Clotel

Jones wants to impress Carlton, who is “from the North, and a non-slaveholder” (110), and he invites Carlton to preach to them. Jones’s driver Dogget tells the slaves that, if Carlton should ask, they should say the Lord made them, they want to go to heaven, and they love their master. If they do well, he will reward them with whiskey.

Carlton reads a chapter from the Bible and then engages the slaves in conversation. The slaves have little recollection of what they were taught and misunderstand Carlton’s questions—for instance, when Carlton asks a slave if he serves the Lord, the slave answers, “No, sir, I don’t serve anybody but Mr. Jones; I neber belong to anybody else” (112).

Carlton can’t help but laugh. Jones, concerned that Carlton will give a bad report to Mr. Peck, tells him, “You did not get hold of the bright ones” (113). When Carlton relates to Mr. Peck what he observed, Mr. Peck is “amused” (113). He uses this report as evidence “why professed Christians like himself should be slave-holders” (113). Georgiana, on the other hand, is somber. She recites a poem that suggests Christians are hypocritical for claiming to “feed” slaves’ “famished spirits” (113) while flogging them for learning to read.