William Wells Brown 
Clotel 
or, The Presidents Daughter

‘Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States’ is an 1853 novel written by American author and playwright William Wells Brown. The story revolves around the titular Clotel and her sister, two fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson, and explores the devastating effect slavery had on African-American families. William Wells Brown (c. 1814–1884) was an American playwright, novelist, historian, and prominent abolitionist lecturer. Born a slave, he escaped from Kentucky to Ohio in 1834, aged 19 and finally settled in Boston, where he took up writing and anti-abolition activism. A compelling examination of life as an African-American slave, ‘Clotel’, is not to be missed by those with an interest in African-American literature and history. Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this novel now complete with the poem ‘Fling out the Anti-Slavery Flag’ by the author.