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The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave: Containing His History of 25 Years in Bondage, and His Providential Escape (Penguin Classics) - Softcover
Synopsis
John Thompson was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation in 1812. Originally published in 1856, The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave chronicles his enslavement, his escape, and his life in the North, where he lived as a free man until fear of recapture drove him to flee once again-this time to sea aboard the Milwood, a whaling vessel. The only fugitive slave narrator to report a whaling voyage, Thompson crafted from his seafaring experience an allegorical sermon that caps his Life and renders it a kind of African American Pilgrim's Progress, as well as a narrative of struggle with, escape from, and triumph over American slavery.
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About the Author
John Thompson was born into slavery on the Wagar plantation in Maryland in 1812. He was one of seven children. He remained there until the death of Mrs. Wagar in October 1822, when Thompson and his family were sold to Mr. George Thomas, an even crueler master than Wager had been. John Thompson, who had been taught to write in secret by Wager's son, was then shuffled from plantation to plantation before moving further south to Mississippi, when he escaped to the North. He settled in Pennsylvania, where he married and found work. He joined a whaling vessel to avoid arrest and remained at sea for several years. Ultimately, Thompson gave up sea-faring and moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where his narrative was published in 1856. He died only four years later in 1860.
William L. Andrews is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English and Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W. E. B Du Bois institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
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The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave: Containing His History of 25 Years in Bondage, and His Providential Escape
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.3. Seller Inventory # G0143106422I4N10
Quantity: 1 available
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The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave: Containing His History of 25 Years in Bondage, and His Providential Escape (Penguin Classics)
Seller: Sequitur Books, Boonsboro, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. [Interesting provenance: From the private library of renowned historian, Philip D. Morgan.] Softcover. Good binding and cover. Edge wear. Contemporary signature of Morgan on front end page. John Thompson was a fugitive slave, memoirist, and sailor, was born into slavery on the Wagar plantation in southern Maryland, the son of two field slaves whose names remain unknown. Although there is little information about Thompson's life beyond his memoirs, his descriptions of his experiences in slavery as well as his adventures as a black seaman are important contributions to our knowledge of both those worlds. From the professional library of Dr. Philip D. Morgan, a professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. Morgan specializes in the African-American experience, the history of slavery, the early Caribbean, and the study of the early Atlantic world. Morgan is the author of more than 14 books on Colonial America and African American history. He has won both the Bancroft Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize for his book Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry (1998). Seller Inventory # 2504020041
Quantity: 1 available