Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of Rape Culture in the Civil War South by Shannon Eaves, University of North Carolina Press, April 2024, 242 pages, paperback, $27.95 From the publisher: It is impossible to separate the history of sexual violence and the enslavement of black women in the Civil War South. Rape permeated the lives of everyone who existed within that system: black and white, male and female, adult and child, slave and free. Shannon C. Eaves fearlessly explores how both enslaved people and their slaveholders experienced the systematic rape and sexual exploitation of slaves and came to understand what this culture of sexual violence meant for themselves and others. Eaves draws on a wealth of primary sources—including autobiographies, diaries, court records, and more—to demonstrate that rape and other forms of sexual exploitation pitted slaves and slave owners in struggles over power to protect themselves and their communities, power to avenge pain and humiliation, and power to punish and eliminate future threats. Placing sexual violence at the center of systems of power and culture, Eaves shows how Southern rape culture was revealed in the interactions of enslaved people and their enslaved people with each other and with members of their respective communities.

Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of Rape Culture in the Pre-Civil War South, Shannon Eaves,

University Of North Carolina Press, April 2024, 242 pages, paper, $27.95

From the publisher: It is impossible to separate the history of sexual violence and the enslavement of black women in the pre-Civil War South. Rape permeated the lives of everyone who lived within that system: black and white, male and female, adult and child, slave and free. Shannon C. Eaves fearlessly explores how both enslaved people and their slaveholders experienced the systematic rape and sexual exploitation of slaves and came to understand what this culture of sexualized violence meant for themselves and others.

Eaves draws on a wealth of primary sources—including autobiographies, diaries, court records, and more—to demonstrate that rape and other forms of sexual exploitation entangled slaves and slave owners in struggles over power to protect themselves and their communities, power to avenge pain and humiliation, and power to punish and eliminate future threats. Placing sexual violence at the center of systems of power and culture, Eaves shows how Southern rape culture was revealed in the interactions of enslaved people and their enslaved people with each other and with members of their respective communities..