Exploitation of Enslaved Black Women
Exploitation of Enslaved Black Women
We often hear the phrase, “this country was built on the backs of slave labor”. Correction, this country was built off the exploitation of the black body, particularly the enslaved black woman’s body. For example, Saartjie Baartman1 was a twenty year old woman from Cape Town, South Africa who was kidnapped and sexually exploited all over Europe. She was naked and caged, put on display in an animalistic nature, whipped and forced to entertain white spectators who labelled her the Hottentot Venus. Baartman was objectified as a source of entertainment; her body carried the stereotypical perception of the overly sexualized black female because of her dissimilar shape and curves compared to those of white women. The corruption of the enslaved African woman and justification of sexual abuse can be connected to the exploitation of Baartman, and how it symbolizes easy access and the sexual marginalization of black women. In this paper I will argue that the bodies of enslaved women were sexually exploitable for the purpose of labor, reproduction, and pleasure under the institution of plantation slavery. I will analyze the ways in which black women’s bodies functioned as a part of the general labor force—within the fields and the house—as well as the ways that their bodies were used to repopulate the workforce. That said, this essay is meant to show how the bodies of black women functioned as both producers and reproducers. Moreover, the central purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which enslaved black women’s body became socially and economically exploitable.
In America the social constructions have placed women into the domestic role of caring for the home and the children, while men usually tended to outside work and provided for the family. In contrast to European societies; West African societies valued women’s work outside of the home, the female role included cultivating and tending to the crops as well as taking
We often hear the phrase, “this country was built on the backs of slave labor”. Correction, this country was built off the exploitation of the black body, particularly the enslaved black woman’s body. For example, Saartjie Baartman1 was a twenty year old woman from Cape Town, South Africa who was kidnapped and sexually exploited all over Europe. She was naked and caged, put on display in an animalistic nature, whipped and forced to entertain white spectators who labelled her the Hottentot Venus. Baartman was objectified as a source of entertainment; her body carried the stereotypical perception of the overly sexualized black female because of her dissimilar shape and curves compared to those of white women. The corruption of the enslaved African woman and justification of sexual abuse can be connected to the exploitation of Baartman, and how it symbolizes easy access and the sexual marginalization of black women. In this paper I will argue that the bodies of enslaved women were sexually exploitable for the purpose of labor, reproduction, and pleasure under the institution of plantation slavery. I will analyze the ways in which black women’s bodies functioned as a part of the general labor force—within the fields and the house—as well as the ways that their bodies were used to repopulate the workforce. That said, this essay is meant to show how the bodies of black women functioned as both producers and reproducers. Moreover, the central purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which enslaved black women’s body became socially and economically exploitable.
In America the social constructions have placed women into the domestic role of caring for the home and the children, while men usually tended to outside work and provided for the family. In contrast to European societies; West African societies valued women’s work outside of the home, the female role included cultivating and tending to the crops as well as taking