In his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom , Frederick Douglass describes a "band of brothers" as being profoundly loving, which some scholars interpret as a form of homoerotic affiliation.
Early Pennsylvania sodomy laws differentiated punishments based on race, suggesting that same-sex encounters among Black men were a recognized social concern for authorities. Scholarly Interpretations and Intimacy naked gay sex slaves
Recent scholarship emphasizes that sexuality was a "core terrain of struggle" between enslavers and the enslaved. In his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom
Same-sex bonds are viewed as an expression of autonomy and a refusal to have one's body entirely commodified for reproductive labor. Same-sex bonds are viewed as an expression of
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.
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".