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.His deceptive self-serving gesturethreatened her soul life and the souls of the black folk around her.In time, the sight and stench of black bodies hanging from south-ern poplar trees would become undeniable evidence of what hap- Violence against Enslaved Women 55pens to flourishing fruit once plucked by the hands of the trickster.Something beautiful touched by him inevitably reappears strangeand oppositional.Something free inevitably finds itself subjugatedor colonized.In North American history, black women s bodies and souls havecarried the historical legacy and burden of domestic torture andexploitation.The next four chapters identify North America as thesite of lawful domestic terrorism against black peoples and especiallyenslaved women and girls.7 During the mid-seventeenth to late nine-teenth centuries, the European engaged in unimaginable terroristicacts, marking this time period as a pivotal violent moment in NorthAmerican history.The European-African slave trade and the slaveplantation work force created a distinct culture of violence in themodern world.Religious studies scholars have already given considerable atten-tion to violence during slavery, which has benefited public and aca-demic discourse; yet religious scholars are not yet describing thefull variety of violence evident in enslaved women s literature.Fivecategories of violence domestic, sexual, sisterhood, sistah-hood,and self offer a framework for examining unimaginable terror-istic acts committed against or internalized by enslaved women.Domestic violence I discuss in this chapter, sexual violence in thenext, sisterhood and sistah-hood violence in chapter five, and selfviolence in chapter six.Domestic violence and sexual violenceinclude intimate violence against enslaved women by white men.8Sisterhood violence is that violence which enslaved women expe-rienced at the hands of white women and sistah-hood violenceencompasses violence between enslaved women.In some instances,particularly self violence, brutal acts inflicted upon African peo-ples, especially women resulted in the internalization of violenceand terror.Self violence includes African women s internalizationof the oppressors precepts about their womanhood, Africanness,and indigenous religious traditions.The FBI defines domestic terrorism as the unlawful use of force orviolence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a govern-ment, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in the further-ance of certain political, social, or economic objectives and interests.9Terrorists employ a wide range of weaponry and terroristic methodsto carry out their aims.The effects of domestic terrorism vary fromdeprivation of basic human needs and services, injuries to property,and loss of limb, body parts, or life. 56 Enslaved Women and the Art of ResistanceEnslaved women s narratives and other similar accounts set the con-text for taking a revisionist approach for identifying North America asthe site of domestic terrorism during the antebellum period.I also drawfrom slaveholders journals, newspapers, legal documents, and theBible to reveal violence in many forms.The European used his bodilyforce and a bizarre variety of implements like whips and iron collarsto intimidate, coerce, and control enslaved African women.Whitewomen, and enslaved men and children were used as weapons to divideand conquer African women in America.All of these weapons inducedterror and were symbols of his sovereignty.He employed them at hiswill to reduce her soul to emptiness and her self-perception to chattel.Various terroristic methods were also employed against enslavedwomen to further European advancement in the New World.Terroristicmethods included kidnapping and torture, and economic, cultural,and sexual violence all kept enslaved women, men, and children in aperpetual state of brokenness.Such resulted in dehumanization andhumiliation as well as loss of limb and life.The domestic violence described in this chapter is not indicativeof the way of life on all North American plantations and farms.Thischapter does not make general assertions about all enslaved women sexperiences of violence.Nor does it suggest that all whites during theantebellum period were perpetrators of brutal assaults against blackwomen.This chapter represents a spectrum of terror and offers a snap-shot of antebellum terrorism through domestic violence.These actsof violence were committed for the sole purpose of exploiting blackwomen, enforcing their subjugation, and promoting their inferiorityand inhumanity.Both domestic and sexual violence are identified astwo particular forms of domestic terrorism essential to the breakingthrough of black women s bodies to break down their resistancefor the furtherance of European New World formation agenda.* * *Enslaved Women and Domestic ViolenceDey wuked me lak a dog an beat me somepin turrible enslaved womanWilliam Wells Brown, a former enslaved man and literary writeridentified American slavery as a national institution, whereas Violence against Enslaved Women 57violence against enslaved women, men, and children s personhoodwas a national pastime, a part of the very fabric and culture of theAmerican Union.10 From the mid-seventeenth to late nineteenth cen-turies, North America was the site of domestic terrorism, in which theEuropean used various forms of violence to intimidate, coerce, andenslave Africans for his personal, political, economic, and social gain.Indeed, it was the nation itself, Brown wrote in 1848, thatlicenses men to traffic in the bodies and souls of [women and] men; itsupplies them with public buildings at the capital of the country to keeptheir victims in.For a paltry sum it gives the auctioneer a license to sellAmerican men, women, and children, upon the auction stand.TheAmerican slave trader, with the constitution in his hat and his licensein his pocket, marches his gang of chained men and women under thevery eaves of the nation s capitol.With all their democracy, there isnot a foot of land over which the stars and stripes fly, upon whichthe American slave can stand and claim protection.Slaveholders hidethemselves behind the church.The religion of the south is referred toevery day, to prove that slaveholders are good, pious men.But withall their pretensions, and all the aid which they get from the northernchurch, the [Negro and the rest of the world know otherwise].thepeople of the free states cannot expect to live in union with slavehold-ers, without becoming contaminated with slavery.They are lookedupon as one people; they are one people; the people in the free andslave states form the American Union .Wherever the United Statesconstitution has jurisdiction, and the American flag is seen flying, theypoint out the slave as a chattel, a thing, a piece of property [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.His deceptive self-serving gesturethreatened her soul life and the souls of the black folk around her.In time, the sight and stench of black bodies hanging from south-ern poplar trees would become undeniable evidence of what hap- Violence against Enslaved Women 55pens to flourishing fruit once plucked by the hands of the trickster.Something beautiful touched by him inevitably reappears strangeand oppositional.Something free inevitably finds itself subjugatedor colonized.In North American history, black women s bodies and souls havecarried the historical legacy and burden of domestic torture andexploitation.The next four chapters identify North America as thesite of lawful domestic terrorism against black peoples and especiallyenslaved women and girls.7 During the mid-seventeenth to late nine-teenth centuries, the European engaged in unimaginable terroristicacts, marking this time period as a pivotal violent moment in NorthAmerican history.The European-African slave trade and the slaveplantation work force created a distinct culture of violence in themodern world.Religious studies scholars have already given considerable atten-tion to violence during slavery, which has benefited public and aca-demic discourse; yet religious scholars are not yet describing thefull variety of violence evident in enslaved women s literature.Fivecategories of violence domestic, sexual, sisterhood, sistah-hood,and self offer a framework for examining unimaginable terror-istic acts committed against or internalized by enslaved women.Domestic violence I discuss in this chapter, sexual violence in thenext, sisterhood and sistah-hood violence in chapter five, and selfviolence in chapter six.Domestic violence and sexual violenceinclude intimate violence against enslaved women by white men.8Sisterhood violence is that violence which enslaved women expe-rienced at the hands of white women and sistah-hood violenceencompasses violence between enslaved women.In some instances,particularly self violence, brutal acts inflicted upon African peo-ples, especially women resulted in the internalization of violenceand terror.Self violence includes African women s internalizationof the oppressors precepts about their womanhood, Africanness,and indigenous religious traditions.The FBI defines domestic terrorism as the unlawful use of force orviolence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a govern-ment, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in the further-ance of certain political, social, or economic objectives and interests.9Terrorists employ a wide range of weaponry and terroristic methodsto carry out their aims.The effects of domestic terrorism vary fromdeprivation of basic human needs and services, injuries to property,and loss of limb, body parts, or life. 56 Enslaved Women and the Art of ResistanceEnslaved women s narratives and other similar accounts set the con-text for taking a revisionist approach for identifying North America asthe site of domestic terrorism during the antebellum period.I also drawfrom slaveholders journals, newspapers, legal documents, and theBible to reveal violence in many forms.The European used his bodilyforce and a bizarre variety of implements like whips and iron collarsto intimidate, coerce, and control enslaved African women.Whitewomen, and enslaved men and children were used as weapons to divideand conquer African women in America.All of these weapons inducedterror and were symbols of his sovereignty.He employed them at hiswill to reduce her soul to emptiness and her self-perception to chattel.Various terroristic methods were also employed against enslavedwomen to further European advancement in the New World.Terroristicmethods included kidnapping and torture, and economic, cultural,and sexual violence all kept enslaved women, men, and children in aperpetual state of brokenness.Such resulted in dehumanization andhumiliation as well as loss of limb and life.The domestic violence described in this chapter is not indicativeof the way of life on all North American plantations and farms.Thischapter does not make general assertions about all enslaved women sexperiences of violence.Nor does it suggest that all whites during theantebellum period were perpetrators of brutal assaults against blackwomen.This chapter represents a spectrum of terror and offers a snap-shot of antebellum terrorism through domestic violence.These actsof violence were committed for the sole purpose of exploiting blackwomen, enforcing their subjugation, and promoting their inferiorityand inhumanity.Both domestic and sexual violence are identified astwo particular forms of domestic terrorism essential to the breakingthrough of black women s bodies to break down their resistancefor the furtherance of European New World formation agenda.* * *Enslaved Women and Domestic ViolenceDey wuked me lak a dog an beat me somepin turrible enslaved womanWilliam Wells Brown, a former enslaved man and literary writeridentified American slavery as a national institution, whereas Violence against Enslaved Women 57violence against enslaved women, men, and children s personhoodwas a national pastime, a part of the very fabric and culture of theAmerican Union.10 From the mid-seventeenth to late nineteenth cen-turies, North America was the site of domestic terrorism, in which theEuropean used various forms of violence to intimidate, coerce, andenslave Africans for his personal, political, economic, and social gain.Indeed, it was the nation itself, Brown wrote in 1848, thatlicenses men to traffic in the bodies and souls of [women and] men; itsupplies them with public buildings at the capital of the country to keeptheir victims in.For a paltry sum it gives the auctioneer a license to sellAmerican men, women, and children, upon the auction stand.TheAmerican slave trader, with the constitution in his hat and his licensein his pocket, marches his gang of chained men and women under thevery eaves of the nation s capitol.With all their democracy, there isnot a foot of land over which the stars and stripes fly, upon whichthe American slave can stand and claim protection.Slaveholders hidethemselves behind the church.The religion of the south is referred toevery day, to prove that slaveholders are good, pious men.But withall their pretensions, and all the aid which they get from the northernchurch, the [Negro and the rest of the world know otherwise].thepeople of the free states cannot expect to live in union with slavehold-ers, without becoming contaminated with slavery.They are lookedupon as one people; they are one people; the people in the free andslave states form the American Union .Wherever the United Statesconstitution has jurisdiction, and the American flag is seen flying, theypoint out the slave as a chattel, a thing, a piece of property [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]