The Voices of Freedom

The Voices of Freedom

In the earlier century during the colonial period slavery spread like a plague that created a division between the whites and blacks in the American society. The abolition movement in the United States grew rapidly as most of the white Americans and African American with individual formerly slaves joined the movement. The author of Clotel, William Wells Brown born in Lexington was an abolitionist for African American and rose from the bondage of slavery to facilitate the fight for status within the ultimate abolitionist movement in American society. Slavery oppressed the blacks whom were mistreated and separated from their family members. The colonial period created a division in America society through slavery of African-American, and the issue of continued peculiar institution and an abolitionist plea to stop slavery is well exposed through the novel Clotel by William Well Bells.

The blacks associated rail technology to gain freedom and access to properties and equality (Zylstra 780). Consequently fighting for freedom in the family unity is one of the issues raised in the novel Clotel, Or the President's Daughter narrates how Clotel’s family is bound by slavery, rigid restrictions and its effects on the family relationships. The relation between the mother and child is segregated or rather enslaved, and there is no freedom. Currer is presented as a mother who is bound by the restriction of her white husband and was ordained to protect and keep her children safe. The mother mind is not at peace and tries so hard to achieve freedom so that she can stay on her own. She was mistreated by the white husband based on the color of her skin. We have to keep in mind that during this period slaves were treated inhumanely, as animals, and had no rights to acquire or own any property.

Gaining freedom required self-sacrifice to protect their loved ones. Women rights, feminism, raising the issue of women subjugation as well as divorce (Clark, 33). After Coltel service in the society with slave dealers, she made her second attempt to free with her daughter. Coltel was then taken and sold to Mr. French. Her hair was cut short as well as making her take the position of a servant. The situation keeps her in grievance a phenomenon that made her master resell her to another man. Even though Clotel is treated with a respectful gentleness she always thinks about her husband “Clotel stoutly maintained that she had left a husband in Virginia” (160). This is the reason she tries to escape and gain her freedom but in vain.

In the novel, Brown also developed a certain white character and earned the freedom to be in the slaveholder class. Also, the relationship that is between Peck, Georgia and his daughter are used to express the different views of slavery. As most of the slave's fights to be free, others like Brown aspire to be on the oppressing side, and Peck becomes the hypocrisy of the slaveholding Christianity. Therefore, women dealt with unsubstantiated matters of interracial relationships involving black women and white men.