Sexual Violence as a Systemic Tool of Slavery: Documented Patterns Across the South

Sexual violence against enslaved women was structural, not incidental, to American slavery. Enslaved women had no legal protection from rape; courts consistently held that enslaved women could not be raped under law. Enslavers controlled enslaved women's reproduction: children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved regardless of paternity, meaning enslaved women's bodies were both labor inputs and capital-producing assets. Documented cases include Jefferson/Hemings; the published testimony of Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861) describing sustained sexual harassment by her enslaver Dr. Norcom from age 15; and widespread testimony from formerly enslaved people in WPA interviews. Forced 'breeding' of enslaved people to supply the domestic trade was documented in Virginia and Maryland after 1808.