Senior Honors Theses
History Department Honors Program
Document Type
Thesis or dissertation
Date of this Version
12-2021
Abstract
Throughout the antebellum period, enslaved women engaged in intimate relationships with white men, some of whom were actually slave traders, upholding the institution that kept them in bondage. While each individual’s experience varied, the origins and subsequent circumstances of these women emerged from white notions of enslaved and black women’s sexuality and the widespread sexual exploitation of enslaved women, particularly through the “fancy trade,” the trade of enslaved women specifically for their sexual labor. As the companions of slave traders, these women dealt intimately with the quintessential facets of the slave trade firsthand, living and even working around slave pens, auctions, and more. Though these women often resented the slave trade, they were likely compelled by two realities – that they lacked the agency to reject traders’ advances and a relationship could result in some stability and power. Indeed, for many women, it did, as these women’s partners gave them access to expanded resources and enabled them to build lives without fearing sale.
Keywords
slavery, slave trade, fancy trade, slave jails, concubinage, race, interracial relationships, Antebellum history
Included in
Africana Studies Commons, History of Gender Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Date Posted:29 March 2022