Treatment of African-American Women During Slavery

*Warning! Graphic pictures!*

 

 

 

 

By; Brandi Tillison

 

 

The Treatment of African-American Women During Slavery

 

 

     Often when slavery is discussed in history, it is taught in a way that the female side of slavery isn’t discussed. It would take years for me to describe every detail of what African-American women went through during slavery, such as how they were treated by their fellow African-American men, but I will stick to the sexual abuse and dehumanization the women went through. So I will put a warning for this blog post: if you are sensitive to reading about sexual assault, then please proceed with caution. My goal isn’t to offend or trigger anything for anyone who reads this.

 

     Now skip from the beginning of slavery to 1800’s, the way African-American women were treated didn’t change much from when Africans were first brought over to the New World. Sexual assault wasn’t a concept that was too far from reality for African-American women during slavery. This was partly because the Constitution didn’t view AA(African-American) people as humans, only 3/5 human. This law alone stricken the humanity from AA women and made them seem like animals more than actual humans. Also the age range of the women did not matter. [1]In 1808, the rape of slaves increased due to the growing need for more slaves. This was because of a federal law that was passed which put a ban on the importation of new slaves. So rape was a way to ‘increase’ the slave population.

 

     There was always a stigma with being sexually assaulted. There is one in present day, but picture yourself as a slave woman and how dehumanizing it was to know you couldn’t even testify your case in court. [2]The trial of Celia 1855, is a perfect example. Celia was 19 years old and after enduring five years of sexual abuse from her slave master, she finally killed him. Her case set off a windstorm of emotions for the state of Missouri. Her trial came at an interesting time in which there was rising support for ending slavery, but nonetheless Missouri still had slave laws in tact at the time. The judge in her case made any chance of her getting an acquittal near impossible. The judge then charged her with 1^st. degree murder and she was to be hung.

 

     A case like the previous one wasn’t uncommon during slave times. Knowing the chances of you getting killed for being raped, and then having the nerve to testify about it often put fear into African-American women. This I believe is what drove them to keep their silence knowing if they dared to say anything they would be killed for it. I also think the stereotype of the ‘strong black woman’ came from. Knowing of some of the tortures AA women went through, it may seem like a ‘befitting’ stereotype, but it’s not. In fact it strips African-American women away of being able to show any type of emotion. As if saying ‘you can’t feel pain you’re a black woman’. It is inhumane to tell a race of women they can’t feel emotion because of melanin in their skin.  This stereotype is clearly perpetuated in today’s society and it is a clear shame to see. I hope my blog gave whoever read it some insight as to what was going on to AA women during slave times. Maybe in my next blog I will talk about what the 1900’s were like and the affects slavery had then as well.

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[1] NA, NA. Boundless, "Women and Slavery." Accessed February 28, 2014. https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/slavery-and-reform-1820-1840/slavery-in-the-u-s/women-and-slavery/.

[2] Douglas, Linder. NA, "Celia, A Slave, Trial (1855): An Account." Last modified 2011. Accessed February 28, 2014. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/celia/celiaaccount.html.