William Wells Brown’s novel Clotel serves as a major milestone. Not only because it’s considered the first published novel to be written by an African American, but because it forces its readers to really think about slavery and the effects of it. More than that, it shows us how Christians at that time thought. Often when we think of the south, being that it is in the bible belt, we think of how deeply religious majority of the inhabitants are. However, the way Brown depicts Christianity in the antebellum south makes it appear as if Christianity encourages slavery and the cruel treatment of African Americans, but when you look deeper its not that it encourages its just that people are completely disregarding the fact that it doesn’t.
In his memoir there is a poem taken from a newspaper that tells the story a blind child that was separated from his slave mother. In response to this poem his memoir states, “The thought that man can so debase himself as to treat a fellow-creature as here represented, is enough to cause one to blush at the idea that such men are members of a civilised and Christian nation”(43). We see a lot throughout the book discussions on whether or not Christianity condones the actions of slave holders. There were a lot of people who believed it did, not because there was evidence to suggest it, but because it benefited them more to ignore the verses condemning slavery. However, not everyone in the south choose to ignore these verse and indeed spoke out against it, such as Georgiana Peck. On multiple occasions she spoke out about her “abolitionist views”, challenging the idea that such men who hold slaves can’t really be following the word of the Christian God.
Brown’s novel did quite well abroad. It was often praised with the works such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as well as Fredrick Douglass’ Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass. National Anti-Slavery Standard even went so far as to claim in their article “W.W. Brown’s New Work” in 1853 that “America would soon cease to be a slaveholding country if she gave birth to many such men as Wm. Wells Brown”(218). They applauded him for being bold courageous to push his way out of slavery, become a free man, and publish such a novel that open the eyes of people unfamiliar with the true horrors of slavery. They also stated that ” If every slave possessed the determination, energy, boldness and perseverance which distinguish William wells Brown, the labours of the Abolitionist might cease”(219).
Work Cited
Brown, William Wells. Clotel. Edited by Geoffrey Sanborn, Broadview Press, 2016.
Hi, Jazmine!
Great thoughts here. Reading these passages from Clotel and your post reminded of the Slave Bible, first published in London in 1807. An original copy was displayed at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., between 2018 and 2020, when it returned to its home at Fisk University, W.E.B. DuBois’ alma mater. Note how language on the Museum of the Bible’s webpage for the exhibit doesn’t use the word “Americas” or “American colonies”:
“[Enslavers] used the Slave Bible to teach enslaved Africans how to read while at the same time introducing them to the Christian faith. Unlike other missionary Bibles, however, the Slave Bible contained only ‘select parts’ of the biblical text. Its publishers deliberately removed portions of the biblical text, such as the exodus story, that could inspire hope for liberation. Instead, the publishers emphasized portions that justified and fortified the system of slavery that was so vital to the British Empire . . . Drawing upon new research into its origins and use among enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, this exhibition tells a story of how time and place shape the way people understand and use the Bible” (Source: https://www.museumofthebible.org/exhibits/slave-bible)
Reading this description raised the following questions for me: How does this description of the Slave Bible illustrate your point about pro-slavery Christianity? Does the Slave Bible as a text illustrate that Christianity as a worldview allowed room for slavery, or does it simply illustrate that Christianity was used as a platform to propagandize the practice of slavery? How might the existence and circulation of the Slave Bible challenge or confirm American exceptionalism?
Thanks again for this thought-provoking post!
– Josh
I also spent a majority of my reading in Clotel pondering the implications of Christian acceptance of slavery. For me, it boiled down to willful ignorance about — like you said — acknowledging what benefitted them personally versus what actually aligned with their theology. Unfortunately, this isn’t an unfamiliar behavior because we still see it so often in our modern political and social heat.