SOURCE: “Clotel, A Black Romance,” in CLA Journal: Official Publication of the College Language Association, Vol. 23, No. 3, 1980, pp. 296-302.

In the following essay, Rosselot defends Clotel against criticism for its romanticism, explaining that the novel embraced the romance tradition of its time and succeeded in its political purpose.

Clotel (1853), “generally considered the first novel written by an American Negro,” has often been a disappointment because the romance elements in it have been unrecognized. Although Farrison, William Wells Brown's biographer, calls the slave narrative based on the legend of Thomas Jefferson's black children the “memorable effort of a pioneer among Negro authors,” he notes that the book “abounds in imperfections.”¹ Then there is Loggins' classic complaint: “The great weakness of Clotel is that enough material for a dozen novels is crowded into its two hundred and forty-five pages.”² Farrison, agreeing that Clotel contains too much material for full treatment...