Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave

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.