Journal #27 Frederick Douglass: Those Kinky Slave Masters!

QUOTE:

“Women -white women, I mean- are IDOLS at the south, not WIVES, for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and if these idols but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim” (Douglass 2139).


SUMMARY:

Slaveholding men would rape their women slaves, preferring to have sex with their slaves than with their own wives. Many would have children with their slaves, which would result in those children either being sold or treated even worse than regular slaves.


RESPONSE:

If having to work in the fields while being treated like cattle, or getting whipped and beaten to a bloody pulp sounds horrible, imagine the life of the indoor slave woman. Most people would think that an indoor slave woman would at least have the easier life, but if she is spending most of her time indoors being raped, I bet a lot more people would think of her situation as being worse. I can’t imagine how psychologically, if not just physically, damaging that was for those women. What a horrible nightmare for any woman to have a person she despises subject her to such a violation, but then also to find out that she is going to have his child.

Not only did these women have their master’s children, they would most likely have to be separated from any of these “mixed” children. I bet the wives of these men did not like seeing illegitimate children running around with features matching their own husbands’ features. I guess if these people didn’t think of their slaves as “people,” then maybe the men didn’t consider having sex with their slaves as being unfaithful? Even if that were the case, then it would be like the wives finding out that their husbands were having sex with their horses! I think that what really made things worse for those wives though, was having to see the children that resulted from it.

So “boo hoo,” it wasn’t something the wives of slave masters should have to deal with, however, it’s the same old story with jealous wives and girlfriends. The other woman gets the full extent of her wrath, and the man is never to blame. I’m not saying that women who knowingly help a man cheat are completely innocent, but I am saying that most likely the slave women were.