Book Review: Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South

Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South. By Shannon C. Eaves. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2024. Softcover, 242 pp. $27.95.

Reviewed by Sheritta Bitikofer

Every so often, a historian comes along to tackle the difficult and unsavory facts about American history that many would rather sweep under the rug and forget. Those parts of our past that we cringe at nowadays, are what shaped our present, for better or worse. Shannon C. Eaves in her recent book, Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in The Antebellum South, confronted such a topic and dragged it into the glaring light of analysis. Rather than defending the fact that rape and sexual harassment were the reality for enslaved women during the nineteenth century—because that has already been established by previous historians—Eaves breaks down the how and why of sexual violence of Southern slavery from the perspectives of those involved in the crimes as either perpetrators, bystanders, or accomplices. By doing so, she exposes the underbelly of how the Southern rape culture became so ingrained in the society of its time, laying bare its complexities, ironies, and perhaps another facet to the causality of Southern secession.

Each chapter presents the impact of sexual violence upon enslaved women from a different point of view and within different contexts. The first two examine how enslaved women were affected, how they coped with the all too brutal and cruel truth of what it meant to be a female trapped in chattel slavery and what it meant for the enslaved community as a whole. Not only did women have to deal with the trauma of rape at the hands of their white enslavers, but the total futility in resisting, preventing, or prosecuting the crimes committed against them. Some, like the infamous story of Celia, did fight back but at a fatal cost. Enslaved women were compelled to pass down cautionary tales and warnings to their daughters—who very well may have been the product of sexual violence themselves—in order to prepare them for the possibility or eventuality of rape at the hands of a white owner or overseer. In some instances, enslaved women became entangled—either willingly or not—in long-term sexual liaisons with their enslavers, giving birth to multiple children in the hopes that such a relationship would earn them privileges or even freedom.

Eaves further explains how those who were witnesses to this sexual violence were influenced. Enslaved men, for instance, were forced to endure the harassment of their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters. This left indelible psychological scars, infringing upon their concepts of manhood and what it meant to be a protector and guardian within their families. As enslaved men, they were limited in their ability to shield their women from the advances and control of their enslavers. In some instances, as Eaves covers, enslaved men were ordered to commit or assist in sexual crimes, further deepening the impression upon the enslaved community as a whole.

One entire chapter is devoted to how the white enslavers who perpetrated these sexual crimes viewed themselves and their actions against enslaved women. Here, Eaves discloses how the ideology of Southern chivalry played a role in justifying sexual violence upon enslaved women. Established mythologies surrounding black women and their bodies became the foundation upon which white men built Southern rape culture, perpetuating images of their hypersexuality and that enslaved women were technically unrapable. Because of this, enslaved women became the objects of lust and sexual fixation. It did not help matters that many white men christened their sexuality in the slave quarters or houses of prostitution with “fancy girls” in order to save respectable white women from their peculiar sexual tastes and preferences.  While white men were bound by the laws of social discretion, others were open and blatant about their sexual habits with enslaved women and adamantly defended their perceived right to do with them as they pleased. After all, they were considered property. Ultimately, the sexual control of enslaved women bolstered the institution of slavery, reinforcing the white man’s power and mastery over the black race. To give up slavery was to give up their access to black bodies, and vice versa.

Eaves goes on to explain in the final two chapters of her book, that white women were also tied to unwritten rules of discretion within their society to keep the unsavory acts of their white men behind closed doors. While gossip could barely be contained when mixed children resembling certain white men were undeniably visible to the general public, the actual sight of white men attached to black women crossed the line. This was often the grounds upon which white women petitioned for divorce. The plight of the enslaved women was not often the concern of the white mistress. If an enslaved woman who fell prey to their enslaver’s harassment attempted to find refuge in the white wives, they were often turned away, beaten out of a jealous rage, or sold off instead of protected. At the heart of it, a white woman’s prime concern when it came to the sexual violence committed upon enslaved women, was the preservation of Southern white supremacy by concealing the sexual preferences of their men as much as possible or conserving their own respectability within their communities. In an ironic twist, while men were looking to protect the honor of white Southern women by taking out their sexual indulgences upon enslaved women, they inadvertently insulted the honor of white women by explicitly favoring black women.

Sexual Violence and American Slavery is not a light read. The title itself serves as a disclaimer that those who might be triggered by the conversation of sexual violence should approach the topic with care. However, as weighty as it is, understanding how Southern rape culture and slavery went hand-in-hand through the nineteenth century is vital to comprehending race relations as a whole. Eaves supports her research with primary source documentation, such as diaries, interviews, letters, and court records. Equally as important as the words written by those who lived through this era, are the silences between lines. Numerous times, she brings it to the reader’s attention that enslaved women and men did not have a voice in certain circumstances, especially during the divorce proceedings when white women thrust the illicit sexual acts of their husbands into public light. However, in her research and this publication, Eaves admirably gave the voices back to the countless enslaved women who became victims of the Southern rape culture. Their stories and struggles are plain upon the pages of her book, doubtless to become an introductory reference for later studies to come.