Women In Kindred

It’s globally known that the relationship between slaves and owners were abusive and unbalanced. Both male and female slaves endured horrible conditions and punishments brought on by their masters, but a woman’s slave-experience proves to be very different than a man’s. While women had to experience the abuse that came with their race, they also had to experience the oppression that came along with their gender. Regardless of viewing and treating them as animals, many male slave owners still had a sexual attraction and sense of protection over the female slave- sometimes even developing feelings for them. This creates a dangerous situation where not only the men have control over how the women work, but they have control over their body and emotions. While the masters may truly have these feelings for these women, being raised to believe they are superior to them leads the men to express their romantic emotions in ways that are degrading, controlling, and inhumane. Whether a female wants to engage in sexual or romantic acts with a slave owner, she is left in a situation where she has no choice but to obey despite her own feelings. Through the novels Kindred and the slave narrative of Mary Prince, we can see the consequences that come from these sexual and emotional relationships between a slave and her master.

Although the extent is far less, we still see some of this ideology today. many still hold the inhumane sexualized view of women of color. There should be more of a push to recognize the emotional needs and the intellectual beauty of African American women- and less of a normalized fetishized fantasy that has been created by men. We have come along way, but there won 't be justice until there is global understanding that there is no shame in loving a black