73 pages • 2 hours read
William Wells BrownClotel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1853A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Young Christian”
Mr. Peck is talented and eloquent, and he contributes to “benevolent causes to which he took a fancy” (94). Because he dearly loves his daughter, she “exercised considerable influence over him” (94).
Carlton, despite knowing Mr. Peck from school, is younger than Mr. Peck, being just over thirty. Carlton is a “free-thinker […] who took no note of to-morrow” (94), and Georgiana endeavors to convert him. Though Carlton often had looked at religion with “indifference” (95), he is drawn by Georgiana’s “innocent and persuasive manner,” and he relents, accepting Christianity.
Georgiana teaches Carlton that the Bible does not condone slavery. She tells him that “[t]o claim, hold, and treat a human being as property is a felony against God and man” (95) and that Christianity “is opposed to slaveholding in its spirit and its principles” (95). She argues that people should not convince themselves “that slavery is right, because it is profitable” (95) and that they should be moved by “the wail of the mother as she surrenders her only child to the grasp of the ruthless kidnapper” (96).
Georgiana asks her father to promise that, when the newly converted Carlton discusses slavery with him, he will not tell him that the Bible justifies slavery. Mr. Peck tells her that he understands Scripture better than she does, having “been in the world longer” (97). Georgiana counters that when he first moved south, he did not agree with slavery; Mr. Peck says he “did not know so much about it then” (97).
Georgiana tells him that “the acts of the professed friends of Christianity in the South do more to spread infidelity than the writers of all the atheists which have ever been published” (98), for nonbelievers are bothered by the fact that “[b]ishops, ministers, elders, and deacons are engaged in this awful business” (98). She concludes by noting that Christ’s “whole life was a living testimony against slavery and all that it inculcates” (99), for he “voluntarily identified himself with the poor and the despised” (99).
She tells her father that she seeks not to change his views, only to convince him not to suggest to Carlton that slavery is justified in the Bible. Her father agrees. The narrator notes that, though her father might not have realized it, “she was his superior and his teacher” (99).
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Parson Poet”
As he and Georgiana spend more time together, Carlton decides to extend his stay by two months. Carlton is invited to visit the farm of the Pecks’ neighbor Jones. Mr. Peck hopes that Carlton will see “how much better a Christian’s slaves are situated than one who does nothing for the cause of Christ” (101). Carlton says he will stay with Jones for a few days and will try to have a religious conversation with the slaves.
Carlton then draws attention to an advertisement he had seen which announces that a Dr. Stillman is looking to buy slaves who are suffering various diseases, some of them incurable. Mr. Peck explains that the doctor intends to use them for dissection and that sometimes doctors “keep them on hand, and when they need one they bleed him to death” (102). When Carlton argues, “Yes, but that’s murder” (102), Mr. Peck notes that “the doctors are licensed to commit murder” (102). Carlton says he had heard “hard stories in abolition meetings in New York about slavery” (103) and that he’s beginning “to think that many of them are true” (103). Georgiana tells him he will dislike slavery more and more the longer he stays in the South.
Mr. Peck say he has written a poem for Carlton’s sister. In the poem, “My Little Nig,” the narrator describes the physical appearance of his four-year-old slave, calling him “the blackest thing alive” (103) and saying “[h]is lips bulge from his countenance” (103). The poem describes how the slave “squabbles with the pigs” (103) and lies “lazily” (103) in the yard. When the slave is older, the narrator of the poem will show him the plantation and tell him, “My little nig, now just prepare to go it!” (104).
Chapter 12 Summary: “A Night in the Parson’s Kitchen”
Among Mr. Peck’s slaves is Sam, who “was considered the first” (105). Sam is consulted as an authority when it comes to parties, purchases, and going to the market. Other slaves respect him and quiet when he gives them a certain look.
When he was a young slave in Kentucky, Sam had learned to read, which resulted in his being “considered a prodigy among the slaves” (105). His “drawback” (106), however, is that he is “one of the blackest of his race” (106): even among slaves, “[t]here is […] a great amount of prejudice against colour” (105), with lighter-skinned slaves seen as superior. Sam, though dark skinned, “made up for this in his dress” (106).
On Sunday nights, Mr. Peck’s slaves gather in the kitchen, of which Currer is in charge, to discuss “the events of the week” (106). Sam sees himself as attractive to the women and butters his hair and face “to make it ‘shiny’” (106).
One Sunday night, Currer tells the slaves that a slave named Dorcas Simpson is marrying a man who works in the field. The slaves discuss how Dorcas is attractive enough “to get a house servant” (107). Sam is glad to hear the man is “nearly white” (107), saying that, as a lighter-skinned woman, she should not associate “wid dem common darkies” (107) and that he doesn’t approve of “dis malgemation of blacks and mulattoes” (107). The narrator notes that Sam, who is “prejudiced against the blacks” (107), insists his mother was biracial, using as evidence the fact that his hair grows long.
While living with his previous master, a doctor, Sam became known as the “Black Doctor” because his master trained him to grind ointment and make pills. Sam then was promoted to “bleeding, pulling teeth, and administering medicine to the slaves” (108). Sam is overly proud of himself and “put on more airs” (108) than the doctor himself, despite making mistakes, such as the time he extracted the wrong tooth.
Sam’s regaling the tales of his doctoring “gave him a high position amongst the slaves that evening, and made him a decided favourite among the ladies” (109).
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
Georgiana and her father Mr. Peck appear to fight over the soul of Christianity, with Mr. Peck quoting Scripture to justify slavery and Georgiana retorting that “[t]o claim, hold, and treat a human being as property is felony against God and man” (95). Whereas Snyder denounces slavery for its effects on white people, Georgiana, in her statement that “[t]o take from a man his earnings is theft; but to take the earner is a compound, life-long theft” (95), shows concern for the slaves themselves. Georgiana reminds her father that Christ’s “whole life was a living testimony against slavery and all that it inculcates” (99) and calls on Christians to be moved by “the wail of the mother as she surrenders her only child to the grasp of the ruthless kidnapper” (96). By preaching on the kindness of Jesus and painting a picture of mothers separated from their children, she seeks to appeal to people’s humanity, subtly chastising those who manipulate the Bible in order to serve their own needs.
Georgiana is sharp, almost shrewd in her condemnation of slavery, and she states her case in a way that mollifies her traditional father. By passionately involving herself in political discussions, Georgiana defies standards of traditional womanhood; however, she seems to understand instinctively the need for deference. In requesting that her father not to speak to Carlton about slavery, she manages to assert her opinion while appealing to his sense of authority: “I would not be understood as wishing to teach you, or to dictate to you in the least; but only grant my request, not to allude to the Bible as sanctioning slavery, when speaking to Mr. Carlton” (99). Despite her affecting this subservient demeanor, Georgiana is, Brown writes, “his superior and his teacher” (99). Her deference to him prevents him from having to admit it, which makes him more likely to submit to her request.
These chapters further illustrate how humanity is denied the slaves. Carlton learns that white doctors keep sick slaves “on hand” (102) so they can bleed them to death when they need dissections. Even among the slaves, Brown writes, there is “a great amount of prejudice against colour” (105). When the slaves discuss the upcoming marriage of the beautiful slave Dorcas Simpson, Sam is relieved she is marrying a lighter-skinned man, stating, “I don’t like to see dis malgemation of blacks and mulattoes” (107). Sam, who himself has dark skin, claims his hair’s ability to grow long is evidence that he is “part of an Anglo-Saxon” (107). Sam’s statements about biracial slaves highlight how light-skinned slaves sometimes feel “superiority over those of a darker hue” (105). However, as the novel progresses, readers will find that lighter-skinned slaves—such as Clotel and Althesa—suffer in their own way as they are forced to shift between identities, treated by white people as slaves and by darker-skinned people as white.
