Clotel · Theme
Family Destruction Under Slavery
How Clotel develops Family Destruction Under Slavery.
Slavery systematically tears apart families, as seen through the forced separations of mothers from children, husbands from wives, and the denial of legal marriage for enslaved people.
Where it surfaces
- I: The Negro Sale
The auction separates Currer from her daughters, and the narrative describes the routine separation of husbands and wives, and mothers from children.
- Going to the South
Currer is sold away from her daughter Althesa, and Clotel is separated from her mother and sister without warning.
- The Slave Market
The sale separates families, as seen in the woman crying for her husband and Althesa's sorrow after leaving her mother.
- IX: The Man of Honour
Althesa's attempt to reunite with her mother Currer is thwarted by Mr. Peck's refusal to sell, underscoring the systemic destruction of enslaved families.
- XV: Today a Mistress, Tomorrow a Slave
Clotel is torn from her daughter Mary without warning, and Mary is forced into servitude under her father's wife, illustrating slavery's systematic destruction of families.
- Truth Stranger Than Fiction
The Morton family is torn apart by slavery: Althesa's hidden status leads to her daughters being sold and dying tragically, illustrating how slavery destroys families.