The Oppression of Slave Women

We are all quite familiar that Puritan women in the colonies were oppressed by the men, but how were the slave women treated? Slave women were treated equally horribly, if not worse that Puritan women. This is shown through one of the texts we read in American Literature. In the “Middle Passage,” Robert Hayden narrates, “the crew and captain/ lusted with the comeliest/ of the savage girls kept naked in the cabins;/ that there was one they called The Guinea Rose/ and they cast lots and fought to lie with her”(50). Not only is this description disgusting, it is sickening. This woman was being violated by men who thought they were superior to her and could therefore do anything to her for their own benefit.  It is inhumane to treat a person like this, and I therefore think that this oppression towards the slave women was worse than the oppression that the Puritan women had to face.

In American Studies, we watched “Slavery and the Making of America” and learned the story of a black slave named Harriet Jacobs. Because she was pretty, her master, James Norcom would try to make sexual advances on her. Norcom put Harriet through torture because he thought he could do whatever he wanted to her, as she had no power.  This shows how black women were objectified and not seen as a person, but just a body that could be exploited. These slaves weren’t even seen as human, let alone women. The men in American society viewed them simply as objects they could play with and didn’t even give a second’s worth of thought before they tormented these women incessantly.

Women's Rights in Pre-Revolutionary America

“I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.” Abigail Adams wrote the above in a letter to her husband, John Adams in 1776. Abigail Adams was an extremely opinionated feminist who clearly wanted more rights for women. Women during this time period had very limited rights and had to act in a servile manner to their husbands. What Abigail Adams believed was revolutionary and was something that was looked down upon during her time. The misogynistic idea of women being beneath men was prevalent more than a century before Abigail Adams, in the times of Puritan America. When we read John Winthrop’s speech on liberty in American Literature, I was able to see that women had very few rights. John Winthrop’s speech made it clear that oppression towards women was not only okay, but was something with which women had to agree. Furthermore, he talked about how the husband is allowed to yell at, scold, and even hit his wife when he feels like and made this viewpoint seem so casual and commonplace. These two passages we read in American Literature and American Studies have shown me how far back the ideas of misogyny and patriarchy go.  I noticed this connection between American Studies and American Literature because my Puritan ideals essay is about patriarchy and oppression of women. In fact, this leads me to wonder why women were considered beneath men in the first place? What did we, women, do to deserve oppression?

Equiano, Jefferson, and Slavery

“Is it not the foundation of a greater or lesser share of beauty in the two races?” Thomas Jefferson had this idea of racial equality between whites and blacks an astounding one hundred and seventy years before the Civil Rights Movement. Olaudah Equiano, a black man from Nigeria, narrates his autobiography, “The interesting life of Olaudah Equiano” five years after Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia.” When we read excerpts from the above literature in American Literature and American Studies class I was puzzled. They both seemed to differ greatly from what I had learned about slavery since first grade. When we learned about slavery in Elementary and Middle School, our teachers told us that almost every white had hated blacks because they were of a different skin tone and race. However, Thomas Jefferson rights about equality were so premature and had many of the same ideas as people during the Civil Rights Movement. Equiano also narrates that when he travelled to America, he met many people who were kind to him and he even assimilated into the culture to became an “American.” This leads me to believe that not everyone who was European and lived in America during its early years was a racist bigot. I think that when I was younger, my teachers exaggerated that everyone was pro-slavery and hated blacks. The situations blacks had to face were horrible, but they did have many people supporting them. I think this is definitely something that should be talked about more in elementary and middle schools so students don’t just learn a one-sided view.