SLAVERY, PART 5: SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SLAVERY

TW/CW: Today we are discussing sexual violence, assault and rape during slavery. 

Any discussion of slavery would be incomplete without acknowledging the sexual violence that was perpetrated against enslaved people by their owners—men and women alike. As with other aspects of slavery, white women were far from innocent or ignorant regarding sexual intimidation, assault and rape. We shout out the podcast Intersectionality Matters from Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (who coined the term "intersectionality" and helped found Critical Race Theory) and discuss two articles: Intersectionality & the Role of White Women: An Analysis of Divorce Petitions from Slavery by Rachel Feinstein in the Journal of Historical Sociology and Sexual Relations Between Elite White Women & Enslaved Men in the Antebellum South: A Socio-historical Analysis by Jacqueline Allain in Inquiries in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities Journal. Also, if you need a break from this painful, traumatic, bleak history, check out the delightful middle-school-diary-reading show Mortified.