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Example research essay topic: Female Slaves Slave Women - 1,257 words

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A former slave during the antebellum era, Lewis Clarke, said, How would you like to see your sisters, and your wives, and your daughter, completely, teetotaler, and altogether, in the power of the master. You can picture to yourselves a little, how you would feel; but oh, if I could tell you! Blacks during the time of slavery saw the many different experiences women had to go through, from breeding slaves to working in the fields (Woman and the Family in a slave society, Catherine Clinton, pg. 13). Many of times, masters would send for the younger female slaves around the ages of 13 and older. At this time he would then rape her. This was not uncommon to happen.

Madison Jefferson, another emancipated slave, said, Women who refused to submit to the brutal desires of their owners, are repeatedly whipt to subdue their virtuous repugnance, and in most instances this hellish practice is but too successful - when it fails, the women are frequently sold off to the south. Living under a social order which deprived them of virtually all means of gaining personal preferment except the granting of sexual favors, there is little doubt that many slave women submitted willingly to the advances of their masters, some of the family, or, overseers, hoping to receive favors in return. Legally there was no such thing as the rape of a slave woman by a white man (Clinton, pg. 13). Sexual abuse among young slave girls, especially those, who had worked within the big house, was a crime of which many slaves complained. Records of the Freedman's Bureau indicate that white men were slow to break the habit if abusing black women. Slave breeding was not uncommon on the plantation.

Slaves hated when masters attempt to control mating by matching up couples. Some masters rented or borrowed men for stud service, subjecting their female slaves to forced breeding or rape. The male slaves that were used were sometimes referred to as travelin niggers, stockmen, or breeding niggers. These were not the only ways masters attempted to control reproduction of slaves. Slave women were expected to reproduce as frequently as possible. If they fail to give birth they might be sold.

Barren women were shunned by the community and punished by their owners. All of these factors impaired slave sexuality and crippled the stability of the traditional family (Clinton, pg. 14). Evidence from both blacks and whites indicates that forced interracial sex was more common than slave breeding was. Blacks were reluctant to discuss such matters, especially with racial and sexual factors inhibiting responses. Former slave, Harry McMillan, said that although most were church members, girls were more likely to succumb to sexual temptation than were boys.

McMillan also said, I remember masters who kept one girl steady, others who maintained sometimes two on different places, regardless of whether they were married or unencumbered by white wives. If they could get it on their own place it was easier, but they would go wherever they could get it. It demonstrates that, as a rule, white males in slave society were at no liberty to exploit slave women, despite family or Christian obligations to the contrary (Clinton pg. 14). White men and enslaved women did form long-term liaisons, which may not have been founded on mutual feelings but often grew into relationships that demonstrated fidelity and devotion. Records show that not all black female-white male liaisons were maintained or even initiated by brute force.

Owner-slave liaisons not only caused havoc within the black family; they created violence and resentment among members of white families as well. Lacking the power to prevent sexual activities between male owners and slaves, white women on plantations struggle to discourage sons, brothers, and conceal marital infidelities. The jealousy and hatred many white women harbored for the slave women to whom their husbands were attached were a legend within the Old South (Clinton, pg. 19). White women uniformly scorned black womens physical appearance. Complaining about the unattractiveness of black women was an unconscious defense mechanism against the attraction many white men acted upon within southern society. Travelers, observers, court records, and slave narratives all testify to the hostility many white women felt toward black concubines.

They felt as if they were at the mercy of white men (Clinton pg. 19). Some of the plantation matrons would beg their husbands fathers for assistance, and others might look to their own parents for comfort, but generally women were expected to turn a blind eye. If a man abused his privilege by flaunting an affair, a wife might demand that the slave be sold. If her husband refused, she could petition for divorce, citing infidelity as legal grounds for dissolution (Clinton pg. 23). These sexual liaisons caused major conflict between the black women and white women. It stirred up conflict and resentment in the cabins and provoked equal disharmony among members of the white family (Autobiography of a Female Slave, pg. 12).

The presence of a slave concubine and, secondarily, her bastard children promoted conflict within the plantation household. Most of the white women lashed out at the helpless victims - the slave women. Blacks confirm that mistresses attempted to enforce Christian principles and to deal with morally with a very brutal dehumanizing system. Former slave James Curry said, I could relate many instance of extreme cruelty practised upon plantations in our neighborhood, instances of woman laying heavy stripes upon the back of woman, even under circumstances which should have removed every feeling but that of sympathy from the heart of woman, and, which was sometimes attended with effects most shocking. The problems of white women pale in comparison to those that plagued slave women on white households and black women within southern society. In some cases the anguish and frustration of white women compounded black womens difficulties, resulting in physical and emotional abuse of slave mothers and children.

They both did share the fact that they were both at the mercy of the male will. The black females experiences in slavery differed from the males' and to ignore that difference would be to misunderstand the nature of slavery. The bonds of a female slave were two-fold, linking her both to an interracial community of women and setting her apart as a female in a white, patriarchal society. Black women had an opportunity for a more normal life than did black men because they were less desirable purchases. Because black woman outnumbered the men, it was easier for women to form families. Several factors though complicated a black womans search for a partner.

The dispersed patterns of ownership meant few black women lived in a quarter or with other blacks. Initially, blacks and especially black women, were scattered singly or in a small groups among those families who owned slaves. Over one-third of the families owned some slaves or rented them. No family before 1744 paid taxes on more than six blacks over age sixteen.

Before 1744 only two or three families owned enough slaves to have both males and females. Thus, black women had to search for mates on nearby farms. Furthermore many black women lived very short lives especially in Manakin. Sometimes they would seem to disappear. The French community may have affected slave-naming patterns. Manakin whites had frustratingly few names, especially among women.

Nine womens names, account for over 90 percent of the more than 600 white women associated with the Manakin community before 1776. While both black women and white women drew their na...


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Research essay sample on Female Slaves Slave Women

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