John Thompson Chapter 1 Summary

The compelling story of John Thompson was certainly unique and interesting, unfortunately, it is known that this is not the only individual who has experienced this treatment and being enslaved by a country, which constantly discusses freedom and liberty. However, in the book, there is limited visuals and authentic documents to entice the reader as well as adding more emotional values. Therefore, if the book had to rewritten or even republished there would be a need to have historical emotional values in order to bring the reader closer to the story of John Thompson. The life of John Thompson discusses his life as slave and his experiences from going from plantation to plantation and each plantation was very unique.

In the First Chapter, John

Thompson begins to describe how the first act of slavery that he has remembered between pages 13-15. He begins to depict the sale of his sister how his mother and himself were mourning, as if she passed away. In John’s story, he mentions, “who was soon to be dragged away from her embrace, probably to be seen no more in the flesh.” Sadly, John gives an assumption that he will never see his sister again on Earth, because they will be in different plantations and it is assumed from the passage, that many of families were divided and were not able to see each again for the remainder of time in their life.
Contributing a piece of historical context into the first chapter and the event of separating the sister from her brother and mother. Therefore, I would add the Anti-Slavery image from the Anti-Slavery Almanac because it depicts in general what is happening in the storyline. In the image, it depicts two white males dividing the mother away from her child, while the third white male in the middle of the two is counting how much they received for the mother. The image depicts that have happened to many mothers that were forced to leave their children because their plantation owner does not want the child. In the book, John and his mother are mourning because they have lost their sister in the auction and knew that they would rarely be able see each other due to the distance as well as the substantial amount of work on the plantation. Thus, this image depicts the final farewell between the mother and her child, unknowing whether they would see each other future.
As Thomas was adjusting to the life as a slave and away from his sister, he had endured a lot from cruel punishments to working in the fields.

During his duration at Mr. Thomas’s plantation he knew an individual named Ben, who was very brave and suffered a lot from the slave owner and the overseers. However, there was a point in Ben’s life that he was punished severely due to the rebuttal towards the overseer who hit it by the whip. Thus, the punishment was being severely flogged to the point, he could not be able to sit, walk or even lie down. During Ben’s recovery, Thomas read one of the newspapers who were discussing the speech of John Quincy Adams who discussed and debated that slavery should be illegal. Thomas describes is thought process on Chapter VI, pages 38-39, “While reading this speech, my heart leaped with joy. I spent many Sabbaths alone in the woods, meditating upon it.” As Thomas was reading this outdated article, he still felt there is still a chance to change the way of life of America and abolish

slavery.
John Quincy Adams wanted to change the American lifestyle especially abolishing the use of slaves primarily in the South as well as in the North. When Thomas was reading the outdated newspaper that describes Adams urge to stop slavery and pleaded with the Massachusetts in order to persuade the District of Columbia to stop. As years passed by and he was elected as the President of the United States, unfortunately he was not recognized with the abolishing of slavery. However, he had a situation with the African Mendi people, who were fleeing their slave life in Cuba, they were fooled into American waters. Luckily for the Mendi people, Adams was serving in the House of Representatives working as the legal defense for Africans. As Adams as working in helping the Mendi people, Ka Le wrote President Adams a letter to help their case and pleading to the President, that even though they do not know the American language they understand the Christian faith especially the four Gospels.
Throughout the entire book, it describes the brutality each slave faces whether it may be physically, emotionally, or mentally. John Thompson continues to describe the violence and torture that plantation owners have committed towards himself as well as other slaves. Towards the end of Chapter VII, pages 44-46, John describes the methods as well as the multiple times the plantation owners were trying to torture him and being able to keep him respectful towards them. Over these three pages, John depicts that the plantation owner and the overseers used a tobacco stick, a whip, and a rope for torturing him. On page 45 John states, “…Upon which he seized a tobacco stick about four feet long and two inches thick, with which he struck and brought me to the ground.” This passage gives a brief description of how John and many other slaves have experienced throughout their lives within each plantation.
However, John was a strong and tough man and found ways to avoid the torture of whipping or striking and in turn he would give the torture to those who were the initial individual giving torture. As torture is a major event in the life of John Thompson it is inevitable to attach a historical artifact onto the newly published edition of the book. The image of the Cruelty of the Slave to give the reader an insight of how miserable the torture of the slave was when being punished. It is known that an image encompasses a million words, thus allowing the reader to witness secondhand via image of how the plantation owner or overseer treats the slave and the brutality of the punishment they receive. Throughout the book, John describes the number of amounts of being tortured and punished on the plantation, however this passage describes within several pages the various types of punishments that the overseer was about to give to John.
Soon enough, John escaped the slavery life on earth and landed himself into a boat traveling the high seas in order to catch whales and collect oils. At the beginning of his arrival on the ship, he began to feel sea sick and could not be able to complete his duties as a part of the crew. Thus the captain was frustrated at John and wondered why is acted like this. Truly, the captain did not know any historical facts about John and therefore John briefed him in order to help him to avoid those who are wanting him to be captured. At the beginning of Chapter XVII page 115, John recalls, “After leaving Fayal, we sailed for St. Paul’s Island, stopping a short time at the Cape de Verdes, where right whales were said to be numerous.” By describing his location, one can easily determine that he not close vicinity from America, thus being able to work in freedom without any punishments from the slave master. John also shows the reader that he will be traveling to distant lands in order to catch the whales, thus sailing towards St. Paul’s Island.
As a member of the crew, such as John Thompson was on the Whale catching ship, one needed to understand where they were going and whether there is a plentiful amount of whales in order to catch the minimum amount to be profitable as well as extracting the majority of the oil from the whale.

Thus, I have chosen to add the whale chart in order to give readers an idea of where they are traveling to as well as give a perception of where is best locations in early 1800s to catch whale. From reading John Thompson’s story and how he has visited and traveled different areas the reader can pin point where exactly he traveled to. The whale map that would be contributed to the newly edited book, because this has been used by many sailors during the time period to catch the whales throughout the

world.
John Thompson continues his story on sea and describing the daily life as well as the actions that were made on the ship. While on the boat, he narrates the process of catching a whale, thus it is not simple and very strategic in order to attack the whale at the proper moment to puncture. However, Thompson recalls a normal routine of attacking the whales and then spontaneously, the entire crew where in the sea with the wreckage trying to find any wreckage in order to stay alive. Surely, whale spotting is not the simplest task one can easily master and be perfect all the time, thus this situation would probably happen often prior to sonar radar.
Historically, many different communities from Native Americans living in the Arctic Circle as well as the Scandinavian cultures used whales, and other mammals for warmth and energy. Thus, it is not surprising to me that whaling was still an active action, because currently it has been deemed illegal in many countries due to the falling number of whales in the world. The image depicts how a boat close to a whale, which one person has a long harpoon about to pierce the whale’s skin. By observing the image one can easily picture the danger and the possible injuries for John’s case, the boat they were riding was destroyed and they were in the middle of the ocean.