Essentially southern women had little to no power outside of their domestic homes, and supported slavery as a means to escape the domestication that was demanded by the Antebellum South, by relying on the use of their slaves to handle women 's domestic chores and duties, while they focused on appearing as the ideal southern wife. The only way for women to escape their domestic responsibilities while keeping their image of a good wife, was through the purchase and use of slaves for their domestic chores.
“Portraying African-American women as stereotypical mammies, matriarchs, welfare recipients, and hot mommas helps justify U.S. black women’s oppression” (Patricia Hill Collins, Feminist Thought Sister Citizen 51). In early American history, racial stereotypes played a significant role in shaping the attitude African Americans. Stereotypes such a mammy, jezebel, sapphire and Aunt Jemimah were used to characterize African American women. Mammy was a black masculine nursemaid who was in charge of the white children. The stereotype jezebel, is a woman who wants sex all the time. White Americans saw black women as loose, oversexed and immoral. This stereotype still lives today because men especially whites look for black women to be their prostitutes.
These were women who weren’t directly under the supervision of a white male; and were thought to be a threat to the social order. Free black women regardless of their economic standing or family situations were suspect along with poor white women who either bore children out of wedlock, or had black lovers. To antebellum society motherhood is thought of as the most noble calling for southern white women, but becomes the “most appalling system of degradation when occurred outside marriage”(p.2). Interracial sexual relations are “regarded as the greatest moral outrage against [antebellum] society” (p.69) Poor women during this time often broke the norm of this times female behavior, and were the most likely to engage in an interracial social or sexual relationship. The respected white women in the community would often refer to these women as “vile”, “lewd”, and “vicious” “products of an inferior strain of humanity” (p. 90). While these relationships were seen as being unmoral, whenever a white man had a sexual relationship with a black women he had little to no fear of disapproval from society as long as the woman was still treated as a black women instead of getting the respect that was reserved for white women. Women were often harassed by court officials threatening charges of prostitution, bastardy, or fornication they then would assume the role of the patriarch and attempt to forcibly
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
In fact, women had to carry with the pain of having their children wrenched from them. Women were forced to be “breeders” they were meant to bear children to add to their master’s “stock”, but they were denied the right to care for them. It was not something unusual to happen to these women it was considered normal. The master didn’t believe the female slaves had feelings, or the right to ruin their merchandise. It was also not unusual for the plantation master to satisfy his sexual lust with his female slaves and force them to have his children. Children that were born from these unions were often sold to protect the honor and dignity of the slave owner’s wife, who would be forced to face the undeniable proof of her husband’s lust for “black women.”
In Laboring Women by Jennifer Morgan, the author talks about the transformations African Women suffer as they become slaves in America. The author explains how their race, gender and even their reproduction of African women became very important in the sex/gender system. She explains the differences of European, African and Creole and how their role was fit and fix in the sex/gender system in regards of production, body and kinship. Morgan explains the correlation of race and reproduction as well as how this affected the Atlantic World. She also explains the differences between whites and blacks and how they experience reproduction differently. Morgan also elaborates on how sex is a sexual disclosure. This gave us the conclusion on how the ideologies of race and reproduction are central to the organization of slavery.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
The Jezebel was another origin of the hypersexual nature of African American women. This stereotype developed after Sarah Baartman era. The term jezebel is heard in the Bible.“The negative jezebel stereotype also has a long history in American culture. She is usually a young, exotic, promiscuous, oversexed woman who uses sexuality to get attention, love, and material goods”(Tyree, p.398). Being defined as one’s body was not enough, the jezebel ideal elevated. Sexual assault took over and women were left dealing with the title of, jezebels who wanted this type of behavior happen to them. Understanding that rape was not illegal when the victim was an African American woman. History points to the fact that “white men were probably never convicted
A recurring theme in, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is Harriet Jacobs's reflections on what slavery meant to her as well as all women in bondage. Continuously, Jacobs expresses her deep hatred of slavery, and all of its implications. She dreads such an institution so much that she sometimes regards death as a better alternative than a life in bondage. For Harriet, slavery was different than many African Americans. She did not spend her life harvesting cotton on a large plantation. She was not flogged and beaten regularly like many slaves. She was not actively kept from illiteracy. Actually, Harriet always was treated relatively well. She performed most of her work inside and was rarely ever punished, at the request of her licentious master. Furthermore, she was taught to read and sew, and to perform other tasks associated with a ?ladies? work. Outwardly, it appeared that Harriet had it pretty good, in light of what many slaves had succumbed to. However, Ironically Harriet believes these fortunes were actually her curse. The fact that she was well kept and light skinned as well as being attractive lead to her victimization as a sexual object. Consequently, Harriet became a prospective concubine for Dr. Norcom. She points out that life under slavery was as bad as any slave could hope for. Harriet talks about her life as slave by saying, ?You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.? (Jacobs p. 55).
Women complaining of sexual harassment or any sexually abusive act are attacked on the negligence argument as being liable to revealing oneself to foreseen dangers. The argument mistakenly assumes that the victim is a willing participant in whichever unfolding trial of sexual harassment. Jezebel and Mammy are figures used to symbolize the stereotypes attached to African American women, with Jezebel likened to the biblical evil woman. She is described as being appealing and sexually immoral with every of her actions ensuing from an aspect of lust. This black woman is depicted as one with a starving dehydration for sex that can’t be satisfied by black men. In the publication, it is argued that black women sought after colorless men therefore