Letter from Joshua Blue to his enslaved brother

My Dear Younger Brother,

I write to you from the vast Atlantic Ocean. Here I am, aboard a vessel bound for some faraway European port. I feel freedom here such as I have never felt before – sure, I work hard and the white folks aren’t much nicer at sea than they are on land, but I am able to spend the evenings breathing the fresh ocean air and counting the brilliant, bright stars. I even have time to work on my reading and writing. I’m fixing to write a book about my life—about our lives, dear brother. Every night as I sleep I remember the look on your sweet face as those white men bought you and dragged you away from our mother. I remember the way your body ached as you toiled away under that hot Southern sun, the way your sweet face turned to stone after only a few days in slavery. I know that I ran from you, brother, and I know that the salty sweat from your back has flown into the water that carries me across the world. But please understand that I someday you will thank me. I will publish this account of our lives and your resentment will melt away under the heat of freedom, the heat of peace. Until then, do not forget that I am your brother, and that it is your strength that compels me to carry on.

Yours,

Joshua Blue

Questions:

1) 1) I’m interested in the relationship between the African Americans on the plantations and those involved in the maritime trade. Weren’t the black men working on the ships working for an industry that was essentially fueling the industry of the plantations that exploited the black men on land? Though the black seaman “fired the opening salvo of the black abolitionist attack and fostered creation of a corporate black identity” (141), didn’t this identity inherently exclude the black slaves that were not fortunate enough to be on the seas?

2) 2) This next question is inspired from my thoughts on all the readings about slavery. I wonder if there has been any exploration of the homoerotic element of slavery? This notion of these white men taking so much pleasure from purchasing the bodies of strong black men seems to me to be laced with homoeroticism…I know this might seem like a stretch, but I feel that there is so much writing about the slave trade that evaluates the master/slave relationship as one that is all about power, but I wonder about the sexual power that exists as well.