Olaudah Equiano’s 18th-century narrative details a close emotional and physical bond with a male shipmate, describing how they "laid in each other's bosoms".
In the Caribbean, the word "mati" (shipmate) evolved into a term for female lovers, tracing back to erotic bonds formed between women in the sex-segregated holds of slave ships.
Scholars such as C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost in the landmark study A Black Queer History of the United States argue that queer expression has always been an intricate part of the Black freedom struggle. Contemporary Romantic Storylines in Literature naked gay sex slaves
Same-sex bonds are viewed as an expression of autonomy and a refusal to have one's body entirely commodified for reproductive labor.
An 18th-century observer in Cuba noted enslaved men in long-term relationships where they referred to each other as "husband," with one partner performing domestic labor typically assigned to women. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost in the landmark
Recent scholarship emphasizes that sexuality was a "core terrain of struggle" between enslavers and the enslaved.
Since historical records of consensual queer love are often obscured by trauma or social stigma, modern authors use fiction to imagine these lost stories: Recent scholarship emphasizes that sexuality was a "core
The history of same-sex intimacy and romantic storylines among enslaved people is a burgeoning field of study that moves beyond the traditional focus on heteronormative family structures. Scholars are increasingly "queering" the archive, finding evidence of same-sex desire and deep emotional bonds in slave narratives, court records, and colonial observations. Historical Evidence of Romantic Relationships