The Impact of Slavery on Black Women Essay

She emphasizes that the life of a slave woman is incomparable to the life of a slave man, in the sense that a woman’s sufferings are not only physical but also extremely mental and emotional. Whether or not a slave woman is beaten, starved to death, or made to work in unbearable circumstances on the fields, she suffers from and endures horrible mental torments. Unlike slave men, these women have to deal with sexual harassment from white men, most often their slave owners, as well as the loss of their children in some cases. Men often dwell on their sufferings of bodily pain and physical endurance as slaves, where as women not only deal with that but also the mental and emotional aspect of it. Men claim that their manhood and masculinity are stripped from them, but women deal with their loss of dignity and morality. Females deal with the emotional agony as mothers who lose their children or have to watch them get beaten, as well as being sexually victimized by white men who may or may not be the father of their children. For these women, their experiences seem unimaginable and are just as difficult as any physical punishment, if not more so.

In a time period when women were considered inferior, as were blacks, it was unimaginable the horrors a black woman in the south had to endure during this period. African women were slaves and subject to the many horrors that come along with being in bondage, but because they were also women, they were subject to the cruelties of men who look down on women as inferior simply because of their sex. The sexual exploitation of these females often lead to the women fathering children of their white masters. Black women were also prohibited from defending themselves against any type of abuse, including sexual, at the hands of white men. If a slave attempted to defend herself she was often subjected to further beatings from the master. The black female was forced into sexual relationships for the slave master’s pleasure and profit. By doing this it was the slave owner ways of helping his slave population grow.

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

n 1619 a Dutch ship brought 20 slaves to America and it took nearly 240 years for slavery to end in 1865. In the absence of rights or freedom, my ancestors were put to work growing anything from cotton to tobacco. For centuries, my people fought for equality. Although we are “free” the fight has still remain. As a black women raised in America, I was hit with some harsh realities at a very young age.

Often times when talking about the institution of slavery in the United States of America, men are at the center of the discussion; whether they were owners or slaves, men are presented first. Black women are pushed in the background except for the most famous like Harriet Tubman and Sally Hemings. In North America, specifically the United States, more than six hundred thousand slaves were brought in from Africa and the Caribbean between 1620 and 1865, the laws regarding slaves were condensed into slave codes that varied from state to state. Female slaves usually received the worst of it. Abusing them was legal, since the were considered property and as long as the owner wanted, he could have his way with any women he chooses on the plantation. Female slave were subject to harsh punishment for refusing the advances of the master. As one of, if not, the most vulnerable group in America at the time, female slaves had more threats to their existence than black men.

Slave women had the hardest role to play in Colonial American women. They started out having to do unskilled work, such as building a fence. Then later on, when slaves became more expensive, women were seen more equal to the slave men. They were then responsible to duties that men were. Women had to work long, hard hours, side by side with men, on plantations. Then, suddenly, the north started having them take care of domestic duties for the owner’s wife. Eventually Southern states caught on, once the wives of the

One of the most common moral defenses of slavery was that slaves were being kept in better conditions than they would be if they had legitimate, paying jobs. For example, once slaves had grown too old to complete hard labor in the fields, they could be brought into the house, where they could be more comfortable working less strenuous jobs. Whereas a paid field worker would be fired once they grew too old to work. What this defense didn 't take into account was the horrible conditions that many slaves lived in their entire lives, and the physical, mental and emotional toll that these conditions took. For example, many slave owners allowed their overseers to hit workers who they believed were disobedient, or who just weren 't working fast enough. Female slaves were routinely sexually abused, and were punished for attempting to protect themselves. This kind of physical abuse would create an atmosphere of fear

The United States grew on the backs of slaves male and female. Yes our men suffered great injustices. However, our black women suffered also. There is yet a debate for some as to who suffered the most

This was the period of post-slavery, early twentieth century, in southern United States where blacks were still treated by whites inhumanly and cruelly, even after the abolition laws of slavery of 1863. They were still named as ‘color’. Nothing much changed in African-American’s lives, though the laws of abolition of slavery were made, because now the slavery system became a way of life. The system was accepted as destiny. So the whites also got license to take disadvantages and started exploiting them sexually, racially, physically, and economically. During slavery, they were sold in the slave markets to different owners of plantation and were bound to be separated from each other. Thus they lost their nation, their dignity, and were dehumanized and exploited by whites.

Did Gender Make a Difference within Slavery? Within slavery there were harsh conditions which Frederick Douglass tries to convey in his biography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." Within this narrative he dezribes how men and women slaves were treated differently by their masters. Women were abused by their master, physically, sexually, and mentally, while men were mostly abused physically and mentally. Many slave women suffered regular beatings.

Slavery was a horrible institution that dehumanized a race of people. Female slave bondage was different from that of men. It wasn't less severe, but it was different. The sexual abuse, child bearing, and child care responsibilities affected the females's pattern of resistance and how they conducted their lives. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrates the different role that women slaves had and the struggles that were caused from having to cope with sexual abuse.

Most commonly slave narratives were written by men compared to women, primarily focused on the physical pain and endurance they experienced. Narratives that were written by men included descriptions of whippings along with other punishments that were known to deprive male slaves of their masculinity. Even though both men and women were beaten, starved and forced to work in the fields, women slaves suffered horrible mental abuse such as sexual harassment and the loss of their children. Usually, one of the central themes of a slave narrative is violence which is present in both of these books however in slightly different ways. Even though the main motif in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is not violence, violence is still portrayed periodically throughout. For example, Linda heard other slaves not only being whipped but also being burned or frozen to death. The physiological, mental and emotional abuse that slaves experienced was not always fully illustrated in narratives like physical abuse was, however in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl it is a consistent theme.

Slaves were not usually treated with respect in the households they worked in, most of the time, slaves were treated horribly. They would be raped, beaten, teased, whipped, and were victims of many cruel and unusual punishments that are unimaginable to the human race present day. Family was the most important thing to the African culture. Brothers tried their hardest to look over their younger sisters as best as possible. Old women and men with no family members to turn to, looked to the comfort of nieces, nephews, and cousins when they fell ill, and aunts and uncles played a primary part in the family as well. Men were not the only ones that were forced to take part in daily labor and routines but also women and children. Some slaves were assigned outside work in which they would tend the crops and more commonly known work the plantations on their masters estate. Women were more commonly assigned to kitchen work such as cleaning the houses, washing clothes, cooking meals, working as servants, and tending to the masters each and every need. Most women who worked in the houses were brutally raped by their masters whether or not they were married to a man or not. Although most women worked in a home setting, there were some women who did work outside with the men and children. Work was difficult on the slaves and their masters were not empathetic towards them in

A question that is often asked is who as it worse, males or females this question has been asked since the beginning of human life. In the book “Incidents in the life of a slave girl” it goes through the life of an enslaved woman and how her life was set since at birth. She goes through the struggles of not only her but the people around her. Life was hard and horrible for all enslaved people, but it is often asked, like the original question, who had it worse enslaved males or enslaved females. As a female I may sound somewhat bias in my writing but will stay with the facts within the one book I have read to answer the question I believe that over all females had it the hardest.