Event Title
*Playing Chess with Clotel: William Wells Brown's Documentation of the United States Political Struggle before the American Civil War
Faculty Mentor
Katie Simon
Keywords
Katie Simon
Abstract
William Wells Brown’s fictional story Clotel (1853) uses the idea of Thomas Jefferson's great-granddaughter, a slave and a “tragic mulatta,” as a figurative demonstration of the fight over power between the North and South. I argue that Brown’s novel creates a virtual timeline of the ways in which the physical, legal, and mental attitudes of the two sides created a divisive line between the two, leading to war. My research uncovered the different laws created by the North in response to Southern laws, and vice versa. Many of the laws marking the retaliation on both sides can be seen through the movement of Brown's character Clotel. Through the use of a chess game allegory, I argue that Brown’s timeline reveals the battle for power between the two. His transformation of his “tragic mulatta” into different chess pieces exposes the legal, physical, and mental facets affecting both the North and the South.
Session Name:
Documenting and Deconstructing Conflict and Congruence through Art, Literature, and Theatre
Start Date
4-4-2014 9:00 AM
End Date
4-4-2014 10:00 AM
Location
HSB 304
*Playing Chess with Clotel: William Wells Brown's Documentation of the United States Political Struggle before the American Civil War
HSB 304
William Wells Brown’s fictional story Clotel (1853) uses the idea of Thomas Jefferson's great-granddaughter, a slave and a “tragic mulatta,” as a figurative demonstration of the fight over power between the North and South. I argue that Brown’s novel creates a virtual timeline of the ways in which the physical, legal, and mental attitudes of the two sides created a divisive line between the two, leading to war. My research uncovered the different laws created by the North in response to Southern laws, and vice versa. Many of the laws marking the retaliation on both sides can be seen through the movement of Brown's character Clotel. Through the use of a chess game allegory, I argue that Brown’s timeline reveals the battle for power between the two. His transformation of his “tragic mulatta” into different chess pieces exposes the legal, physical, and mental facets affecting both the North and the South.