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.

Fonseca 29

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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