Sexual Relations Between Elite White Women and Enslaved Men in the Antebellum South: A Socio-Historical AnalysisPosted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Slavery, United States, Women on 2016-06-12 01:36Z by Steven |
Inquiries: Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities
2013, Volume 5, Number 8
pages 1-3
There is ample evidence of sexual relations, from rapes to what appear to be relatively symbiotic romantic partnerships, between white slave masters and black women in the Antebellum South. Much rarer were sexual relations between white women and black slave men, yet they too occurred. Using an intersectional socio-historical analysis, this paper explores the factors that contributed or may have contributed to the incidence of sexual encounters between elite white women and slave men, the power dynamics embedded in them, and their implications in terms of sexual consent. The paper demonstrates how upper-class white women who engaged in these relationships used sex as an instrument of power, simultaneously perpetuating both white supremacy and patriarchy.
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