Clotel · Chapter
XX: A True Democrat explained
Henry Morton, a former resident of a free state and married to a former slave, delivers a scathing critique of American slavery and hypocrisy.
What happens
Henry Morton, a former resident of a free state and married to a former slave, delivers a scathing critique of American slavery and hypocrisy. At a party, he argues that the United States is a despotism where 16 million white rulers govern 4 million enslaved subjects with absolute power, stripping them of all rights. He warns that the nation's loss of moral character will lead to its destruction, citing the fall of Rome. The chapter also recounts a New Orleans story where a white man married a wealthy black woman by swearing he had black blood, highlighting the corruption of laws by money. Althesa feels proud of her husband's bold stance.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy of American Democracy
Henry Morton exposes the contradiction between America's boast of freedom and its enslavement of four million people, calling the nation a despotism.
Dehumanization and Commodification
The chapter describes slaves as property stripped of all rights, and the story of Buddington shows how a black woman's wealth overcomes racial laws.
Corruption of Christianity
The mention of a Catholic clergyman performing a marriage based on a false blood oath illustrates religious complicity in racial hypocrisy.
Characters to notice
- Henry Morton
Delivers a passionate speech condemning American slavery as despotism and warning of national ruin.
- Althesa
Feels proud of her husband Henry Morton for taking a strong anti-slavery stand in New Orleans.
- Buddington
Mentioned as a white bank teller who married a wealthy black woman by falsely claiming black blood.
Key passages
“It is not our boast of freedom... that will cause us to be respected abroad... but our acts will be scrutinised by the people of other countries.”
Henry Morton argues that America's reputation depends on its actions, not its rhetoric about liberty.
Highlights the theme of hypocrisy and international judgment.
“The slaves of America, then, lie under the most absolute and grinding despotism that the world ever saw.”
Morton asserts that American slaves endure a tyranny worse than any historical precedent.
Central to the chapter's critique of American democracy.
“It seems that the fifty or sixty thousand dollars entirely covered the negro woman's black skin, and the law prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites was laid aside for the occasion.”
Wealth allowed a white man to circumvent anti-miscegenation laws by falsely claiming black ancestry.
Illustrates the corrupting power of money in a slave society.