Originally published in 1853, Clotel is the first novel by an African American. William Wells Brown, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, was well known for his abolitionist activities. In Clotel, the author focuses on the experiences of a slave woman: Brown treats the themes of gender, race, and slavery in distinctive ways, highlighting the mutability of identity as well as the absurdities and cruelties of slavery. The plot includes several mulatto characters, such as Clotel, who live on the margins of the black and white worlds, as well as a woman who dresses as a man to escape bondage; a white woman who is enslaved; and a famous white man who is mistaken for a mulatto. In her Introduction, scholar Joan E. Cashin highlights the most interesting features of this novel and its bold approach to gender and race relations. This volume, the latest in the American History Through Literature series, is suitable for a variety of undergraduate courses in American history, cultural history, women's studies, and slavery.

Originally published in 1853, Clotel is the first novel by an African American. William Wells Brown, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, was well known for his abolitionist activities. In Clotel, the author focuses on the experiences of a slave woman: Brown treats the themes of gender, race, and slavery in distinctive ways, highlighting the mutability of identity as well as the absurdities and cruelties of slavery. The plot includes several mulatto characters, such as Clotel, who live on the margins of the black and white worlds, as well as a woman who dresses as a man to escape bondage; a white woman who is enslaved; and a famous white man who is mistaken for a mulatto. In her Introduction, scholar Joan E. Cashin highlights the most interesting features of this novel and its bold approach to gender and race relations. This volume, the latest in the American History Through Literature series, is suitable for a variety of undergraduate courses in American history, cultural history, women's studies, and slavery.

William Wells Brown (1814? 84) was uncertain of his own birthday because he was born a slave, near Lexington, Kentucky. He managed to escape to Ohio, a free state, in 1834. Obtaining work on steamboats, he assisted many other slaves to escape across Lake Erie to Canada. In 1849, having achieved prominence in the American anti-slavery movement, he left for Europe, both to lecture against slavery and also to gain an education for his daughters. He stayed in Europe until 1854, since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had made it possible that he could be taken back into slavery if he returned. Meanwhile, he had begun to write both fiction and non-fiction, and this account of his travels in Europe, prefaced by a short biography, was published in 1852. Brown was able to return to the United States in 1854, when British friends paid for his freedom."

Originally published in 1847, William W. Brown offers a first-person narrative that details his enslavement and the daring escape that ultimately led to his freedom. It's a captivating tale and testament to the perseverance and strength of the human spirit. In this narrative, William W. Brown presents the true story of his birth and life as an enslaved African American. He provides a truthful look at his origins, noting the unfortunate dynamic between his Black mother and white father. Brown goes into great detail explaining the rules and regulations of plantation life. He also discusses working on a steamboat, which eventually leads to his escape. Narrative of William W. Brown is a sobering story that illuminates the horrors of an inhumane institution. It's personal and vital record that gives insight into the darkest time in American history. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Narrative of William W. Brown is both modern and readable.

Born into slavery, Clotel is a white-passing woman who conceals her identity and uses a disguise to infiltrate a plantation to rescue her loved ones. It's a story of survival that's deeply rooted in the cruelest part of American history. Clotel and Althesa are the illegitimate daughters of Thomas Jefferson and a slave woman named Currer. Despite their father's elite status, the girls are sold into slavery but attempt to use their fair complexions to their advantage. Clotel takes it a step further, dressing as a white man to emancipate her daughter who was sold against her will. Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an American tragedy that explores generational trauma. William Wells Brown, who's considered the first African American novelist, uses his personal experience to illustrate the horrors of bondage. It's a heartbreaking tale that tests the undeniable power of the human spirit. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is both modern and readable.

Born into slavery, Clotel is a white-passing woman who conceals her identity and uses a disguise to infiltrate a plantation to rescue her loved ones. It's a story of survival that's deeply rooted in the cruelest part of American history. Clotel and Althesa are the illegitimate daughters of Thomas Jefferson and a slave woman named Currer. Despite their father's elite status, the girls are sold into slavery but attempt to use their fair complexions to their advantage. Clotel takes it a step further, dressing as a white man to emancipate her daughter who was sold against her will. Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an American tragedy that explores generational trauma. William Wells Brown, who's considered the first African American novelist, uses his personal experience to illustrate the horrors of bondage. It's a heartbreaking tale that tests the undeniable power of the human spirit. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is both modern and readable.

In 1863, as the Civil War raged, the escaped slave, abolitionist, and novelist William Wells Brown identified two groups most harmful to his race. "The first and most relentless," he explained, "are those who have done them the greatest injury, by being instrumental in their enslavement and consequent degradation. They delight to descant upon the 'natural inferiority' of the blacks, and claim that we were destined only for a servile condition, entitled neither to liberty nor the legitimate pursuit of happiness." "The second class," Brown concluded, "are those who are ignorant of the characteristics of the race, and are the mere echoes of the first." Four years later, Brown wrote the first military history of African Americans, The Negro in the American Rebellion. This text assailed those whose hatred and ignorance inclined them to keep blacks oppressed after Appomattox. This critical edition of The Negro in the American Rebellion, one of Brown's least-analyzed texts, is the first to appear in more than three decades. In his introduction, historian John David Smith identifies the text's Anglo-American abolitionist roots, sets it in the context of Brown's other writings, appraises it as military history, analyzes its interpretation of black masculinity and honor, and focuses closely on Brown's assessment of contemporary racial tensions. Largely ignored by scholars, The Negro in the American Rebellion, Smith argues, is a powerful transitional text, one that confronted squarely the neo-slavery of the Reconstruction era. "Whites," Brown wrote, "appear determined to reduce the blacks to a state of serfdom if they cannot have them as slaves." His important text was a call to arms in the ongoing race struggle. Smith's analysis, framed within recent scholarship on slavery, emancipation, and African American participation in the U.S. army, is long overdue.