Clotel, or The Presidents Daughter | Page 3

William Wells Brown
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CLOTEL;
OR,
THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER.

PREFACE
MORE than two hundred years have elapsed since the first cargo of
slaves was landed on the banks of the James River, in the colony of
Virginia, from the West coast of Africa. From the introduction of
slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation of the Colonies
from the British Crown, the number had increased to five hundred
thousand; now there are nearly four million. In fifteen of the thirty-one
States, Slavery is made lawful by the Constitution, which binds the
several States into one confederacy.
On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, the Negro is
considered common property, on which any white man may lay his
hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population of the United
States, North and South, are bound by their oath to the constitution, and
their adhesion to the Fugitive Slaver Law, to hunt down the runaway
slave and return him to his claimant, and to suppress any effort that
may be made by the slaves to gain their freedom by physical force.
Twenty-five millions of whites have banded themselves in solemn
conclave to keep four millions of blacks in their chains. In all grades of
society are to be found men who either hold, buy, or sell slaves, from
the statesmen and doctors of divinity, who can own their hundreds,
down to the person who can purchase but one.
Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves, and thereby
giving the system a reputation, and especially professed Christians,
Slavery would long since have been abolished. The influence of the
great "honours the corruption, and chastisement doth therefore hide his
head." The great aim of the true friends of the slave should be to lay
bare the institution, so that the gaze of the world may be upon it, and
cause the wise, the prudent, and the pious to withdraw their support

from it, and leave it to its own fate. It does the cause of emancipation
but little good to cry out in tones of execration against the traders, the
kidnappers, the hireling overseers, and brutal drivers, so long as
nothing is said to fasten the guilt on those who move in a higher circle.
The fact that slavery was introduced into the American colonies, while
they were under the control of the British Crown, is a sufficient reason
why Englishmen should feel a lively interest in its abolition; and now
that the genius of mechanical invention has brought the two countries
so near together, and both having one language and one literature, the
influence of British public opinion is very great on the people of the
New World.
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