# XXI: The Christian’s Death explained — Clotel

> Chapter companion for Clotel by William Wells Brown.

## What happens

Georgiana Carlton, dying of consumption, frees all her slaves and sends them to Ohio, rejecting colonization to Africa. She dies shortly after, and her husband, Mr. Carlton, mourns her deeply. The chapter contrasts the Mayflower's arrival with the first slave ship, condemning American hypocrisy.

## Themes in this chapter

### Hypocrisy of American Democracy

Contrasts the Mayflower's promise of liberty with the slave ship's cargo, highlighting the nation's foundational contradiction.

### Corruption of Christianity

Georgiana's true Christian practice is contrasted with the hypocritical priesthood supporting the Fugitive Slave Law.

### Heroism and Resistance

Georgiana's emancipation of her slaves and her principled stand against colonization exemplify heroic resistance to slavery.

## Character check-ins

### Georgiana Carlton

Emancipates her slaves and dies of consumption; her Christian philosophy drives her actions.

### Mr. Carlton

Grieves his wife's death; converted from infidelity to Christianity and practical freedom.

### Sam

One of the few slaves not freed immediately; entrusted with care of the family.

## Key lines

> “From this hour,” said she, “you are free, and all eyes will be fixed upon you. I dare not predict how far your example may affect the welfare of your brethren yet in bondage.”

Georgiana declares her slaves free, urging them to be models of virtue to prove emancipation safe.

_Highlights her belief in the power of example for the abolitionist cause._

> But if it were that departed spirits are permitted to note the occurrences of this world, with what a frown of disapprobation would hers view the effort being made in the United States to retard the work of emancipation for which she laboured and so wished to see brought about.

The author imagines Georgiana's spirit disapproving of the nation's backtracking on emancipation.

_Criticizes the Fugitive Slave Law and pro-slavery Christianity._

> Behold the Mayflower anchored at Plymouth Rock, the slave-ship in James River. Each a parent, one of the prosperous, labour-honouring, law-sustaining institutions of the North; the other the mother of slavery, idleness, lynch-law, ignorance, unpaid labour, poverty, and duelling, despotism, the ceaseless swing of the whip, and the peculiar institutions of the South.

The Mayflower and the slave ship are parallel origins of Northern freedom and Southern slavery.

_Powerful metaphor for America's dual heritage._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se/chapters/xxi-the-christian-s-death
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clotel_se/chapters