“The American Union sanctions the deed. The Constitution shields the criminals.”
Brown offers a interesting criticism of the young American legal system in its condoning of slavery. Although not written directly into the Constitution, slavery was legal during Jefferson's time. It's a shameful thing which became widely accepted for its profitableness.
“I would think of Victoria's domain, And in a moment I seemed to be there! But the fear of being taken again, Soon hurried me back to despair.”
Poor Clotel longs to be reunited with her daughter. Green's white wife, Victoria, has made the child her personal slave. If Clotel could successfully return to Virginia perhaps she could rescue the girl, but she's petrified at the thought of being recaptured, especially after her brutal servitude down in Mississippi.
“A few weeks after, on our downward passage, the boat took on board, at Hannibal, a drove of slaves, bound for the New Orleans market. They numbered from fifty to sixty, consisting of men and women from eighteen to forty years of age. A drove of slaves on a southern steamboat, bound for the cotton or sugar regions, is an occurrence so common, that no one, not even the passengers, appear to notice it, though they clank their chains at every step."
In a society which readily accepts the institution of slavery like America, it's not uncommon to see slaves chained in public. They are normally functioning members of society who are treated like criminals. More important the boar passengers' behavior reveals something even more telling; they ignore the slaves. To them, a third or more of the population is invisible, like these people don't even count.
“Though slavery is thought, by some, to be mild in Missouri, when compared with the cotton, sugar and rice growing States, yet no part of our slave-holding country, is more noted for the barbarity of its inhabitants, than St. Louis."
In this excerpt, Brown reveals an interesting facet of slavery which is not commonly addressed. There are better places than others to be a slave. By sheer fortune or lack thereof these slaves are born or sold into different states where their masters are more or less free to treat them however they wish. However, some states have more strict laws than others, or the people are more or less inclined to behave favorably toward their slaves. As a slave, Clotel and her mother have an intimate understanding of these dynamics.
