# XI: The Parson Poet explained — Clotel

> Chapter companion for Clotel by William Wells Brown.

## What happens

Carlton prolongs his stay at Mr. Peck's plantation, drawn by Georgiana's charm. Mr. Peck encourages him to visit neighbor Jones's farm to observe the slaves' religious condition. Carlton reads a disturbing advertisement for sick negroes wanted for medical dissection, revealing the brutal commodification of enslaved people. Mr. Peck dismisses the horror and shares a racist poem he wrote for Carlton's sister, exposing the hypocrisy of a Christian parson who dehumanizes slaves.

## Themes in this chapter

### Corruption of Christianity

Mr. Peck, a Christian parson, writes a racist poem dehumanizing a slave child and defends the use of enslaved people for medical dissection, revealing the moral hypocrisy of slaveholding Christianity.

### Dehumanization and Commodification

The advertisement for sick negroes for dissection and Mr. Peck's poem treating a child as property exemplify the reduction of enslaved people to objects for profit and experimentation.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Carlton

A Northern visitor staying with Mr. Peck, increasingly disturbed by slavery's realities, including advertisements for slaves for dissection.

### Mr. Peck

The parson who defends slavery, dismisses abolitionist views, and writes a degrading poem about a slave child.

### Georgiana Carlton

Mr. Peck's daughter, who sympathizes with abolitionist sentiments and encourages Carlton to observe the slaves' condition.

## Key lines

> Unbind, unbind my galling chain, And set, oh! set me free: No longer say that I'll disdain The gift of liberty.

The chapter opens with a poetic plea for freedom from bondage.

_Sets a thematic contrast between the ideal of liberty and the reality of slavery depicted in the chapter._

> Subjects being obtained from among the coloured population in sufficient numbers for every purpose, and proper dissections carried on without offending any individuals in the community!

The medical college advertisement boasts that Black bodies are readily available for dissection without public objection.

_Highlights the dehumanization of enslaved people as mere anatomical specimens._

> I have a little nigger, the blackest thing alive, He'll be just four years old if he lives till forty-five;

Mr. Peck's poem begins by mockingly describing a young enslaved child in racist terms.

_Exposes the parson's casual racism and the degradation of enslaved children._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se/chapters/xi-the-parson-poet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se/chapters