Post on 25-Jan-2023
SLAVERY, VILLAINY, AND VICE IN CITY CRIMES
Alexandra FonsecaEnglish 193B: Senior Seminar, Professor Haggerty
March 14, 2014
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"If we preached what we ought, or if we taught the slaves to
do what they ought, we would tell every one of them to cut their
masters' throats," so says George Thompson, nineteenth century
author and abolitionist.1 As this quote makes apparent, Thompson
was a zealous abolitionist with strong opinions that were highly
publicized. What is less recognized about him are his fictional
narratives, a fantasy world where Thompson was allowed to act out
his own opinions and imagined consequences of moral vice without
persecution or physical consequence. In the narrative City Crimes;
or, Life in New York and Boston, George Thompson uses fiction to
allegorize moral vice in nineteenth century America. While
Thompson's text directly criticizes the church and open sexual
indulgence within the community, he uses these actions to subtly
examine civil tensions surrounding slavery. Anger becomes
displaced onto villainy, licentiousness, and lust, forcing social1 George Thompson, quoted in R. Emerson, M. Stuart, and L. Woods, “Mr. George Thompson- the Evidence,” New-York Spectator (New York, NY), Oct. 19, 1835.
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responsibilities of community to come into question as the
audience grapples with ethics through the repulsion of
gratuitously violent and sexual moral vice. Displacement becomes
a proper way to safely critique the government and community,
garnering less criticism than blatant public calls for physical
action.
Before delving into Thompson's metaphors for slavery,
comprehension is critical in understanding the style and ways in
which figurative language come to allegorize slavery. In his
essay, "George Thompson's Romance of the Real," Christopher Looby
points out that "political-economic ills are almost imperceptibly
displaced from attention by another set of terms for representing
the ills of society, 'licentiousness,' 'lust,' and 'villainy'—the
private vices of those in high places rather than their
systematic economic domination—occupy the readers' attention and
are constructed as the proper objects... of anger."2 Thompson's
text functions as a critique of church and government, but
displaced anger indirectly addresses civil tensions surrounding
2 Christopher Looby, “George Thompson’s ‘Romance of the Real’: Transgression and Taboo in American Sensation Fiction,” American Literature 65, (1993): 660, accessed November 25, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2927287.
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slavery. Anger becomes displaced onto violence, the church and
feminine sexuality in order to avoid more public criticism
surrounding political views. Licentiousness, lust, and villainy become a
safe way to critique the government and church: one can safely
critique another individual, but directly critiquing the
hegemonic party can sometimes result in controversy. By creating
fictionalized individuals, Thompson is able to avoid highly
publicized criticism while expressing the horrors of desire and
the process through which fictional characters such as Dead Man,
Josephine Franklin and Dr. Sinclair become bodies where conflict
is safely played out and resolution explored.
Being a fervent abolitionist, Thompson believed in ending
the system of slavery, but he also felt that there was a proper
time and place to engage in abolitionist discourse. His personal
feelings were that “[i]f… the doctrine is sound… an effort may be
made to reform evils of every description, whether of an
individual or social character, by means of a moral influence,
[and he wondered] how this [was] to be effected.”3 For Thompson,
the sound doctrine of moral character hinged upon human equality 3 George Thompson, “Communications: George Thompson,” The Liberator (Boston, MA),Sept. 12, 1835.
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and banning the practice of human trafficking. Though Thompson
wondered how he could effect change, City Crimes, or Life in New York and
Boston, became a platform through which change could be effected. By
using fictionalized characters with individual flaws, he
critiques the moral character of the individual which translates
into a critique of the moral flaws that infect slaveholding
society. The villainous actions and sexual desires of the
characters come to highlight major vices of a society consumed by
material desire. Using characters such as Dead Man, Josephine
Franklin, and Dr. Sinclair, Thompson critiques cultural ignorance
and Christian hypocrisy, using these subjects to figuratively
critique slavery by displacing real anger into fictional terms.
Considering Thompson’s position on slavery and his English desire
to be proper, Christopher Looby’s theory that civil tension
becomes displaced into the narrative in terms of violence and
sexuality becomes tangible. Thompson’s displacement of
frustration into his narrative becomes evident in figurative
terms of villainy, as seen with Dead Man, and sexuality, as seen
with Josephine Franklin and Dr. Sinclair. The villainous body,
space, and action of Dead Man allow the audience to see
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corruption and acts that are obviously morally flawed. Thompson’s
figurative presentation of villainy forces the audience to
question right and wrong by striking them with the horror of
moral vice.
When the audience first meets Dead Man, the narrator uses
language encoded with Gothic tropes to describe his body. Such
effects assist in invoking a certain horror and repulsion from
the reader, which is later built upon to invoke even greater
disgust in regards to Dead Man’s villainous actions. The narrator
introduces
...a man of frightful appearance: his long, tangled hair hung over two eyes that gleamed with savage ferocity; his face was the most awful that can be imagined—long, lean, cadaverous, and livid, it resembled that of a corpse. No stranger could view it without a shudder; it caused the spectator to recoil with horror… This man, on account of hiscorpse-like appearance was known as ‘The Dead Man.’ He neverwent by any other title; and his real name was unknown.4
Using cadaverous and corpse in this description suggests that the
physical body is reanimated from death or a lifeless state, which
implies this character has no soul; the style of Dead Man’s hair
reveals a wild, savage, and uncontained body. Dead Man’s lack of
real identity reaffirms him as soulless and uncontained. The 4 George Thompson, City Crimes; or, Life in New York and Boston (Amherst, 2002), 134.
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emphasis on his repulsive appearance gives readers a sense of
uncanny: aside from physicality, what makes Dead Man so
disgusting? Through this line of questioning, it can be deduced
that Dead Man is horrific because his moral character and lack of
soul match the description of his body. In a way, the character
of Dead Man comes to represent a dead “every” man: people who are
exiled from society due to villainous acts and violence. Dead
Man’s body symbolizes criminals in real society, how they are
treated, and the projection of horror placed on them by the
public gaze. The description is satirical, exemplifying the
corruption of society by presenting Dead Man as an open body
encoded with his own wrongdoings, which are a reaction to his
environment. His violence serves as a foil to sexual characters
like Josephine Franklin and Sinclair, who hide their vices behind
social status and appearance. Thompson’s indulgent description is
made satirical by parodying the ways in which abolitionists come
to be seen as criminals through helping slaves even though they
are engaging in positive social action.
Thompson’s use of language can be termed as metempsychosis,
which George Haggerty explains, “challenges the self-indulgent
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use of horror in Gothic fiction and ridicules the very nature of
the form.”5 The narrator’s use of hyperbole in describing Dead
Man both parodies and challenges horror. Horror is parodied by
emphasizing the surface, physical appearance that strikes the
reader, but is challenged by the subject whom Dead Man signifies.
By tying the body of Dead Man to the supposed criminality of
abolitionists, Thompson accomplishes a “real Gothic achievement,”
using self-indulgent terror for more than the sake of itself; the
horror inflicted upon the reader allows the reader to arbitrate
meaning concerning Dead Man’s body and his villainy.6 A firm
image of the character is presented that forces the audience to
read between the lines to see a body that becomes a reflection of
society: the body is both what society projects onto it and a
physical manifestation of that projection. The space Dead Man
inhabits is a physical manifestation of societal projection also
encoded with the Gothic, making it an object of disgust and
horror.
5 George Haggerty, Poe’s Gothic Gloom (University Park, 1989), 81.6 Ibid.
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Dead Man’s territory is a space where much crime and
villainy takes place. Dead Man is signified as a sort of leader
of “a [subterranean village.] Myriads of men and women dwelt in
this awful place, where the sun never shone; here they festered
with corruption and died of starvation and wretchedness.”7 Shock
and horror is evoked in the reader through language that is
encoded with infection and death. The narrator uses the Gothic
trope of the subterranean to describe a place that is under the
city, implying that the subterranean community has been consumed
by the city and its crimes. The inhabitants of the underground
city fester with their own corruption, revealing a space of exile for
those who have enacted in wrongdoings within the community. Once
again, the narrator’s description seems to relate to
abolitionists, who become exiled from the public community due to
their choice to help fugitives escape from the system of human
trafficking. The threat of death is imminent in Dead Man’s
subterranean community, just like the threat of prosecution is
imminent for slaves and abolitionists using and supporting the
Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Just like inhabitants
7 Thompson, City Crimes, 132.
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of Dead Man’s subterraneous city might suffer from death due to
starvation and wretchedness, slaves were subject to these conditions,
placing them isolation due to their position as objects in
society. The narrator’s diction reaffirms the spiritual depravity
exemplified by the physically deformed state of Dead Man. Both
real people and Thompson’s fictionalized characters face
starvation: they face a literal starvation due to lack of food, but
they also experience a spiritual starvation due to moral
depravity and inability to interact with the outside world. Like
the description of Dead Man’s appearance, the description of his
habitat is satirical, releasing Thompson’s own tensions about how
he is viewed as an abolitionist and the sort of public criticism
he garners when he openly expresses his views. By reading Dead
Man’s villainy as the “villainy” of abolitionists, Thompson
fantasizes about ways to resist and act against real moral vice.
Thompson’s resistance to corrupt society is seen through
Dead Man’s interactions with other characters, particularly
Josephine Franklin. While Dead Man’s violence and exertions of
force may seem simply self-indulgent and openly immoral, reading
Dead Man’s body as a representation of villainy suggests that
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violence and force become necessary tools of resistance. Dead
Man’s monologue prior to his mutilation of Josephine’s face
suggests purpose, negating aimless violence:
‘Young lady, since you are determined to oppose my wishes, Iwill not force you. Neither will I kill you; yet my vengeance shall be more terrible than death. You are beautiful and pride yourself upon that beauty—but I will deprive you of your loveliness. You call me hideous—I will make you as hideous as I am… Obstinate girl, bid an eternal farewell to eyesight and beauty, for from this moment you are deprived of both, forever!’ He drew from his pocket a small phial, and with the quickness of lightning dashed it in the face of the unfortunate Josephine.8
Dead Man’s monologue reveals his character as a sort of judge, or
giver of justice, rather than just a simple villainous body. Dead
Man’s punishment of Josephine poses Josephine’s body as a
transgressive female body that resists masculine authority and
hegemony. The threat is an imminent destruction of appearance for
Josephine; her physical beauty is her only desirable trait.
Without beauty, Josephine is no longer of value as a trophy wife,
as she hopes to be. Without virtue as a foundation for her
desirable physical appearance, material desires and physical
appearances become useless. Deformity in this passage serves to
reveal the fallibility of prizing material objects over moral 8 Ibid., 298.
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subjects and virtue. Dead Man’s force and mutilation of Josephine
serve as another scene of metempsychosis, where Thompson uses
horror to fantasize about resistance to American hegemony
regarding slave laws. Like Josephine, slaveholders who were
prideful regarding property and appearance risk losing value as
an individual when the slaveholding system is abolished and
physical appearances can no longer be maintained. Thompson uses
images of the grotesque to highlight the moral depravity of his
own fictionalized characters and slaveholders as a whole.
The achievement of Thompson’s employment of Gothic excess
lies in what his horror signifies; Christopher Looby claims that
“[Thompson’s] novels are replete with the disgusting, corrupt,
and the damaged, which in his [texts carries] the burden of
producing the reality effect.”9 For Looby’s purposes, the disgusting
can be seen in Dead Man’s violence and villainy; the corrupt in
Josephine and Sinclair and their licentiousness; and the damaged
in Dead Man and Josephine. The reality effect is not so much emphasis
on making Thompson’s hyperbolic, gratuitous violence seem real,
instead emphasis lies in making violence relate to reality. The
9 Looby, “Romance of the Real,” 651.
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violence and sex within Thompson’s narrative becomes
representative of the violence and sexual abuse that slaves
become victim to within the slaveholding system. Interpreting City
Crimes through Gothic tropes reveal the horrors of slavery. The
monstrosity of violence, sex, and moral vice found in the city
community produces the reality effect when tied to actual events;
metempsychosis becomes a literary device through which this
effect is achieved. While the employment of this literary device
may seem creative, it becomes an outlet through which Thompson
can attempt to engage in social action.
In true English form, Thompson felt there was a proper time
and place to discuss social injustice. He felt that "[t]here
[was] no abuse, and no evil of any description, whether it
relates to nations or individuals, which is not a fair subject of
discussion, if conducted in a proper manner; and it is as much a
matter of right and duty to endeavor to reform... in regard to
what are considered evils..."10 Thompson expresses a distinct
consciousness of social responsibility to right socio-political
evils, therefore deeming slavery a fair subject of discussion. From this
10 Thompson, “Communications: George Thompson.”
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perspective, the displacement of vice onto villainy, licentiousness, and
lust in the narrative of City Crimes become a proper forum where
discourse regarding the horrors and violence of slavery can take
place. Thompson's sense of duty extends to evils "moral or
physical," which refer to all aspects of human trafficking,
including exploitation of labor, as well as physical and sexual
abuse.11 Thompson's narrative becomes a fantasy where it is safe
to express political and social concerns, while exploring ways to
enact resistance. The villainy of Dead Man's character,
appearance and space parody the "villainy" of abolitionists; the
sexuality of characters like Josephine and Sinclair become a
safe, proper way for Thompson to critique the moral vice of
slaveholders and those who advocate slavery.
Licentiousness becomes, for Thompson, the proper object on
which anger can be placed and recognized to enact a social
ideological change. Licentiousness becomes represented through
the sexual desires of different characters. Josephine Franklin is
presented as a sexually objectified body, but it is Josephine who
objectifies herself. This is first revealed when the audience is
11 Ibid.
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introduced to Josephine: "...the undergarment she wore had
slipped from her shoulders, revealing voluptuous beauties which
the envious fashion of ladies' attire, usually conceals."12 This
passage shows Josephine's self-objectification, but it also
reveals that her objectification is meant to provoke desire.
Words like voluptuous and usually implies Josephine's consciousness
of her actions. She is aware that her ability to exert agency is
unusual and that it arouses desire: the desire for women to have
the freedom she possesses and sexual desire from men. The
implication of sexual desire foreshadows Josephine's lustful and
licentious actions later in the narrative. Her lust and
licentiousness make her erotic and seductive, placing her in a
tradition of feminine Gothic villainy. This passage also portrays
Josephine as an uncontained body, much like how slaves were
viewed during the mid-1800s. Her body needs to be contained, but
is only controlled when engaging in vanity or sex. Showing vice
as a way to be controlled implies that there is no other way to
control the body representative of the minority. In this specific
portrayal, Josephine becomes representative of the collective
12 Thompson, City Crimes, 158.
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experience of the minority, or slaves. While it is not surprising
that the female body becomes a vehicle of expression for social
concerns, other characters are not so obvious in their
representation; the character of Dr. Sinclair hides his vice with
the title of “Rector,” which implies piety and virtue, though his
actions show otherwise.
Dr. Sinclair appears to be virtuous, but is extremely
licentious and hides his sexual and material desire behind his
title, much to the shock of other characters and, in turn, the
audience. When Josephine meets a flirtatious man at the
masquerade party, "[she] was thunderstruck when she recognized in
the amorous stranger, no less a personage than Dr. Sinclair, the
pious and eloquent rector of St. Paul's... that model of purity
and virtue was now present at the scene of profligate
dissipation..."13 This passage reveals the open expression of
desire and the response the desire invokes. Thompson employs the
use of understatement with words like pious, eloquent, purity and virtue
to emphasize that the rector is, in fact, none of these things at
all. As the action shows, Sinclair is quite the opposite; he is
13 Ibid., 171.
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amorous and lustful, desiring pleasure of the body. Josephine's
thunderstruck reaction guides the audience in how they are to feel;
her reaction reveals the horror of licentiousness and sin.
Similarly to how Sinclair is seduced by the idea of physical
pleasure, America is also seduced physically by free labor and
the ability to own much "property," therefore conveying the
appearance of wealth and social status. Due to the material
nature of these desires, sexuality and sin become a proper
metaphor that displaces anger from society into fiction: the
sexual and physical desires expressed are excessive, superficial,
and unnecessary. Emphasizing physical sin engages the audience
and their sense of right and wrong, forcing them to question the
virtue of any physical sin, whether fictional or real.
Considering the rector to be a symbolic representation of
slaveholders is appropriate since abolitionists commonly
critiqued the dissonance between Christian beliefs and the
actions of "Christian" slaveholders. It is not long after
Sinclair has a taste of his desires that he begins to want
everything physical indulgence has to offer.
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It is not long before Sinclair becomes consumed by his
physical desires and shunned by society. While he still considers
himself to have a position in society, "...in truth, Dr. Sinclair
had fallen from his high estate, and become a winebibber and a
lover of the flesh. His stern integrity, his sterling piety, and
his moral principle were gone forever; the temptress had
triumphed and he was ruined."14 Once again, Thompson employs
understatement to emphasize Sinclair's lack of moral virtue and
integrity. Thompson also employs allusion here, presenting his
audience with the temptress-Eve and fallen-Adam dichotomy. If
Adam is a Biblical figure representing the fall of man and
Sinclair is being linked to Adam, then the reader can infer that
Sinclair's indulgence needs to be viewed as the beginning of all
sins within the narrative. Society becomes deeply diseased due to
the rector's own careless indulgence. Sinclair's sexual desires
then lead to violence, substance abuse, and sexual gluttony,
revealing a domino effect of sin; Sinclair begins with sexual
desire and ends a drunk, homeless man in the street. This
interpretation reveals the horrors of sin and, by extension,
14 Ibid., 213.
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slavery. Dr. Sinclair's characterization provides a look into the
mental state of a society in which religious men are corrupt and
their society diseased, in addition to the literal view of a man
consumed by sin and desire. Both Josephine Franklin and Dr.
Sinclair's situation reveal instances where Thompson feels there
is a social obligation and responsibility to interfere. By
interfering fictionally with his characters, he reveals his
desire for actual social reform.
As an abolitionist, George Thompson certainly thought it was
ethical to fight for social reform, but he also felt social
responsibility to take action. He was not shy about his beliefs,
claiming that "this doctrine of non-interference is altogether
misapprehended when this use [the legalization of slavery and
human trafficking] is made of it. To a certain extent it is a
sound doctrine, but beyond it, it is unsound. It is sound when it
relates to a political interference. It is unsound when it relates
to a moral interference."15 Thompson feels the American
government's laissez-faire attitude should only apply to political
and economic circumstances. Because slavery is a moral issue, an
15 Thompson, “Communications: George Thompson.”
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individual has a specific social obligation to enact change and
question the authority of a government and church that allows
such activity. In City Crimes, Thompson uses the characters, their
sin, licentiousness, and exposure to explore ways in which the
community should deal with moral vice. Licentiousness becomes the
proper manner of discussing the larger moral vice of slavery.
Alongside licentiousness, lust becomes another proper object of
anger and discussion in order to allegorize the horrors and
sickness of slaveholding society.
Thompson uses gratuitous lust, expressed through Gothic
tropes, as another way to explore ways in which resistance can be
enacted. This can be seen when Josephine Franklin engages in
gender transgression in order to seduce Dr. Sinclair. Josephine
coyly asserts, "You yourself imagined me to be a lady dressed in
male attire, but again I assure you never were more mistaken in
your life."16 Her confident assertion reveals a sense of agency
that Josephine does not feel when she is a woman. This reveals
that she must be part of the hegemonic party, in this case male,
in order to exert power. Through Josephine, Thompson suggests
16 Thompson, City Crimes, 169.
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that power can be gained by appropriating the role of the
dominant group; this can only be achieved when the boundary
between the dominant party and the minority party is no longer
visible, or they are equal. Josephine's gender transgression or
appropriation of male characteristics becomes a proper vehicle to
question the status quo and explore a solution where the minority
party has the opportunity to gain power. Josephine abuses her
sexual power by giving herself away; she is a slave to her sexual
and material desires and willing to do anything to indulge them.
Dr. Sinclair takes her assertions to be true, replying, "As a
boy, you are doubly charming."17 Sinclair's submission reveals
that Josephine has exercised her power successfully, suggesting
that the appropriation of dominant characteristics can put the
minority into power. His expression of Gothic homoerotic desire
leads readers to see a critique directed at the purity of the
church and its intentions by portraying Sinclair as morally
corrupt and ready to engage in sin. If Josephine is seen as
representative of the collective minority experience of slaves,
then Dr. Sinclair’s readiness to engage in moral vice can be
17 Ibid.
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translated into the moral vice and material desires of
slaveholders. Critiquing the Rector and his intentions becomes a
way for Thompson to properly critique the intent of slaveholders
through the expression of lust within the narrative.
The expression of lust is most prevalent in gratuitous
sexual scenes involving Josephine Franklin. Once she successfully
seduces Dr. Sinclair, they engage in gluttony by overtly
indulging their sexual desires: "Again and again was the goblet
drained and replenished, until the maddening spell of
intoxication was upon them both. Hurrah! away with religion, and
sermonizing, and conscience!... Then came obscene revels and
libidinous acts... But we will not inflict upon the reader the
disgusting details of that evening's licentious extravagances."18
Josephine and Sinclair's engagement in pride, gluttony, lust, and
sexual avarice evoke the audience's sense of right and wrong,
forcing them to arbitrate meaning regarding moral vice.
Thompson's use of hyperbole in describing their sexual desire
serves to portray the disgust, vulgarity and obscenity of vice.
By pointing out how easily the Rector tosses aside his virtue,
18 Ibid., 214.
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Thompson questions the judgment of the church and in turn,
hegemonic authority: where and with whom is society placing its
trust? Again, this evokes the reader's sense of ethics.
Sinclair's engagement in libidinous acts as a representation of
slaveholders produces the reality effect yet again, forcing readers to
question what virtues lie behind proper appearance. Thompson's
anger at the immorality of slavery gets displaced from the desire
to cut slaveholders' throats to the indulgent lust of Dr.
Sinclair. The narrator's critique of fictional characters becomes
Thompson's manner of critiquing American government, and its
hesitation to interfere with slaveholding, otherwise viewed by
him as extreme moral vice. In addition to the Gothic tropes of
gender transgression, homoerotic desire, and overt sexual desire,
Thompson also employs incest to exemplify the grotesque horrors
of excessive moral vice.
By viewing Josephine Franklin as a symbol for the minority
party in Thompson’s text, readers are able to find purpose for
Gothic tropes such as incest. Josephine’s engagement in incest
with her mother, Lucretia Franklin, occurs when they attempt to
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escape Dead Man; Lucretia engages the ship’s Captain, wondering
aloud,
‘Why cannot we all three sleep here?’... ‘I understand you momma,’ said Josephine, her eyes sparkling with pleasure… ‘Is it possible?’ exclaimed the Captain… And clasping both ladies around the waists, he kissed them alternately, again and again. That night was one of guilty rapture to all the parties, but the particulars must be supplied by the reader’s own imagination.19
Lucretia and Josephine’s engagement in incest reveal that they
are under no threat of pursuit or sexual violation; instead, they
are the predators. By positioning women as sexual predators in
this passage, the narrator reveals that Lucretia and Josephine
objectify themselves. Figuratively speaking, since Josephine is
an active party in committing vice, it is suggested that the
minority is an active participant in their own oppression; slaves
become responsible for their own victimization by not engaging in
resistance. Josephine’s eyes sparkling with pleasure suggests that she
finds some pleasure in her own objectification. Once again,
Josephine objectifies herself, giving herself away to the captain
in an act of incest. Self-objectification eroticizes Josephine’s
body, again positioning her as a transgressive female. Lucretia’s
initiation reveals how older generations become role models who 19 Ibid., 247-248.
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set precedent for the future. Lucretia’s own lust and self-
objectification becomes the model that Josephine follows,
revealing how present generations can be consumed by the material
desires and excesses of the past. The emotions of horror and
disgust evoked by the Franklin’s actions serve to portray
Thompson’s own views about moral vice and challenges feelings
regarding social obligation to action in the face of immorality.
Being able to read the relationships between Josephine Franklin
and other characters as a microcosm of the relationships between
slaves and participants in the slaveholding system relies heavily
on the reader’s ability to infer meaning through Gothic tropes.
Unpacking Gothic tropes becomes possible when the audience
understands its own responsibility to the text. Thompson censors
his own text to allow room for the reader’s imagination. The
“reader’s own imaginative response” makes room for Thompson’s
criticism of slavery: Josephine’s body becomes a vehicle through
which resistance and acceptance of slavery is seen.20 Though the
narrator censors himself and leaves overtly sexual descriptions
to the “reader’s own imagination,” the audience is able to
20 Haggerty, Poe’s Gothic Gloom, 102.
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imagine and imply that the actions that take place in the omitted
description are extremely vulgar and obscene.21 Thompson’s
obscenity forces the reader to respond with their own “details of
the growing horror”: Josephine is consumed by extreme and
excessive sexual desire which she actively engages in, revealing
a transgressive female created in the tradition of Gothic
villainy. Her seductive character becomes a warning against
giving in to the temptations of slavery, coded as sexuality,
therefore warning against any easily accessed pleasure, including
the pleasure derived from exploiting human bodies for labor and
sex.22 The reader’s responsibility lies in arbitrating meaning
from the text, a meaning that can only be interpreted when the
audience is able to see the reality effect produced by Thompson’s
portrayal of grotesque and transgressive sexuality. The horror
and obscenity of Thompson’s anger, displaced onto lust, provokes
emotion from the audience. The fictional character’s engagement
in gratuitous lust forces the reader to wonder why moral vice is
seemingly acceptable in the context of fictional narrative, when
21 Thompson, City Crimes, 248.22 Haggerty, Poe’s Gothic Gloom, 102.
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it is not acceptable outside of the narrative in reality; sexual
vice becomes a metaphor for slavery, and all moral vice, when
questioned by the audience in terms of ethics. The excessive and
gratuitous nature of indulgence makes moral vice absolutely
unacceptable. Moral vice is further reaffirmed as unacceptable
through the death of the characters.
By killing off immoral characters, Thompson attempts to
enact a moral cleansing. Though the deaths of Dead Man, Josephine
Franklin, and Sinclair reveal that excessive moral vice is
unacceptable, as a microcosm, their deaths also parody and
explore the handling of participants and victims of a corrupt
society in America. The death of Dead Man parodies the way
criminals are viewed by so-called pious citizens of the hegemonic
society; he is killed by a man of moderate morals, revealing
tension and hatred from heteronormative society towards bodies
encoded with villainy and crime. After this man poisoned him,
“[Dead Man’s] blood seemed changed to liquid fire… blood oozed
from every pore of his body.”23 For Dead Man’s murderer, it is a
social responsibility to eliminate Dead Man so he can do no
23 Thompson, City Crimes, 302.
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further harm to society. Blood can be interpreted as passion;
Dead Man is consumed by his passion for villainy and moral vice.
What is inside becomes what is outside until there is nothing
left, indicating that Dead Man engages in vice until he has
nothing left to give to it. In terms of abolition, Thompson’s
gratuitous violence projects his perception of the prosecution of
abolitionists onto the body of Dead Man. Dead Man is destroyed
for his cause, which he feels is just, even if readers deem his
appearance and person a horrifying subject.
Dead Man suffers a slow death, which furthers metaphors of
consumption by passion. The exact moment of his death “...was an
awful moment… the victim of this awful sacrifice had time to vent
his dying rage in malignant curses, on himself, his tormentor,
and his Maker!... Awful was the explosion that followed, the
wretch was torn into a hundred pieces.”24 Repetition of the word
awful makes this scene into a hyperbole that emphasizes the
horror, gratuitous violence, and grotesque nature of Dead Man’s
death. Dead Man is physically torn into pieces, which reaffirms
consumption by his passions, because even as he is about to die
24 Ibid., 303.
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he curses and allows himself to be consumed by passionate rage.
This rage can be perceived to represent criminals’ own resistance
toward efforts against dominant social beliefs. The word sacrifice
reveals that Dead Man’s death is necessary because society cannot
go on in peace with the violence and villainy he participates in,
much like the ways in which it is hard to keep peace with two
opposing parties debating civil issues. It is much easier to
eliminate the problem than it is to fix it; with Dead Man’s
death, the cycle of violence is stopped. By employing imaginative
response, the reader can interpret that abolitionists’ passions
will consume them, resulting in either the freedom of slaves or
their own deaths, both being resolutions that will end conflict.
Thompson’s self-indulgent horror in death makes a safe place for
resolution to be explored and explained.
Josephine Franklin’s death can be viewed as the exploration
of resolution, since she dies at her own hand. As the narrator
explains, “Josephine Franklin terminated her miserable existence
by poison (procured for her by her mother,) [sic] on the day after
her marriage with Mr. Thurston, who, when he beheld the hideous
deformity of his bride, instead of the beauty which he expected,
Fonseca 30
recoiled with horror.”25 Josephine’s death serves as a warning
revealing that material values such as beauty and appearance
impose a threat on those who desire it. Material values are
difficult to fulfill and often conditional; upon the removal of
beauty or some aspect of appearance, the material is no longer
valuable. In regards to slave bodies, when the slave body is
removed from the slaveholding system through freedom the system
is no longer valuable, making human property lose all monetary
benefit and value to society. Josephine’s mother helps her to
commit suicide, suggesting that preceding generations must also
assist in destroying the system of material desire and value. If
previous generations can be role models who set precedents for
bad behavior, they must also be responsible for assisting to
change that behavior and eradicating the corruption they have
created. Once appearances can no longer hold value, the
foundation of a society based in material desire and excess is
destroyed, as can be seen through the death of Sinclair.
The death of Sinclair takes place in two parts: first,
Sinclair experiences a figurative death by becoming exiled from
25 Ibid., 309.
Fonseca 31
society, and then he actually dies. The narrator shocks the
reader by contrasting Sinclair’s present image with the pious
image of Dr. Sinclair; once a highly regarded Rector, “[n]ow, how
different! Houseless, homeless, shelterless—ragged, dirty,
starving—diseased, degraded, desperate! Unhappy Sinclair, that
was a fatal moment when thou didst yield to the fascinations of
that beautiful Josephine Franklin.”26 The speaker’s use of
alliteration places emphasis on the hyperbole of Sinclair’s
condition, which is used to underscore Sinclair’s desolate
depravity. His depravity and secret indulgence in moral vice make
him a body with problems, accounting for why his death is
necessary. Sinclair’s physical condition distinctly reflects his
moral and spiritual condition; he has no dignity left due to the
severity of his sins and the steep fall from his position,
leaving him without a house to worship in or a home for refuge.
In Thompson’s narrative, lust and sexual excess has made Sinclair
vulnerable to other vices of society, indirectly suggesting that
slaveholding is the beginning of a new level of vice that can
open up to worse ills of society, like physical violence and
26 Ibid., 283.
Fonseca 32
sexual abuse. The former Rector’s reputation is tarnished with
sin, leaving him ragged, dirty, and starving, yet he feels no remorse
and seeks no forgiveness, implying that his engagement in lust
and licentiousness has left him faithless. The alienation caused
by his licentiousness reveals that the system—of sex or slavery—
is no longer effective. The system must be changed before life
can improve, as demonstrated through Sinclair’s actual death.
Sinclair’s physical death is very effective in producing a
metaphor for the malleable foundation of America. For the
unfortunate Sinclair, death is simply a misstep: “[u]pon one
corner of the street the foundation for a house had recently been
dug, forming a deep and dangerous pit, lying directly in [his]
path: no friendly lantern warned him of the peril—no enclosure
was there to protect him from falling. Unconscious of the danger,
he slowly approached the brink of the pit… the next instant he
fell!”27 Since the foundation that has been dug serves as
Sinclair’s coffin, the audience can interpret the death of this
immoral character as a statement that claims that the foundation
of society must be changed to be based upon the elimination of
27 Ibid., 285.
Fonseca 33
moral vice. In considering Sinclair as a body representative of
slaveholders, his death predicts that slaveholders will blindly
fall to their own destruction. Since the previous system has been
ineffective, it must change, and the foundation of the new system
becomes the destruction of excessive desire and material excess.
Sinclair is unconscious about his impending doom and he unconsciously
gets destroyed by moral vice and temptation. His situation
parallels Christian slaveholders who are also unconsciously
engaging in sin by holding human beings as property, unaware of
the moral dangers that slavery holds. Just like Sinclair, they
have a moment where they are slowly approaching destruction because
of their engagement in the immorality of slavery, and the next
instant, slaveholders are fully immersed in the system and
engaging in more sin, such as physical and sexual abuse. In order
to create a new foundation for Thompson’s society, and America,
the diseased society must be cured. It is only when abolition
occurs that slaveholders become the alienated body that blindly
falls to its own death by engaging in their passions for human
exploitation. In action and in death, Thompson employs literary
devices that produce the reality effect for his audience.
Fonseca 34
Thompson uses “sentiments of horror” in order to produce the
reality effect.28 By displacing anger towards real sins such as
general immorality, sexual abuse, and physical abuse onto terms
of licentiousness, lust, and villainy respectively, the horror of
the characters’ actions and what they represent “become an
effective device” in addressing the physical and emotional
severity of slavery.29 The effect of horror becomes the vehicle
through which a critique of society can be safely launched;
Thompson’s displacement becomes the proper manner through which he
can engage in social reform, without facing persecution. Though
Thompson’s narrative may seem superficially gratuitous on the
surface, reading the narrative in terms of allegory makes the use
of the sentiment of horror appropriate. Gratuitous sex and violence,
and the horror it strikes in the reader engage the reader’s sense
of right and wrong, while forcing them to question the status
quo, thereby reaffirming horror as an effective literary device.
The graphic deaths of immoral characters signal that resolution
has been achieved; even though the physical bodies of the
28 Haggerty, Poe’s Gothic Gloom, 101.29 Ibid.
Fonseca 35
characters are dead, their physical death provides them with
freedom they could not find in life.
The sentiments of horror provided by Gothic tropes shocks
Thompson’s readers into questioning the status quo, while forcing
them to engage in questioning themselves about what is right and
what is wrong.30 George Thompson’s use of literary devices allows
him to manipulate figurative language in ways that allegorize
slavery in nineteenth century America. In doing so “political-
economic ills are… displaced from attention by another set of
terms… ‘licentiousness,’ ‘lust,’ and ‘villainy’... occupy the
reader’s attention and are constructed as the proper objects… of
anger.”31 Thompson’s fictional social critique becomes the safe
forum for a real social critique, emphasizing the immorality of
slavery and narrative becomes a way to effect social reform. Each
character presents a different aspect of the slaveholding system:
Dead Man represents abolitionists; Josephine Franklin represents
slave bodies; Sinclair reveals the position of slaveholders.
Thompson uses metempsychosis to emphasize the villainy of Dead
30 Ibid., 101.31 Looby, “Romance of the Real,” 660.
Fonseca 36
Man’s appearance, space, and actions, which come to represent the
prosecution of abolitionists, while exploring ways in which
resistance can be enacted.32 The licentiousness of Josephine
Franklin reveals her as an uncontained body, allowing a
comparison to slave bodies to be made, while her lust reveals her
own guilt through her inability to resist a system that consumes
her. Finally, the licentiousness and lust of the former Rector,
Sinclair, reveals the fallibility of authority and hegemonic
parties, while emphasizing the severity of moral vice
slaveholders partake in. Thompson wraps up his narrative by
engaging in a moral cleansing, killing all of his immoral
characters, which can be seen as exploring resolutions for
abolishing slavery. George Thompson felt the need to show that
slaveholding “is sin under all possible and conceivable
circumstances.”33 He takes his anger towards the unfair system of
slavery and displaces that anger onto villainy, licentiousness,
and lust, allowing the audience to see a clear picture of
morality and immorality. City Crimes; or, Life in New York and Boston
32 Haggerty, Poe’s Gothic Gloom, 81.33 Thompson, quoted in Emerson, “Mr. George Thompson- the Evidence.”
Fonseca 37
becomes a safe haven where Thompson can express anger and
frustration without garnering negative attention about his
political beliefs. Thompson’s strong feelings about slavery
translate into a colorful narrative that warns readers against
the evils of sin and excessive desire.
Fonseca 38
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