History has shown us that women have endured and experienced extreme amounts of injustices on a global scale. Women have countlessly been placed into positions of extreme oppression on both a historical and systemic front. However, what history has failed to teach us about is that even within marginalized groups like women, exists a group of women who have been placed at an intersection between two of America’s oppressed groups. Although other women of color and white women throughout the United States’ history have experienced copious amounts of injustice, it is in no way comparable to the suffering of enslaved Black women. Not only did enslaved Black women perform similar, if not, the same tasks as enslaved Black men, but they also suffered sexual, physical, and emotional harassment at the hands of their white oppressors.

The institution of slavery allowed White people to mistreat Black men and women for their own personal use and most importantly for business. Black men and women were taken, sold, and transported overseas in the most inhuman ways possible. They were no longer seen as people, but more so as property and as chattel. In Angela Y. Davis’ book “Women, Race & Class”, she depicts how Black women not only shared the same experiences of slavery as Black men, she details how both Black boys and girls were subjected to working the soil, cutting cane, picking cotton, and harvesting tobacco they worked from sunup to sundown and repeated this every day till their adult lives. Davis also goes further into detailing how women suffered in more varying degrees than their male counterparts. One example within the book states, “If the most violent punishments of men consisted in floggings and mutilations, women were flogged and mutilated, as well as raped. Rape in fact was an uncamouflaged expression of the slaveholder’s economic mastery and the overseer’s control over black women as workers.” (p.10). These examples have shown how Black men and women shared similar experiences throughout slavery while highlighting how even more marginalized black women are in comparison to their male counterparts.

Women alike have faced many injustices all because of their gender. Throughout history there has been a common stereotype that women should be caretakers, should provide for their husbands, should stay in the kitchen, and stick to what women are “made to do”. This societal stereotype has positioned women as inferior to men, these stereotypes created systematic oppression that encourages sexism. During the time of slavery in the United States, both Black women and White women faced harassment at the hands of White men. However, because of the color of their skin, Black women were treated far worse than our history classes lead us to believe. Harriet Jacobs’ work, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself” discusses incidents that display the oppression Black women faced throughout the time of slavery. One example of the oppression that both Black women and White women faced was sexual abuse and rape caused by white men, Jacobs wrote, “I once saw a young slave girl dying soon after the birth of a child nearly white. In her agony she cried out, "O Lord, come and take me!" Her mistress stood by, and mocked at her like an incarnate fiend.” (p.24). This example directly shows that although both Black and White women faced oppression, Black women also faced abuse at the hands of white women despite not being considered the face of slave owners during antebellum America.

Slavery in the United States was abolished through the 13th amendment. The amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, but not ratified until December 6, 1865. Although it has been 155 years since slavery was abolished in the United States, the system of slavery continues to impact Black communities in the United States today. Slavery has created the foundation for institutionalized racism against Black men and women. In today’s society, Black people are targeted the most out of all races when in the hands of law enforcement, which put their lives in danger every single day. Because Black people are targeted by law enforcement more than any other race, most individuals convicted of crimes are Black people. Once they are convicted, they are sentenced to face time in prison, where private employers take these Black individuals and put them to work. This can be seen as modern-day slavery within the United States. In Dr. Whatcott’s PowerPoint titled, “The Prison Industrial Complex and Abolition”, Dr. Whatcott details how the prison system is closely related to the United States’ past slavery systems. In one example that Dr. Whatcott addresses in the PowerPoint, they state “Convicts were put to work on former plantations picking cotton and other agricultural crops; they also worked as coal miners and steelworkers.” (p.5) This modern example shows how Black communities are not only targeted but forced back into institutionalized slavery.

Black men and women have endured so many injustices throughout the times of United States slavery and in today’s society. One example of their resistance is read in Harriet Jacobs’ book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself”. In the book, Harriet was able to escape from her slave owner by simply hiding in a small crawl space in her grandmother’s attic. She was able to hide there for seven years before she made her way north to freedom. The commitment to escaping her circumstances illustrates Harriet’s courage and shows just how much strength Black women hold within themselves, and their capability to resist slavery then while continuing to pass that courage onto Black women in today’s anti-Black racist society.

Overall, the experiences Black women faced throughout slavery and beyond has more similarities to Black men than their White female counterparts. Although both Black and White women have endured verbal, physical, sexual, and emotional harassment from White men, this similarity does not disguise how Black women were treated fair more worse than White women would and could ever experience. Black women’s suffering goes beyond the duties they were forced to do alongside men. They were treated as breeders, property, and at times, nothing but a body to White men. These examples used throughout the essay showcase why Black women are far more similar to Black men than they’ll ever be to White women.