The Life of a Slave: Love, Sex, and Abuse Being a African American woman or man in the 1800's came with consequences. The consequences were one's that one didn't ask for but were given due to the color of their skin. Slavery among African American's was the way of life during the time. Along with slavery, came sexual exploitation, control over their lives, and sexual abuse. Through these negatives, one positive did occur as well. Love was sometimes the one positive thing these slaves had to hold onto. There were many forces working against slaves, to keep them from true happiness and freedom of living life the way slaves wanted. My goal in this paper is to reveal the forces that were working against the relationships between slaves and …show more content…
how slaves carried on these relationships through the slavery period despite of these forces. There were several forces working against slaves when it came to relationships. The first force that was weighing heavily on slaves was the inability to make their own decisions. Only the master could do so (Dubois 212). Though they couldn't make decisions, slaves were still pursuing conjugal relationships and families with other fellow slaves (212). Slave couples would also continue to carry on parental relationships as well (212). Though a slaves love life was completely controlled by their master in regards to when they could see each other or when he/she may depart each other due to being sold or bought, a slave did have a choice to be married. Master's didn't force their slaves into marriage or having a family. A second force that was working against slaves in relation to their marriages was the lack of being able to have rights. Slaves weren't allowed to have legal binding marriages, so masters would still be able to have control over them (212). If a master wanted to be able to sell their slave or buy one, they would be able to do so because they still had the legal rights over them (212). Along with slaves not being provided with legal marriage documents, their children were owned by the masters as well (212). Even though slaves marriages were not of a legal nature, they still solidified their own marriages through their own rituals. One ritual was jumping over the broom (212). Some masters were also aware of these relationships occurring because some did attend the wedding ceremonies of their slave (212). But just because a master attended a wedding ceremony, he still viewed the slave as property and not as another slaves partner which whom they carried an emotional connection with (212). When the Civil War came to an end in the South, many masters sold their slaves or bought slaves that were in committed relationships. Due to these circumstances, many slaves traveled far, to visit their spouses and children (212). A third force that slave women faced was sexual exploitation and abuse.
This occurred regularly in the world of young girl and women slaves. Slave women were humiliated by their masters during punishment by having their dresses pulled over their heads, leaving them exposed and vulnerable (212). A pregnant slave women might be able to be spared a harsh beating, to protect the baby because masters had ownership over their young (212). Slave women were also being sexually abused by their masters. Though the sexual abuse was to not be spoken about, it was occurring (213). Harriet Jacobs, an African American slave woman, began enduring sexual exploitation around the age of fifteen by her master. During this time, it was common for young slave girls to perform sexual favors for their masters in order to earn or gain something (214). So just like Harriet Jacobs, she performed these sexual acts, to keep her master happy. A slave named Sally Hemings was also sexually exploited at the age of fourteen and ended up with having several of her master's children (215). Over the years, Harriet Jacobs was sexually abused by her master who became aggressive (216). Due to this abuse, Harriet met another white man and he became her lover and confidant (214). Harriet also had children with her lover and escaped her master by hiding in a nearby attic, to still carry a relationship with her children (216). As slave women were violated by their masters, the master's mistresses were also taking their anger out on them as well. Because the master wives knew what was going on and would never confront their husbands, they would instead take everything out on the slave women as if everything was their fault
(217). A fourth and final force that slaves had to work against was the ability to maintain relationships even if it was against the master's rules. Majority of slave marriages were called abroad marriages, meaning most slaves were married to another who lived on a separate plantation (212). So with this came great risk. It was forbidden for slaves to sneak out at night but in order to see your spouse and/or children, a slave man would sneak out at night, to spend time with his children and slave wife. He would risk the possibility of being sold and/or beat, to be with his family (212). So lying and sneaking around became an everyday occurrence for slaves in order to maintain their marriages. A first example of this was a story shared by Polly Shine, that she had learned of from her parents with an interviewer during a time when slavery was no longer in existence (230). There was a man slave that carried a relationship with a girl on a nearby plantation. He would sneak out at night to be with her. Once the master caught on, he tried several punishments to keep the slave at home such as chaining him to a pole and chaining him to a tree and having him stay in a shed (231). The man slave would sneak out and when he wasn't able to do so anymore, the woman slave would sneak into his shed to see him (231). The man slaved ended up being sold to a master that lived far away because no one close by wanted to own him due to his mischievous behavior (231). A second example of lying and sneaking around of a more extreme nature was told by a man named William Craft. In 1848, William Craft was married to a slave woman name Ellen Craft (228). William was owned by Ellen's father and grandfather. Ellen was also a slave but was the product of a sexual relationship between her father, her owner and her mother, her father's slave (227). Ellen was a fair skinned girl due to her father being Caucasian and her mother being African American. So with this, a plan was hatched. Ellen posed as a white male owner and William posed her slave (228). The goal was to escape South Carolina slavery and head to a free state. William and Ellen Craft started their journey through traveling by train to Savannah. As they boarded a boat towards Baltimore, William was stopped by a Yankee to see where he was going. During the time Pennsylvania was a free state, so Baltimore was on high alerts when it came to slaves traveling through the area. Ellen and William faced being caught by having to face superiors in regards to traveling from Baltimore to Philadelphia whom the Yankee referred them to (229). As they were faced with these obstacles, William and Ellen Craft began to realize the seriousness they had got themselves into through this narration: I could say nothing, my hear was too full to speak, for at first I did not know what to do. However we knew it would never do to turn back...So, after a few moments, I did all I could to encourage my companion, and we stepped out and made for the office: but how or where my master obtained sufficient courage to face the tyrants who had power to blast all we help dear, heaven only knows!....We felt that our very existence was at stake, and that we must either sink or swim (229). Despite the set backs that William and Ellen Craft faced, they were able to escape the hands of slavery. During this time, most slaved who did escape, escaped alone or as a single parent (226). Regardless of these many forces working against slaves, love and sex still occurred. Even without rights or freedom of choice, slaves still married and had their own sacred way of making their marriage stronger. Even through the sexual exploitation and abuse, slave women still believed in love and pursued relationships. Slaves explored marriage and having families regardless of the harsh punishments that one could receive. Slaves were willing to lie and sneak around in order to spend time with their spouses and children. Some slaves were even willing to give up their lives if it took, just to seek freedom with their spouse. Slaves overcame adversity and didn't allow these forces to control their lives completely. They resisted these forces by taking them on and finding ways to still maintain love and a sense of family without completely letting their lives be taken over by their enslavement. Even through punishment, the want to be with someone didn't go away. Slaves preserver to be with one another because love is powerful and even during slavery, slavery couldn't stop those from having love in their hearts.
In the autobiographical writings Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs’ reflects on the times that her master Dr. Flint consistently tried to molest her sexually. In spite of her fears of horrible repercussions such as beatings or torture if she refuses to submit to him, Harriet always manages to evade his proposals to become his mistress by out-smarting him. She defends herself from his numerous attempts to seduce her, by the power of her mental strength and intelligence, and her Christian morality. While she fears him each time he secretly approaches her with his sexual propositions when he caught her alone, she could always think of ways to protect herself. For example she protects herself from the dangers of his sexual advances by removing herself from the master’s presence any opportunity she gets. She sometimes stays with her grandmother or aunt at night to protect herself from him. They are both Dr. Flint’s former slaves too who live on the plantation where she lives. Even though he threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, she tells his wife about his sexual advances, and Mrs. Flint invites Harriet to sl...
Slavery in the middle of the 19th century was well known by every American in the country, but despite the acknowledgment of slavery the average citizen did not realize the severity of the lifestyle of the slave before slave narratives began to arise. In Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Harriet Jacobs uses an explicit tone to argue the general life of slave compared to a free person, as well as the hardships one endured on one’s path to freedom. Jacobs fought hard in order to expand the abolitionist movement with her narrative. She was able to draw in the readers by elements of slave culture that helped the slaves endure the hardships like religion and leisure and the middle class ideals of the women being “submissive, past, domestic,
Slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries consisted of brutal and completely unjust treatment of African-Americans. Africans were pulled from their families and forced to work for cruel masters under horrendous conditions, oceans away from their homes. While it cannot be denied that slavery everywhere was horrible, the conditions varied greatly and some slaves lived a much more tolerable life than others. Examples of these life styles are vividly depicted in the personal narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince. The diversity of slave treatment and conditions was dependent on many different factors that affected a slave’s future. Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano both faced similar challenges, but their conditions and life styles
The history of slave women offered by Davis suggests that "compulsory labor overshadowed every other aspect of women's existence" (Davis 5). This is quite apparent through examination of the life of Harriet Jacobs. All slaves were forced to do hard labor and were subject to cruel remarks by whites, in this sense they were genderless, except women endured much more foul treatment. Harriet Jacobs was forced to listen to the sexual berating from her master, Dr. Flint, as well as receive jealous scorn from her mistress, Mrs. Flint. Yet worse than the verbal abuse was the physical, sexual abuse imposed on slave women. "Naming or not naming the father of a child, taking as a wife a woman who had children by unnamed fathers, [and] giving a newborn child the name of a father" were all considered by Herbert Gutman to be "everyday choices" in slave communities (Davis 15). Not being able to name a father must have made slave women feel great pain from being a "genderless" tool and great isolation by forcing them to take care of bastard children on their own. However, the worst comes when the child is old enough to work and, in most cases, is auctioned off. By auctioning off a slave woman's children slave masters not only dehumanized slave women but gave additional pain to slave women by taking their loved children away. Slave...
Women involved in slavery had several struggles dealing with physical and mental abuse. In one of Douglass's narratives it states "an old aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back til she was literally covered with blood". The women would be beaten brutally, and treated as if they were not human beings. They also had no chance of fighting back against the abuse, which is shown from this quote. While in the quote from Jacob's narrative states "She sits on the cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.
The history of slavery in America is one that has reminders of the institution and its oppressive state of African Americans in modern times. The slaveholders and the slaves were intertwined in a cruel system of oppression that did not yield to either side. The white slaveholders along with their black slaves became codependent amongst each other due to societal pressures and the consequences that would follow if slaves were emancipated with race relations at a high level of danger. This codependency between the oppressed and the oppressor has survived throughout time and is prevalent in many racial relationships. The relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor can clearly be seen in Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred. In this novel, the protagonist Dana Franklin, a black woman, time travels between her present day 1977 and the antebellum era of 19th century Maryland. Throughout her journeys back to the past, Dana comes in contact with her white ancestor, Rufus Weylin, a white slave owner and Dana ultimately saves his life and intermingles with the people of the time. Butler’s story of Dana and her relationship with Rufus and other whites as she travels between the past and the present reveals how slaveholders and slaves depended on and influenced one other throughout the slaves bondage. Ultimately, the institution of slavery reveals how the oppressed and the oppressor are co-dependent; they need each other in order to survive.
Harriet Jacobs’ narrative is a powerful statement unveiling the impossibility and undesirability of achieving the ideal put forth by men and maintained by women. Jacobs directs her account of the afflictions a woman is subjected to in the chain of slavery to women of the north to gain sympathy for their sisters that were enslaved in the south. In showing this, Jacobs reveals the danger of such self disapprobation women maintained by accepting the idealized role that men have set a goal for which to strive. She suggests that slave women be judged by different standards than those applied to other women. Jacobs develops a moral code that apprises the specific social and historical position of captive black women. Jacobs’ will power and strength shown in her narrative are characteristics of womanly behavior being developed by the emerging feminist movement.
Throughout the course of the semester we have read multiple books that have challenged our thoughts of the experiences faced by African Americans during the late 19th century. Aside from being shunned from their communities African Americans were considered to be of the lowest social class possible. Two books that expand on this notion are The Garies and Their Friends written by Frank J Webb, and Clotel written by William Wells Brown. Both novels share the story of mixed race families struggling to find their place in society. The 19th was a time of confusion and mistreatment among race’s, both The Garies and Their Friends and Clotel broaden our knowledge of life as a mixed-race slave as they figure their place in society.
Slavery in the eighteenth century was worst for African Americans. Observers of slaves suggested that slave characteristics like: clumsiness, untidiness, littleness, destructiveness, and inability to learn the white people were “better.” Despite white society's belief that slaves were nothing more than laborers when in fact they were a part of an elaborate and well defined social structure that gave them identity and sustained them in their silent protest.
America has come a long way from the time of slavery, after the Civil war when slavery was abolished the southern Negro was having difficulty fitting in the normal “white” lifestyle. Passionate, expectant, and placid author Samuel J. Barrows approaches the southern Negro’s lifestyle and to expand on the differences between the quality of life before the Civil war and after during June of 1891. Barrows is striving to educate and expand on the difficulties that the Negro’s are working through in order to make their lifestyle equal to the whites to the other American citizens. Dedicated and confident Barrows is educating the American citizens, both Negroes and whites, but utilizing motivational imagery to give them a sense of hope, many different
During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black
Slave women were also subjected to sexual abuse by their masters. The masters demanded sexual relations from the slave women they found desirable. They did this without any consideration of their own personal marital status and that of the slave. There was tension between slave husbands of abused women and their masters often resulting in fights between the two. Slave women were also subjected to jealousy and rage from mistresses whose husbands’ engaged in these illicit affairs. In conclusion, the slave could not expect to enjoy a fulfilling relationship with the master. The very essence of slavery was cruel and demeaning, making it difficult for any meaningful and mutually satisfying relationship to exist.
In conclusion, women were considered property and slave holders treated them as they pleased. We come to understand that there was no law that gave protection to female slaves. Harriet Jacob’s narrative shows the true face of how slaveholders treated young female slave. The female slaves were sexually exploited which damaged them physically and psychologically. Furthermore it details how the slave holder violated the most sacred commandment of nature by corrupting the self respect and virtue of the female slave. Harriet Jacob writes this narrative not to ask for pity or to be sympathized but rather to show the white people to be aware of how female slaves constantly faced sexual exploitation which damaged their body and soul.