Van De Water, Charlotte

“Slaves Working in Cotton Field.” Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology.

Ramey, Daina L. “Black Slave Woman.” New Georgia Encyclopedia , 11 Mar. 2011, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/slave-women.

Despite these similarities between enslaved black women and men, there were also struggles unique to women. White slave owners often committed acts of sexual violence against enslaved black women. The children born from this were automatically classified as slaves at birth. This only worsened the frequency of this abuse, as slave owners would rape enslaved black women in order to gain more slaves.

Life as an Enslaved Black Woman

While upon first glance, it may seem as though enslaved black women would relate most closely with the struggles of white women, as suggested by the books of Angela Davis and Harriet Jacobs, the experiences of enslaved black women more closely resemble those of enslaved black men. The daily work of an enslaved black woman most often looked similar to that of an enslaved black man. Their days were spent working on their slave owners plantation to farm cash crops like sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice. Both men and women were treated as machines and continually pushed to the point of exhaustion. According to Davis “since women, no less than men, were profitable labor-units, they might as well have been genderless as far as the slave holders were concerned”(p.9).

Adams, Kimberly. “Slave Women Stand around Cabin Doorway.” Marketplace, 14 Aug. 2018, www.marketplace.org/2018/08/14/disturbing-parallels-between-modern-accounting-business-slavery/.

Crumrin, Timothy. “Antebellum Couple.” Conner Prairie, 2019, www.connerprairie.org/educate/indiana-history/women-and-the-law-in-early-19th-century/.

Life as a White Woman

While these enslaved black women spent most of their time enduring physical labor in the fields, at the same time, white women were facing oppression from within the home. Under the legal doctrine of coverture, once a white woman was married, she lost many of her rights and basically became the property of her husband. She was no longer allowed to own land, sign contracts in her name, or do almost anything that assumed she was her own person.

Engel, Keri. “Woman under Coverture .” Amazing Women in History, amazingwomeninhistory.com/law-of-coverture-why-call-a-woman-by-her-husbands-name/.

White women spent their days in their homes cooking, cleaning, raising the children, and making sure their husbands were taken care of and ready to show up to work each day. The oppression of white women leaned into the idea of femininity in order to exploit women. The idea of white women being gentile homemakers, too dainty for the outside world, forced them into daily unpaid work.

Enslaved black women were treated as genderless when convenient and as women when convenient, while white women were forced into strictly female roles and duties. These contrasting forms of oppression, made it difficult for black and white women to see each other as allies in the fight for equality.

Royal Historical Society, 19 Jan. 2020, royalhistsoc.org/calendar/women-and-slavery-agency-and-constraint-in-the-slaveholding-south/.

Impacts of Slavery

Despite immense improvement in the treatment of Black men and women in America, the echoes of slavery can still be heard in Black communities today. After slavery was abolished with the 13th amendment, southern white plantation owners worried about losing revenue due to loss of workers and new competition via Black farmers. However, the 13th amendment stated that slavery was still legal in the case of punishment for a crime. To combat this loss, slaves were replaced with convicts. Black men and women, especially men, were jailed for offences such as speaking too loudly in the presence of white women, selling from their food stands after dark, or loitering. Through this corrupt criminal justice system, Black men and women could be legally exploited for their labor.

“13th Amendment.” The Texas Politics Project, texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/cons/features/0206_01/slide3.html.

“Convicts Leased to Harvest Timber in Florida around 1915.” The Conversation, 6 Feb. 2017, theconversation.com/exploiting-black-labor-after-the-abolition-of-slavery-72482.

“Incarceration Rates.” Georgetown Library, 7 Dec. 2020, guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172706.

Duncan, Garrett Albert. “Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton Black Panther Party National Chairman Bobby Seale (Left) and Defense Minister Huey P. Newton. AP.” Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party.

This rise in Black crime rates gave birth to the notion that Black people are dangerous criminals. In the 1970’, President Nixon’s “war on drugs” allowed for the mass incarceration of Black men and women for low level drug offences. This was not met without backlash. Black civil rights groups such as the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army fought against the racist rhetoric and events of the time. Prominent member of the Black Liberation Army, Assata Shakur used her voice to speak on these issues until she was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly killing a state trooper. Two years later she fled to Cuba where she still resides(13th).

Scott, Terry Anne. “Assata Shakur.” Black Past, 8 Feb. 2014, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/assata-olugbala-shakur-1947/.

Even today, black men are imprisoned at highly disproportionate rates due to over policing in Black communities as well as the implicit racial bias of cops. But the fight is not over yet. With the recent murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement is demanding change in the American criminal justice system after years and years of it’s blatant racism.

Thomas, Deja, and Juliana Menasce Horowitz. “Protesters March in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City.” Pew Research Center, 16 Sept. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/16/support-for-black-lives-matter-has-decreased-since-june-but-remains-strong-among-black-americans/.

Acknowledging my Role in Reparations

As a white person living in America, it is essential that I acknowledge my role in reparations towards Black Americans for the effects of slavery. It was not until recently that I had even considered that I could be the descendant of slave owners. While my mom's side of the family (the Debiasis) immigrated from Italy only two generations ago, my dad's side of the family (the Van De Waters) have lived in the United States since the late 1600’s. The Van De Waters lived in New England which before I would have assumed meant no slave owners, but after learning about the way in which the entire American economy relied on slavery, I am second guessing that idea. For this reason it is likely that even if the Van De Waters were not slave traders, they still could have been linked to the slave trade in a less obvious way, as many white Americans were. To repair the damage done by slavery, radical change is necessary. First, the criminal justice system needs to be revised. The number of Black Americans behind bars is significantly higher than it should be. This can be accredited to the war on drugs, over policing in black neighborhoods, and implicit racial bias. Police officers should all wear cameras and go through racial bias training. All convicts locked up for minor drug charges should be released. Even advisor to President Richard Nixon, John Ehrlichman admitted “we knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities”. Along with reform to the criminal justice system, change on a more local level is necessary as well. Educating my friends and family about this subject, and calling them out when they make racist comments is essential if we want to create a place where everyone can feel safe and respected.

Works Cited