This book is historically significant. I studied this novel in the African American Women course that I took at Atlanta University from Dr. Farmer. William Wells Brown was ahead of the curve in suggesting that Thomas Jefferson had a black daughter. The theme is one that reoccurs in not only fiction but also in movies(Imitation to Life and Queen. The tragic mulatto was a person who did not life in either the black world or white world; instead,they lived in a type of racial limbo. Also, this book is of historical significance since Brown was the first African American to publish a novel; he also published a slave narrative. Brown escaped slavery from Lexington, Kentucky. In his time he was famous not only as an author but also as an outspoken abolitionist. This book is worth reading for anyone interested in African American Studies.