Clotel · Question
How does Clotel develop the theme of Dehumanization and Commodification?
Answer
Clotel by William Wells Brown develops Dehumanization and Commodification across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
Slaves are treated as property to be bought, sold, inspected, and valued like livestock, stripping them of their humanity and reducing their worth to market price.
Brown notes that every white person, regardless of wealth, can participate in buying and selling slaves, reducing human beings to common property.
Slaves are treated as cargo: chained promiscuously, prepared for market by dyeing hair, and sold at auction like livestock.
Clotel's body, moral character, intellect, Christianity, and chastity are each assigned a monetary value and sold separately at auction.
Evidence in the book
- Preface to the 1853 Edition
Brown notes that every white person, regardless of wealth, can participate in buying and selling slaves, reducing human beings to common property.
- Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown
Slaves are treated as cargo: chained promiscuously, prepared for market by dyeing hair, and sold at auction like livestock.
- I: The Negro Sale
Clotel's body, moral character, intellect, Christianity, and chastity are each assigned a monetary value and sold separately at auction.
- Going to the South
Slaves are treated as commodities: their ages are falsified for market, families are torn apart by sale, and they are advertised like livestock.
- III: The Negro Chase
Slaves are hunted like animals with trained dogs, and their capture is priced in advertisements, reducing human beings to commodities.
- The Slave Market
The chapter vividly depicts enslaved people being examined like livestock, with their bodies inspected and their ages manipulated to increase sale value.
- VII: The Poor Whites, South
The brutal suppression of the rebellious slave, who is killed and mutilated for resisting abuse, illustrates the extreme dehumanization of enslaved people.
- XI: The Parson Poet
The advertisement for sick negroes for dissection and Mr. Peck's poem treating a child as property exemplify the reduction of enslaved people to objects for profit and experimentation.
