two different perspectives of slavery; Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a look at a slave’s life through the eyes if a slave while Benito Cereno showcases the tale of a slave uprising from the viewpoint of the slave owner.. Benito Cereno’s work shows the stereotypical attitude towards African-American slaves and the immorality of that outlook according to Douglass’s narrative. Cereno portrays the typical white slave owner of his time, while Douglass’ narrative shows the thoughts of the slaves. The two stories together show that white Americans are oblivious to the ramifications and overall effects of slavery. These texts assist a moralistic purpose in trying to open up America’s eyes to the true nature of slavery by revealing it’s inhumanity and depicting the cruelty that was allowed.

Douglass describes her transformation towards an inhuman person by portraying her as the victim. Douglass faults the system as a whole rather than the individual slaveholders, who he believes have no choice but to become corrupted by the immoral institution. He doesn’t expect white’s to be nice to people of color and accepts that she will change and turn into a cruel individual like the rest of the white people that Douglass has had to deal with throughout his life.

The readings that were read this week gave me the realization that people understand that appearance and matter socially, among the working class. The physical distinctiveness of African slaves is the key idea that the lighter you are, the better you are. Even today there are many social constructs within the African American community that you are uglier if you are dark skin. It also gives those who are light skin the idea that they are better and comes with a stereotype that light skinned blacks are “boujee.” I think it comes from slavery because those in who worked out in the fields were dark while those who were house slaves tended to be light skinned. Light skins also got better treatment from their master and and I believe that the social

William Brown’s novel, Clotel or The President’s Daughter, teaches modern readers about its historical setting because of his closeness to the actual period of slavery. Although Clotel is a fictionalized character the cruelty towards enslaved women and children being born into slavery are realized through the novel. The novel explores slavery’s harsh effect on African American families and the difficult lives of American mulattoes or mixed race. By viewing many different characters in the story with different views on slavery, readers are able to conclude that slavery was not a simple issue. Readers can witness in the story white men who fall in love with slave women as well as slave women falling for white men.

As a young African-American man coming of age in, a predominantly white, middle school often times I was the odd one out. Playing the alien role, it was expected of me to participate in “black activities” or certain reasoning’s for declining or accepting any favors was determinate on skin color. Living like this makes a young man think about his worth. When he reaches his teenage years as he looks back on who he used to be, and the feeling of being exploited because of skin color isn’t a feeling that is sought after for the future. I wanted more. In relation, there are certain roles in history that men and women were expected to take part in. Bobbie Ann Mason seems to elaborate on a young mind’s perception on gender role stereotypes in her essay “Being Country”. “Granny didn’t question a

The current sensation of our time is the new narrative written by a slave fugitive entitled, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Much has been alleged about Frederick Douglass being but the penname of a white man who wrote his Narrative. The same has been questioned on whether a man did or did not write the literary works published under the name of the Grimke sisters. The Grimkes, daughters of South Carolina slaveholders, think such human suffering that slaves endure is a sin, and not a necessary price for civilization. Without doubt, one of the intentions of Douglass’s narrative is to recount an individual account about slavery, and the way one man rises above the institution and makes a life for himself. However, Douglass’s little book evocates such pain, and you think it is truthful, and this is what slave narratives do. Douglass’s narrative is used to move people into action and to encourage people to do something about the injustices of the world. As a result, women played a huge role in Douglass’s narrative. Women in society are seen as valued items, and they are not to be publically beaten or to leave out the private female sphere. Conversely, Douglass’s narrative illustrates many slave women being beaten by other men and women, and many of the most violent scenes in the narrative have women involved. Douglass does not discuss women very often in his narrative, but when he does, he generally connects them with suffering.

He highlights how slave owners deceive themselves in order to justify their actions and maintain a peaceful state of mind. This ultimately strips the slave owners of reason and or religious purpose and thus makes them live a life of dissimulation. An example of this would illustrated through Sophia Auld, the wife of his slave master. Upon his arrival, he treated him as she treated her own. She was “a women of the the kindest heart and finest feelings.” She had never had a slave of her own and after being taught the proper ways of slavery from Hugh who believed “it was unlawful..to teach a slave to read.” She went from “that angelic face to that of a demon.” Douglass shows how her transition was terrible not only for him in experience but also for him to watch as he saw her as much of a victim as he saw himself. He depicts her as a victim of not only slavery but also of being a women as women aren’t usually responsible for slaves and are never properly educated on how slavery is suppose to work. Although traumatizing, this experience teaches him a lot. He now understands that the dehumanization of slaves by lack of power is achieved by not keeping the slaves educated. Due to the out lash of his master, he now understands that his only way to freedom will be the education of

Before the Jim Crow era, the invention of the word Negro or the “White man”, or descriptive concepts to describe the blacks never seemed to existed. The colonial era consisted of a large mixed population of white and black bondsmen, who occupied the same economic issues, and were equal treated by the “lords” of the plantations as well as “legislatures,” and were unconcerned about the color of one another skin. These individuals “worked together and relaxed together ” as the notion of race was a relative

The narrative recited by Mary Prince has a clear purpose. At the time that Prince recites the events of her narrative slavery has been abolished in British Isles, but is still rampant throughout the colonies of the British Empire. Most of Prince’s experiences with slavery come from her time spent in Bermuda, a British colony in the West Indies. The majority of her narrative is spent recounting the horrors of her life in slavery. The vivid imagery Mary Prince uses to describe the brutal treatment she endured is an attempt to utilize pathetic rhetoric to convey a message to her audience. This message is that slavery is a gruesome institution of the British Empire that is still very much alive. In addition, Mary Prince was reciting and having her narrative edited by those whose clear intention in publishing her words was to abolish slavery. Thomas Pringle had risen to the rank of secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society just one year before he meets Mary Prince. Even if it were not Prince’s intention to use her story to fight slavery, those who took control over her words would not let them be used in any other way. Throughout her narrative Prince weaves a tale that evokes incredible sympathy and empathy from the reader. This is where the true greatness of Mary Prince’s narrative lies; not in the message she is trying to convey, but in the methods that she implemented to reach the masses with her message.

Race — as a social construct, a pseudo-biological concept, and an identifying demographic — has undeniably been ubiquitous in the history of human otherness. In particular, the ascribing of racial identities to a group, or “racialization”, has played a vital role in the conception and development of minority groups. This phenomenon continues to shape ideas about race and ethnicity, albeit in less dramatic ways than in the antebellum South. Nevertheless, people blinded by privilege claim that they are “colorblind” or that society has moved into a “post-racial” paradigm. It is, therefore, especially relevant to examine processes of racialization that have defined and maintained the social concept of race throughout history. A prominent historical instance of racialization that influenced modern-day race identity is the objectification and commoditization of black people in Southern slave markets of the antebellum era. As a consequence of the chattel principle, which defined a slave’s existence as property of a slaveholder, Black Americans’ identities were permanently altered by those who used their positions of power to subjugate and dehumanize them, either deliberately or tacitly. Specifically through association between race and physical or mental ability, and false medicalization of issues in slave populations, slave traders, slaveholders, and others who endorsed chattel slavery perpetuated the racialization of black slaves.

The matter of slavery played as a piece of the puzzle in the civil war. Southerners had a twisted way of viewing people with a darker skin tone of theirs and James Henry Hammond asserted that, “In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” He went on to proclaim that, “Fortunately the South…found a race for this purpose. A race inferior to her own” [L]. Strongly disagreeing, Abolitionists in the North perceived the black people not an as inferior race but rather “entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man” [P]. Helping to flame these

Imogen attaches her lover’s personhood to his belongings, creating an association between one’s clothing and moral character, demonstrating the Elizabethan belief that materials were a physical manifestation of one’s identity.