Horatio Green is white, from Virginia, and wealthy enough to afford to buy the highly sought-after quadroon, Clotel.

Before they can reach adulthood, both Althesa and Henry Morton will also become victims of Yellow Fever. With Henry as the father, Althesa will give birth to two daughters, Ellen and Jane. Although, the actual difference there may be minimal at best. Purchased by a man named Henry Morton, she will ultimately become his property and wife.

AlthesaĬurrer and Thomas Jefferson’s youngest daughter, Althesa, is just fourteen years as the novel opens, but will grow up to experience being sold in New Orleans’ slave market. Eventually, both daughters are sold away from Currer and she winds up moving to Natchez, Mississippi where she succumbs to Yellow Fever. Jefferson fathered Currer not only Clotel but also Clotel’s younger sister, Althea. That position was lost when she was passed onto another family because Jefferson had to leave for Washington, D.C. For a time, Currer was a housekeeper within the Thomas Jefferson household. CurrerĬurrer is the middle-aged mother of Clotel. Rather than go back to the horror from which she briefly managed to break free, Clotel commits suicide. Eventually, Clotel successfully escapes from slavery by disguising herself as a man only to be tracked down by those who make their living retrieving and returning runaway slaves. From that union is produced Clotel’s daughter. Clotel is purchased in the slave trade by Horatio Green who takes her as a mistress.

The man who fathered Clotel with Currer is Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. The rest of Clotel’s white ancestry is due to her father. Her mulatto ancestry is represented by her mother, Currer. The particular lineage makeup of female quadroons makes them especially prized by slaveowners looking for an exotic concubine.

We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.Īs a mixed-raced person of one-quarter African genetic heritage, Clotel is identified by a term in little use today but instantly recognized at the time of the novel’s publication in 1853: a quadroon. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Clotel sparknotes