This book was fabulous. It is considered the first novel ever published by an African American; the author was born into slavery but eventually escaped (his account of this, "Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown," is included in the book). Clotel is the main character of the story, a mulatto fathered by Thomas Jefferson.

The novel begins with Currer (Clotel's mother and Jefferson's slave), Clotel, and her sister Althea. After Jefferson goes to Washington, Currer is left with another master, who eventually dies, leaving Currer, Clotel, and Althea to be sold on the auction block. The book then continues to tell the story of what happens to each one.

I've never been very into books about African-American issues or slavery. This wasn't for racial reasons; the whole genre just never sparked my interest, I guess. I decided to give this one a try; sort of dipping my toe into the water to see how it is. The book was great -- very easy to read, intriguing, no parts that dragged on and on. I highly recommend it. The only "down" side is that the chapters tend to skip from person to person, and by the time I came to the next chapter about one of them, I had already sort of forgotten how this person came to be in the situation they were currently in. That's probably just me, though; my memory is awful sometimes. All I had to do was flip back a few chapters and refresh my memory. No big deal.

The book focuses a lot on how religion was used as a justification for slavery. Funny how, one hundred and fifty years later, people are still using religion to justify all sorts of discrimination and violence. Learn a lesson much?

It also brings attention to the fact that there were a lot of slaves who were mulattos and could actually pass for white. For some reason, this never occurred to me. I mean, obviously I knew about the practice of slaveholders having children with their slaves, but the picture of a white slave toiling away in a field just never entered my mind. That's not something I ever heard about in my history classes; it was always "white" owners, "black" slaves.

I can't say enough good things about this book.

The genre of African-American fiction began in 1853 with the publication of this historical novel in England. Even though William Wells Brown, a fugitive slave from America, wrote four versions of this story, the first version was not published in the United States until 1969. The reason this novel was not introduced into American society until this time was because of its reference to the relationship Thomas Jefferson had with his slave, Sally Hemmings. The idea that Sally bore him children, which he sold as slaves, was enough to keep this novel out of the American public's eye forever! Still, this novel found its way here and in later versions, Jefferson's connection to Sally vanished all together. This novel centers on three main characters: Currer, a slave who was once Thomas Jefferson's housekeeper and mistress, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa.

The separation of Currer and her two daughters in the beginning of the story provides the actual framework of this novel. Through this separation, Brown is able to create three separate story lines united by the institution of slavery.

The first story line involves Currer's life as a concubine of Thomas Jefferson and later a slave to a Reverend John Peck. Through her life, Brown presents the hypocrisy of the slave owner owning another human being as well as some Christians' biblical approval of it. Brown uses the second story line of Clotel and her relationship with Horatio Green, to depict how vulnerable and hopeless life was for black women under slavery. Horatio adores Clotel so much that he provides her with a home of her own to raise their daughter, Mary. But Horatio desperately wants to further his political career and does so by marrying a white woman by the name of Gertrude. Feeling jealous and threatened by Clotel's presence, Gertrude sells Mary into slavery. The final story line involves the fate of Althesa. Like her sister, Althesa is a concubine to her master Henry Morton. But Morton later marries her and is a loving father to their two children. Even though Althesa experiences true love through marriage and was able to raise her children, the actual tragedy of her situation lies in what happens to her children. Through Althesa's story, Brown proves how her free rank in marriage did not grant freedom for her daughters, which continually shows slavery's disruption of the black family unit.

CLOTEL, though considered melodramatic by some, is an exquisite piece of literature. Its importance is not only tied to the fact that it is the first published work of its kind in this genre, but gives readers a glimpse into the English language used by black people at that time. I think this novel was an excellent start for the genre of African American literature.

This story is very interesting as we are descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, whose relationship, the historians attempted to erase from history. The only problem with that is they left 1800+ descendants.

It is a good story that should not be discounted because it was not written about by the so call established historians.

As the Dred Scott papers appeared today on line. Many many stories are stillout there that could intrugue us about our county's past

This, reader, is an unvarnished narrative of one doomed by the laws of the Southern States to be a slave. It tells not only its own story of grief, but speaks of a thousand wrongs and woes beside, which never see the light; all the more bitter and dreadful, because no help can relieve, no sympathy can mitigate, and no hope can cheer. -William Wells Brown, Clotel, or The President's Daughter

Clotel would have historic interest simply by virtue of the fact that William Wells Brown appears to have been the first African American to write a novel. But it's not merely a literary curiosity; it is also an eminently readable and emotionally powerful, if forgivably melodramatic, portrait of the dehumanizing horrors of slave life in the Ante-bellum South. Brown, himself an escaped slave, tells the story of the slave Currer and her daughters, Clotel and Althesa, and of their attempts to escape from slavery. The central conceit of the story is that the unacknowledged father of the girls is Thomas Jefferson himself.

There is an immediacy to the stories here--of slave auctions, of families being torn apart, of card games where humans are wagered and lost, of sickly slaves being purchased for the express purpose of resale for medical experimentation upon their imminent deaths, of suicides and of many more indignities and brutalities--which no textbook can adequately convey. Though the characters tend too much to the archetypal, Brown does put a human face on this most repellent of American tragedies. He also makes extensive use (so extensive that he has been accused, it seems unfairly, of plagiarism) of actual sermons, lectures, political pamphlets, newspaper advertisements, and the like, to give the book something of a docudrama effect.

The Bedford Cultural Edition of the book, edited by Robert S. Levine, has extensive footnotes and a number of helpful essays on Brown and on the sources, even reproducing some of them verbatim. Overall, it gives the novel the kind of serious presentation and treatment which it deserves, but for obvious reasons has not received in the past. Brown's style is naturally a little bit dated and his passions are too distant for us to feel them immediately, but as you read the horrifying scenes of blacks being treated like chattel, you quickly come to share his moral outrage at this most shameful chapter in our history.

GRADE : B

This is a exemplary novel that also deals with the harsh realities of slavery. This novel distinctly tells a true story, which is relevant to ALL Americans (believe it or not. This is a must reader for ALL.

Kleppner is the one name I think when I'm in a doubt regarding any stage of the advertising procedure. The book is not extremely intensive, but explains in a precise way each stage. It might be too USA oriented, but works fine for international students. Surely a must in every student's library.

Kleppner's Advertising Procedur