ePub Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp by Mark Celinscak in History

Description

First published in December 1853; "Clotel: or the President's Daughter" was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. "Clotel: or the President's Daughter" story begins with the auction of his mistress; here called Currer; and their two daughters; Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her; gets her pregnant; seems to promise marriage-then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer; Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter; Mary; a slave in her father's house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom; of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles; "Clotel: or the President's Daughter" is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition; a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.