Zack Fiske
English 205
Professor Caldwell
12/3/12
The Hidden Strife of the African American Slave In the United States during the period when slavery was the accepted form of labor for the ruling class─that consisted of mainly white men and their families─there were many atrocities that took place at the hands of these white masters. We now have access to a plethora of primary and secondary sources that documented the many forms of torture that slaves had to endure. Many of the best examples of evidence come from primary sources such as slave narratives that were written by the slaves themselves. Some of the most well known examples of slave narratives were written by Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Henry “Box” Brown, who escaped from slavery by being enclosed in a box three feet long and two feet wide. Harriet Jacobs’ narrative has been studied by scholars over the many years since its publication and has been criticized for its apparently deliberate omission of any sexual abuse that Harriet Jacobs herself had likely endured. There are many instances from historical documents that explain─in detail─the horrific atmosphere of the United States during slavery, as well as the mindset of most white slave owners during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many texts describe the sexual abuse of female slaves by their white masters as well as the resulting pregnancies that inevitably occurred. In other texts, there have been documented cases of sodomy by white male slave masters to their black male slaves. In addition to the sexual abuse of slaves, they had to endure other forms of physical torture by their masters, and these incidences were mostly kept quiet by the majority of society.
Sexual abuse inflicted on African American slaves was widespread and yet went mostly ignored by the general public. The sexual abuse of slaves was an unspoken institution within the