With only one in three southern families being slaveholders at the onset of the Civil War, the question arises as to what made the other two-thirds of southern families that were not slaveholders wish to go to war over an institution they didn’t benefit from? The most common answer given is that the non-slaveholding families aspired to one day own slaves, and that answer, of course, makes some sense.
So too does the answer that whites that resided in areas where the number of slaves was equal to (or in some cases outnumbered) them were fearful of living among that many blacks. And it’s easy to imagine that guilt played a role also. If the slaves were granted freedom would they seek revenge for the centuries of ill treatment?
But one of the prime reasons for the perpetuation of slavery that most historians avoid when discussing or writing about the pernicious institution has to do with sex — free sex to be exact. Southern white men had an unlimited supply of free pussy available to them: All they had to do was rape a slave woman. No begging a wife or girlfriend, no paying for sex … it was free for the taking.
There were no repercussions, no penalties and no laws that prevented the rape of a slave woman. White men could commit the sadistic act with impunity, without fear of prosecution or even social reprimand. Indeed, white teenage boys allegedly bragged about committing the act: They weren’t considered a man until they raped a black woman. It was considered a rite of passage.
And black men were powerless to do anything about it; if they raised a voice in protest to protect their women they could be tied to the whipping post, or worse, wind up on the business end of a noose. Additionally, while their women were being raped, if a black man so much as dared to look askance at a white woman in any way that could be deemed in the least bit disrespectful, they could suffer the two aforementioned punishments.
The power differential between the races was beyond belief.
Why do we need to revisit this ugly time? Because — in spite of the passage of time — some of the vestiges of this inequality of power are still at play in society today, and, under the current Washington administration, is growing. This compunction on the part of some whites to control black bodies can increasingly be seen across the country as law enforcement is called whenever a black person is deemed out of the place their color should assign them to.
Case in point: recently in two separate incidents, two black females were canvassing neighborhoods because they were candidates for elective office. Both were middle-class, middle-aged and appropriately dressed. Nonetheless, the police were called on them because they were walking up to people’s houses and leaving campaign material on doors.
While we will never go back to a time when it’s legal to rape black women in America, we still are in a time when it’s legal to kill black men for no good reason. All that’s needed is a badge and a gun, and if you don’t believe me, just look at the case in Dallas where a white female police officer entered the wrong apartment (allegedly mistakenly thinking it was hers) and killed Botham Shem Jean, an upstanding member of the community.
As if the killing wasn’t enough, police investigators later stated they found marijuana in the man’s apartment, as if that had anything to do with his death. But in a sense it did: Law enforcement is attempting to dirty up the victim’s reputation, so if the case eventually goes to trial, jurors can conjure up a reason to be unsympathetic to a black man who lost his life for no good reason, and compassionate towards the white cop.
Who knows — a black man deranged on that devil weed might have attacked a pure, innocent white woman and ravaged her. Many of the dangerous and diabolical myths still persist — at least in the minds of bigoted whites.
It’s one continuous loop of lies, disrespect and ill-treatment, from slavery until today. Some whites feel they can do anything to black bodies — and it’s a feeling that’s being encouraged in myriad ways from high places in American politics.
Never discount the attraction free pussy held for some white males during slavery, and how strongly the memory of it still holds sway over the thinking of many demented whites to this very day.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.