A sailor’s kin: Faith, sexuality, and antislavery, 1840–1856

ABSTRACT An 1856 Black-authored autobiography, The Life of John Thompson, made significant advances in the genre of the American slave narrative. A runaway slave, whaler, folk theologian, and, ultimately, abolitionist author, Thompson expressed sympathy for a queer man trapped in slavery and sold away from the family and friends, almost certainly for purposes of sexual abuse by white men. Moreover, Thompson narrated a religious journey beginning with traditional Christianity and ending in a Christian-inflected form of free thought. These were both new in the slave narrative. However, Thompson expressed animus against Islam as well as against aristocrats, both of whom he understood as enforcing oppression. These were not new in American thought and they kept his text securely in American traditions. Insights from queer theory, kinship studies, oceanic studies, and the history of religion are used to illuminate Thompson’s work.