Terror In The Heart Of Freedom Summary

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Terror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, And The Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South is a depiction of the struggle and horrors that the freed African American individuals faced and endured during the the post emancipation time period in the Southern states. With a special emphasis on Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas. Rosen focuses on the issues surrounding how the discussions and events surrounding African American citizenship were framed around gender. Rosen sheds a light on the sexual abuse and rape that African American women were subject to during this time. Rosen also elaborates on how gender was used to frame men in a negative light by stereo types that described African American men as unable to fulfill their duty as the patriarch in their family, vagrant, unwilling to work, and unable to control and protect their women. Rosen points out that African American women were framed by negative stereo types that depicted them as sexually promiscuous, unruly, and lacking virtue. Rosen describes how the media, the judicial system, and the Klu Klux Klan used these talking points to prolong or prevent the full citizenship of both African American men and African American women. Rosen points out that the night raids in which the Klu Klux Klan terrorized the African American population used tactics such as separating the men from …show more content…

She began her career at William and Mary, teaching African American history. Rosen is the author of “Terror In The Heart Of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South”. Her awards include the Berkshire of Women's Historians First Book Award, The Willie Lee Ros Prize, and The Southern Association of Women's Historians