Rape & Race in the Nineteenth-century SouthChallenging notions of race and sexuality presumed to have originated and flourished in the slave South, Diane Miller Sommerville traces the evolution of white southerners' fears of black rape by examining actual cases of black-on-white rape throughout the nineteenth century. Sommerville demonstrates that despite draconian statutes, accused black rapists frequently avoided execution or castration, largely due to intervention by members of the white community. This leniency belies claims that antebellum white southerners were overcome with anxiety about black rape. In fact, Sommerville argues, there was great fluidity across racial and sexual lines as well as a greater tolerance among whites for intimacy between black males and white females. According to Sommerville, pervasive misogyny fused with class prejudices to shape white responses to accusations of black rape even during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, a testament to the staying power of ideas about poor women?s innate depravity. Based predominantly on court records and supporting legal documentation, Sommerville?s examination forces a reassessment of long-held assumptions about the South and race relations as she remaps the social and racial terrain on which southerners ? black and white, rich and poor ? related to one another over the long nineteenth century. |
Contents
Slave Rape Gender | 19 |
Rape | 42 |
BlackonWhite Rape Law in the Early | 72 |
Copyright | |
9 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accused of raping African American age of consent Alabama alleged antebellum appear attempted rape Bardaglio black rape black sexual black-on-white rape castration child Civil claimed Code color comps convicted of rape Court Order Book crime Criminal death defense Echols elite Eric Foner evidence executed fears of black folder free blacks freedmen Freedmen's Bureau gender Georgia governor guilty Halifax County historians Hodes Ibid interracial Jordan judge jury justice KKK Report Logan Alexander lynching miscegenation nineteenth century North Carolina officials Old South pardon penitentiary political poor white postbellum punishment racial rape complex rape law rape myth rape or attempted rape statutes rape trials raping white women Reconstructing the Household Rowan County sentenced sexual assault sexual relations slave rape slave rapists slaveholding Slavery Southampton County southern whites testified testimony tion violence Virginia white community white females white girl white southerners woman