Life of an Enslaved Woman before the Civil War Although most slaves lived terrible lives, female slaves had a much heavier burden to carry regarding the fact that they had two things against them, they were female and they were Negros. They were subject to rape, medical experimentation, and sexual violence considering they were an easy target for their slave owners. In order to overcome their trials and tribulations female slaves tended to stick together, being there for one another when one is going through a rough time or a difficult situation. This sister hood helped the women to be able to push through life without giving up, knowing they had each other to lean on. Certainly the women had conflicts among themselves, but that just made them stronger and it also made them realize the bigger picture in mind, freedom. In the book “Incidents of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs it states, “.Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” First and foremost, the most prevailing situations that most female slaves were subject to was rape and …show more content…
Enslaved healers and midwives were the ones that were mainly present throughout the whole pregnancy journey, unless it was a complicated journey, where a doctor had to be present and involved. Enslaved women wanted to control their pregnancy as much as they could, without the interference from slaveholders. After giving birth, the women were watched closely to see if they could return back to work in a timely manner. These women did not have a peaceful pregnancy considering they had to continue to work and even after birth they were rushed to recover to get back to
...brother. These past three points all serve as examples of the severity of slavery for women.
Slaves during the mid-1800s were considered chattel and did not have rights to anything that opposed their masters’ wishes. “Although the slaves’ rights could never be completely denied, it had to be minimized for the institution of slavery to function” (McLaurin, 118). Female slaves, however, usually played a different role for the family they were serving than male slaves. Housework and helping with the children were often duties that slaveholders designated to their female slaves. Condoned by society, many male slaveholders used their female property as concubines, although the act was usually kept covert. These issues, aided by their lack of power, made the lives of female slaves
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).
Deborah White configures the preeminent perception that Southern white women had of colored slave women. The initial impression was that all black women slaves were sexual deviants that were not fully equipped to fulfill their roles as slaves as they imposed a sort of “dangerous” sexual pressure in the community. The following vison of the common slave woman was that of a motherly nature in the way that the women were subject to have children for the sole purpose of renewing the source for slaves. No matter the outlook, it is clear that the slave women of the south were being forced to be flexible with their roles in order to please the slave
Sexual assault from the male slave owners and harassment from the female slave owners was commonplace. Many slave girls would start to be harassed and sexually assaulted around the young age of only 15, “But I had now entered my 15th year – a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words into my ear” (26 Jacobs). This clearly shows that not only did female slaves have to deal with these kinds of harsh conditions; they had to begin to cope with these circumstances at a very young age. Throughout the novel Jacobs demonstrates the inner strength that these young girls had to develop to deal with their day-to-day
Through time, there has been many documented differences between men and women how men and women feel different, understandings different, and how many women are undoubtedly different. So now I’m focusing on the difference of African-American men and women during their period of enslavement, according mainly to Henry Bibb. Wrestling with some of the feelings and treatments that each individual gender of slave had to face personally or be a party to thus, through my inquiries. My main statement would be. How do particular burdens affect female and male slaves?
After the English had come and took over the land in the 1400’s , being a woman came with so many burdens and troubles, but the hardest part of being a woman, they never experienced freedom. As a woman, you had no sense of personal value to a man, you were expected to do as you were told and were severely punished if you did not. Being a woman meant you were property, and with owning property, a way for white land-owning men to make a profit. Along with making a profit, because they were considered property, they could be treated any way the “property owner” saw fit. Women were raped and beat with no freedom to speak up.
Many female slave narratives indicated that gender was an important factor in determining the fate of a slave even though slave owners often did not differentiate between genders in the assigning of tasks. Thus, women often ended up working along side men. Most male slaves performed chores such as trapping and hunting animals or working in the fields. Their jobs mainly consisted of some type of physical labor which required strength and endurance. However, a woman's place in society, throughout the travesty of slavery, was somewhat different. Women often performed domestic duties, attempted to keep the slave family healthy and unified, and tended to their masters' demands and whims. Above all jobs, women slaves also represented an authority figure within their families and communities. In times of melancholy they were relied upon for guidance and comfort through agony, and in times of ecstasy they came together with the slave community to share in the happiness.
Steve Galster and his team are in Thailand to help save thousands of women from being forced into sex slavery. Central Asia has earned millions of dollars from forcing woman and young children from being trafficked. In Bangkok, Thailand sex becomes one of the lucrative comities that many foreign men go for. Most of the clients are Middle Eastern men and they go to Thailand for sex and most women do the work willingly. One of the biggest well-known organizations that operate human trafficking is the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks hold their organization in the Grace Hotel, where there are a lot of Middle Eastern men. They lure women from their poor countries and promise them a good job, only soon to discover that they have been tricked and forced onto the streets to work as prostitutes. The Thai Government Unit that does Black Op Operation work and they are there to help Steve to take down the Uzbeks. They are a professionally trained team that infiltrate and take down mean powerful individuals and organizations. Operation Graceland depends on Steve's team to help dozen of women from being trafficked. They capture one of the members and find out that he is one of top ties in the ring; they threatened him with jail time to see if he would become an informant. They later takedown two more members in the rings and continue until they bust the whole organization.
Slavery was a gruesome experience for all people of the African descent. However, the instances that occurred in a slave’s life differentiated between men and women.
On the contrary, the women had it worse than men did. In the aspect of sexually, the female slaves, were the ones to suffer more; because not only were they forced to do hard work, but also were forced to have some type of sexually contact. This occurred mostly, with females age 15 years and older. As Jacob gives a supportive statement, "My master met at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him," he develops how in most cases, they were sold or rented with men like 12 years of age difference.
A source created on the 12th of August in 1797 depicts an advertisement for the sale of a 22 year-old female slave, who has a nine month old child and is being offered at the purchaser’s option. The primary source was published by the ‘Rising Sun’ as a newspaper clipping. African Americans were objectified as shown by the description ‘A remarkable smart healthy Negro Wench’ and families were often separated by the buyer’s wish. A case study journal by Steven Mintz from Columbia University on ‘Childhood and Transatlantic Slavery’ informed that infant and child mortality rates were twice as high among slave children compared to southern white children
After the indigenous people of the Caribbean were terminated by the Spaniards the Europeans needed to find an alternative work force to mine their sugar plantations. The African were seen as the ideal supply of labourers. In Africa, slavery was not a new concept as it was already practiced so because of this the European deemed the Africans suitable for labour on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The enslaved people, men and women and children, were taken from their country and exposed to greater degree of slavery than that which they were familiar with. Once captured – these people of dark skin colour – were chained and then journeyed on foot to the coast where the slave forts were located (fig. 1).
Domestic occupations ranged from cook, servant, washerwoman, laundress, seamstress, nurse, midwife, and doctress. Cooks especially were held in high regard because food was such a powerful weapon on the plantation since it was so scarce and regulated. The females basically managed the household while men were found to be cooks. Nurses and midwives were especially admired and coveted, even by the owner, because they were crucial to maintaining the slave population. Further, midwives were considered to increase the number of live births so they were highly regarded because this too increased the slave population.
Yet and still all endured horrific difficulties. Female slaves were often times molested, raped and beat by their masters. It was common and widely accepted by both the black and white communities. Colonial laws against rape did not apply to the slaves.