African American Women Under Slavery Essay

As for the matter of sex, whether it was between a man and his wife or a man and his slave, this was never discussed in the southern society either, even though it was quite typical. The reason this type of relationship was never discussed in public was because this “practice was never condoned by public opinion” (McLaurin, 25). Everyone knew this type of relationship happened, but no one wanted to bring it up and talk about it. It was like there was an unspoken rule about how you don’t talk about the sexual relations between two people, especially when those two people are a master and his slave. A sexual relationship between master and slave was typical in U.S. slave holding society, but sometimes this type of relationship lead to certain complications.

Back in the nineteenth century men and women were not treated equally as they are now. Women did not have as much freedom as the men did and that caused a national movement. Not only were the women segregated from the men, but the discrimination against the African American race was a huge ordeal as well. With both movements combined, it led to a controversial development at that time. Not only were women fighting for equality, they were also fighting for the prejudice to end amongst the different races. The beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement and the Abolitionist Movement was not only a historic development, but it changed the world forever.

She emphasizes that the life of a slave woman is incomparable to the life of a slave man, in the sense that a woman’s sufferings are not only physical but also extremely mental and emotional. Whether or not a slave woman is beaten, starved to death, or made to work in unbearable circumstances on the fields, she suffers from and endures horrible mental torments. Unlike slave men, these women have to deal with sexual harassment from white men, most often their slave owners, as well as the loss of their children in some cases. Men often dwell on their sufferings of bodily pain and physical endurance as slaves, where as women not only deal with that but also the mental and emotional aspect of it. Men claim that their manhood and masculinity are stripped from them, but women deal with their loss of dignity and morality. Females deal with the emotional agony as mothers who lose their children or have to watch them get beaten, as well as being sexually victimized by white men who may or may not be the father of their children. For these women, their experiences seem unimaginable and are just as difficult as any physical punishment, if not more so.

In order to fully analyze the mental state and situations that these slaves experienced, I will use the National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox’s document with examples and accounts of sexual

Often times when talking about the institution of slavery in the United States of America, men are at the center of the discussion; whether they were owners or slaves, men are presented first. Black women are pushed in the background except for the most famous like Harriet Tubman and Sally Hemings. In North America, specifically the United States, more than six hundred thousand slaves were brought in from Africa and the Caribbean between 1620 and 1865, the laws regarding slaves were condensed into slave codes that varied from state to state. Female slaves usually received the worst of it. Abusing them was legal, since the were considered property and as long as the owner wanted, he could have his way with any women he chooses on the plantation. Female slave were subject to harsh punishment for refusing the advances of the master. As one of, if not, the most vulnerable group in America at the time, female slaves had more threats to their existence than black men.

Women were not only used for their labor, but were also exploited sexually. Slave owners felt they had the right to use black women for their own sexual desires, and felt they had the right to use their bodies for slave breeding. This obscenity between the master and slave were not only psychologically damaging for black women, but would also lead to physical abuse. In her narrative, Ms. Jacobs gives us a firsthand description of the abuse that would occur if she were to upset her master, “Some months before, he had pitched me down stairs in a fit of passion; and the injury I received was so serious that I was unable to turn myself in bed for many days”

The plantation system demanded total submission to a white patriarchal figure. Both white and African American women were subject to repression based on sex. White women were subject to the idea of sexual virtuousness and domestic roles

During the antebellum South, many Africans, who were forced migrants brought to America, were there to work for white-owners of tobacco and cotton plantations, manual labor as America expanded west, and as supplemental support of their owner’s families. Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative supports the definition of slavery (in the South), discrimination (in the North), sexual gender as being influential to a slave’s role, the significant role of family support, and how the gender differences viewed and responded to life circumstances.

Slavery was a cruel and devastating trade that ravished through the world during the Antebellum Era. For both men and women slavery destroyed their entire lives. They both were ripped form their birthplaces and families and forced to endure exhausting physical tasks day in and day out. Along with the taxing physical responsibilities, slaves men and female were deprived of basic human rights and were subject to physical and psychological humiliation. Slaves in the Antebellum South were beaten, starved, and degraded regardless of their sex and were not seen as people but objects to hold and purchase. However, as slavery progressed gender roles became to form clear gender roles and separation of the sexes. The experience of slavery was gender separated through the work the slaves were assigned, the treatment of their masters, and how their gender affected their value and their sale as property.

This slave system was based on the dehumanization and exploitation of men and women of African descent. For an enslaved African women in the United States the same ideologies that revolved around work, family, and motherhood was still ingrained, but the African women's labor benefited her master instead of her family and community (Collins 61). Patricia H. Collins states that African-American women's experiences as mothers have been shaped by the dominant group’s efforts to harness black women's sexuality and fertility to a system of capitalistic exploitation (Collins 62). The United States Slave system considered children that were born of enslaved black women as being slaves also (Collins 62). The control of black women's fertility and ability to reproduce increased the owner's property and labor force (Collins 62). Strategies such as giving pregnant

Slavery has put a psychological imprint on the black men and women, the imprint lies so deep within them that it has become a pride possession to act in a sexually manner. To better understand this notion, we'll have to take a glimpse into the past of what caused this impulse. It’s noted that slave and slave master’s relationship was abusive but yet sexual. Both the men and women was sexually violated. However, the masters would sexually abuse the women to humiliate the black men to reinforce his status. the wealthy white mistress would exert the little power that she did have to intimated the black strong men into pleasing her sexually, if the slave was to deny her request then he is threated with rape claims. Today, the same scenario continues being acted out, Nate Parker the led actor in the 2016 film Birth of a Nation was accused of raping a white woman in 1999 even though he was acquitted of the crime he is still being bashed publically, because of the effects of slavery regarding the white women and black men sexual dysfunctionality the black men would always be seen as the dangerous predators in the eyes of the law.

Slavery was a horrible institution that dehumanized a race of people. Female slave bondage was different from that of men. It wasn't less severe, but it was different. The sexual abuse, child bearing, and child care responsibilities affected the females's pattern of resistance and how they conducted their lives. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrates the different role that women slaves had and the struggles that were caused from having to cope with sexual abuse.

Slaves were not usually treated with respect in the households they worked in, most of the time, slaves were treated horribly. They would be raped, beaten, teased, whipped, and were victims of many cruel and unusual punishments that are unimaginable to the human race present day. Family was the most important thing to the African culture. Brothers tried their hardest to look over their younger sisters as best as possible. Old women and men with no family members to turn to, looked to the comfort of nieces, nephews, and cousins when they fell ill, and aunts and uncles played a primary part in the family as well. Men were not the only ones that were forced to take part in daily labor and routines but also women and children. Some slaves were assigned outside work in which they would tend the crops and more commonly known work the plantations on their masters estate. Women were more commonly assigned to kitchen work such as cleaning the houses, washing clothes, cooking meals, working as servants, and tending to the masters each and every need. Most women who worked in the houses were brutally raped by their masters whether or not they were married to a man or not. Although most women worked in a home setting, there were some women who did work outside with the men and children. Work was difficult on the slaves and their masters were not empathetic towards them in

Not only did young women get sexually abused at a young age, but also the abuse continued on as they matured. As the slaves got older they were forced to engage in sexual affairs with their married masters, as is seen in the case of Harriet Jacobs. This naturally caused the slaves to feel shameful, immoral, and wrongful in doing so. However, they did not have much of a choice in the matter. To make matters worse, the mistresses who were jealous that their husbands, the masters, were being unfaithful to them with the slaves. This commonly resulted in persecution of the slaves by the mistresses. Although the mistresses knew that the masters were committing wrongful acts in sexually abusing the slaves, they did not show any compassion. Instead, they were enraged. Harriet Jacobs explains the typical reaction of a mistress as she writes: "The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage".

When pinpointing the peak of interracial sexual contact, it is assumed that it was during the early colonial period when white indentured servants and black slaves were close in contact. As Edmund S. Morgan notes, “It was common, for example, for servants and slaves to run away together, steal hogs together, get drunk together. It was not uncommon for them to make love together” (Gullickson). With the level of black and white relationships on the rise, white elites created antimiscegenation statutes to define the boundaries between servants and slaves as a way of preventing children of interracial unions from banding together and rebelling in the future. The eventual decline in white servanthood increased black and white segregation. But despite the will to separate white from black, interracial contact, both on the plantation and off, continued (Gullickson). In the boundaries of the plantation, the vicious act of rape was committed between black female slaves and white slaveowners. Many of the advances made by white overseers were hardly ever accepted on the part of the female.