#clotel

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“The Five of Coins: the Tarot card that means poverty and ill health and any other kind of lack you can imagine in the material realm. After I decided to dedicate the Coins suit of The American Renaissance Tarot to 19th century African-American writers, I had myriad choices as to what literary scene would best convey the deprivations under which American slaves labored. But I immediately thought of the sermon scene from William Wells Brown’s Clotel, the first novel written and published by an African-American. In the Five of Coins for the influential Rider-Waite-Smith deck (pictured) we see some poor and ailing folks in the snow outside of a church. The traditional interpretation of the image is that when you’re facing material lack, you should turn your eyes to God and allow your faith to carry you through a difficult time. The sermon scene from Clotel is scathing in its depiction of how American slaves are denied even this basic comfort. In the novel, the slaves of a large plantation are made to gather in an orchard to receive the gospel on Sunday. Instead of offering inspiration, the preacher treats them to the same tired old biblical saw, 'servants obey your masters.' The slaves’ response is disdainful and sarcastic. One slave comments that the people who wrote the Bible were fools, because they made such a big book but only put in the one line: 'servants obey your masters.' Through writing and directing this project, the Five of Coins has taken on a new connotation for me: ancestors. Whenever I’m facing material hardship, I think of the incredible fortitude and survival skills of 19th century American slaves who didn’t even own themselves, and who struggled for basic necessities like food, water, clothing, and shelter. By and large, American slaves were prohibited from practicing their native African religions, and the partial Christianity of their day only served to justify their subaltern status. What else did they possess but their connection to ancestors? Just as they must have taken inspiration from the strength of their ancestral line, I take inspiration from their ability to survive extreme prejudice and material deprivation.” — Thea Wirsching

Brown, William Wells. Clotel, or, The President's Daughter. The Modern Library, 2000.

One could argue that they have still not come to an end, not truly.

William Wells Brown, quoted in Joshua D. Rothman, “The Impossible Moral Dilemmas of Slavery: William Wells Brown and the Slave Trade”

Today's audiobook and crochet selection is #clotel by #williamwellsbrown This is the first novel written by a Black person to be published in the US.

Brown, William Wells. Clotel, or, The President's Daughter. The Modern Library, 2000. 63. Print.