Female African-American Women During The Slavery Era

Female African-American slaves were required to bear many children before they were 20 . Though Infants birthed by slaves had a 28-50% mortality rate, this was a common practice in the south. During the slavery era, female African-American slaves lost their humanity; They were sexually abused and had their families broken apart, hindering their ability to recover after their freedom.
Body 1: Harriet Jacobs once said, “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women,” And she could not be more right. What people do not realize is, although female African-American slaves experienced the same tortures as Male slaves They were beaten and tortured on the same level as male slave but unlike them, it was a common practice to be
repeatedly raped. These women had whatever innocence was left in them from childhood ripped out because they became sex toys for their masters from the time they start growing breasts till death comes and provides them with a sweet escape from the horrific reality they call life.
Most of these women had children with their masters although the masters would never acknowledge the fact that those children (Sally hemings) were from their own amorous mistake. Plantation owners were not the only problem Female slaves had to deal with, they also had to face the wrath of their rapists’ wives. The slavery era was very misogynistic, white women could not show any emotion other than love towards their husbands. This resulted to more hate towards female slaves because, when their masters would rape them, their wives were extremely jealous that their husbands preferred a lowly slave over them. In turn, they took out their anger on the slaves, although they never consented to have sex with a master. Due to all of this, white women made female slaves’ lives harder than they should’ve been. White men who raped their slaves never felt an ounce of regret of what they had done due to the fact that they felt as if they were saving the women from having to have sex with male slaves who were seen as animalistic and uncivilized(Atlanta black star). Most slave women were raped but, there was a sub group of slaves
that faced more sexual harassment than any other. These group of women were called Jezebels, and were thought to be more licentious than any other and therefore, would face sexual abuse many times in a day alone and the blame would be on them for being too licentious. These women would also face more physical abuse from these men’s wives because they were thought to seduce their husbands. Having to deal with all of this, tends to take a toll on a person’s mental and physical health, and most of these women had husbands who noticed what was happening but, could not doing anything for fear of the punishment that would follow, in turn, many African slave families were torn apart.

Body 2: Although many slave women were torn apart from their families either when they were captured and were brought to America or, when they were sold to different plantation owners, there were some women who had their families intact or, were even able to start their own families on the plantation. Many slaves were encouraged to marry other slaves as plantation owners assumed that the weight of a family would demolish the thought of escape. Most male slaves despised marrying female slaves due to the added vexation that would occur from seeing the appalling behavior plantation owners practiced on female slaves. “I did not want to marry a girl belonging to my own place, because I knew I could not bear to see her ill-treated.” This quote shows a broad reason of why male slaves were against these arranged marriages. “no colored man wishes to live at the house where his wife lives, for he has to endure the continual misery of seeing her flogged and abused without daring to say a word in her defense.” This quotes provides more detail to why most male slaves chose to remain unwed. “If my wife must be exposed to the insults and licentious passions of wicked slave-drivers and overseers. Heaven forbid that I should be compelled to witness the sight.” This quote also provides an intimate look for reasons against slave marriages. These quotes are a primary source that show the opinion of male slaves on marriages in the south. Many female slaves were miserable due to the sexual abuse they faced on a daily basis but, marriage, was a topic most female slaves chose to avoid due to the fact that it was too hard for a male slave to see their wife being treated so poorly. Another fact that marriages were not something commonly done was because, like I have said before families were easily separated. “The marriage ceremony consisted of the pair jumping over a stick. If no children were born within a year or so, the wife was sold.” The added pressure of a female slave to produce children continued into her marriage; the exception being that if a woman could not produce a child within a year of marriage, the woman would be sold. “My wife was still the property of Mr. Leigh and, from the apparent sincerity of his promises to us, we felt confident that he would not separate us. We had not, however, been married above twelve months, when his conscientious scruples vanished, and he sold my wife to a Mr. Joseph H. Colquitt, a saddler, living in the city of Richmond, and a member of Dr. Plummer's church there” This man although promised to be kept together by their owner meaning if sold, they would be sold together but in the end were split. “My parents belonged to Lemuel Bruce, who died about the year 1836, ... Then it was that family ties were broken, the slaves were all hired out, my mother to one man and my father to another.” This was a common practice that occurred when a slave owner dies, this is the event that usually separates slave families that belonged to a dead plantation owner. Over time, when slaves started to rebel and would run to the North to be free, many slaves had to leave their families behind sometimes never seeing them again.

The fact that most slave families were never reunited after the war hindered their ability to recover from years of abuse brought on from plantation owners.
Most female African slaves lost their husbands, fathers, maybe even brothers during the civil war as, slave drew arms to fight Confederate soldiers because they wanted to be free. The Civil War brought on the emancipation proclamation which freed 3.1 million out of 4 million slaves in America. When slaves became free, many slaves just started new famines after the war but some, held onto the memories of the past and were determined to relive those memories. In the year of 1866 , Many Free slaves started to place ads in Newspapers looking for family members they could reunite with. Slaves also were able to get help from the government at the time by using the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau was a bill that was passed by Abraham Lincoln to help aids slaves in the south. It was intended to only last one year, and helped in the provision of food, clothing, and shelter to newly freed slaves. The government did not do this however due to lack of funding and opposition in their own ranks to help slaves. Due to this factor, many slaves died from starvation and Diseases between the year of 1862-1870. “The largest biological crisis of the 19th century,” Yet due to the fact that this happened to slaves instead of their Caucasian counterparts, this is not a fact widely known. The first couple years following the
Emancipation Proclamation is seen as glory years. Historians have put a romantic view on what happened to slaves following the Civil War because, as a nation, it’s not a problem anyone wants to address. Even then, many knew what was happening to the slaves, even the government yet because of the opposition faced by helping slaves--Freed or not, the government did nothing. This resulted in parents having to get their own children back from former plantation owners. Parents would return back to the plantation they worked at to try and get their children back but, this was a task many did not excel at. Most plantation owners wanted to sell their children back to them, if they could not pay, plantation owners usually put the children to work to pay of their “debts.” Slaves went through a lot although, they were granted three amendments in the Constitution. The 13th which abolished slavery, the 14th which granted birthright citizenship, and the 15th which gave slaves the right to vote. Black leaders also started getting elected in the south, but thanks to resentment that occurred, reconstruction for African slaves lasted only 10 years and it wouldn’t be till almost 100 years later till that, African Americans could really enjoy the rights they were promised, but how much are they truly able to enjoy these rights when Racism and discrimination still exists against black people today. African Americans are still being targeted, some are getting killed by the police most times, just because of assumption. When will we as a nation, start coming together and move past the color of our skin because, underneath it all we are all the same. Conflict and compromise sums up all of slave history, it’s even the name of a book written about the hardships of slavery. Many slaves had to compromise themselves to serve the white man, especially women. Women had to compromise their dignity and pride to accept being repeatedly raped by their owners because, if they refused, they were met with conflict. They could be beaten with a whip, sold, or maybe even both. These women knew that either way the white man was going to win. These women knew they were going to have sex with these men so, they could either do it peacefully and quietly move on or, forcefully in which, they would be beaten and raped forcefully. Women slaves compromised their whole lives to the white man, male slaves had to too but, they were not expected like women to give up their childhood to become parents. Women slaves like I said before started having kids usually by the age of 13, they had to accept beating from the jealous wives of plantation owners. Would you think you would be able to compromise your whole life to serve one person? Because, that is exactly was slavery was one giant compromise on the slave’s part, it was until after the civil war-- a war that blew up thanks to the resentment that slaves had against the south and north against the south for having slaves--this was when, white men finally had to compromise themselves--So they thought, to support the freedom of slaves. To which they did not like, as they stopped reconstruction only after 10 years. Do you think 10 years is enough to fix over 246 years of pain and discrimination? Do you think 10 years is enough to restore the dignity and pride that was ripped out of the slaves? Do you think 10 years is enough to give female slaves back their childhood? Their virginity? Their children? Or the flesh that was ripped off their skin with a whip just because they were the only way wives of plantation owners could take out their anger? Do you think 10 years is enough time to heal?