John Gay and slavery

Abstract

Slavery is a shadowy presence behind much of John Gay's late writing and a distinct presence in The Captives and Polly. Both plays are split in the way they represent slavery, since in both Gay creates fictions that at once turn upon a slave's liberation and implicitly endorse the institution of slavery. The tension between potential sympathy for slaves and underlying support for slavery may be typical of the suppressed fascination and avoidance that surrounded the subject at the time.