Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South
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Transcript of Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South
BOOK REVIEW
Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South
By Diane Miller Sommerville. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill,North Carolina, 2004, 411 pp., $24.95
Jessica Cox
Published online: 20 February 2009
� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009
Taking as her premise the notion that ‘‘rape is an important
historical marker of race and gender relations in the Ameri-
can South’’ (p. 3), Sommerville presents a fascinating and
eminently readable assessment of the significance of black-
on-white rape in the nineteenth-century South, a topic which,
perhaps surprisingly, has received relatively little critical
attention from historians. This, Sommerville argues, is lar-
gely a consequence of an early tendency, following the end of
the American civil war, to demonise the figure of the black
rapist, a view countered by claims that such abuses simply did
not occur, and that reports of such were largely racist pro-
paganda, and so leading to a reluctance by many critics to
acknowledge that such crimes took place. As Somerville
states, ‘‘black rape had become so politically charged that
dispassionate historical treatment of the topic was all but
impossible for much of the twentieth century’’ (p. 2).
One of the key aims of this study, therefore, is to dispel
many of the myths surrounding notions of race relations in the
nineteenth-century South, in particular the notion that black
rape polarized communities along racial lines, with black
men accused of rape or attempted rape inevitability posited as
the devil incarnate and punished accordingly by an outraged
white community intent on preserving the purity of its wo-
men. In questioning such assumptions, Sommerville adds to a
growing body of work which seeks to emphasize the com-
plexity of black-white relations in the nineteenth century, and
challenge the idea of a society unequivocally divided along
racial lines. Somerville’s contribution to this area is indicated
by her assessment of critical studies of these issues which she
presents in the book’s appendix––content which perhaps
would have benefited from inclusion in the introduction,
placing as it does Somerville’s study in a critical historical
context. However, this does not detract from her assessment
of the treatment of black men accused of rape in the nine-
teenth-century South, which is the study’s primary purpose.
Sommerville begins her work by citing numerous exam-
ples of black men accused of rape by white women through-
out the Southern states in the nineteenth century, and trac-
ing, as far as possible, the fate of the accused. There can
be no doubt that her study is extremely well researched and
meticulously referenced; the numerous case studies she
identifies attest to this. However, while such instances are
clearly of interest, the citing of specific cases would at times
have benefited from a wider identification of more general
trends in certain areas, particularly in the first two chapters,
which, in comparison to the rest of the study, are somewhat
lacking in detailed critical analysis. However, given the
scope of the study, which covers 100 years of rape and
race relations (even more, in fact, as Somerville includes a
number of eighteenth-century examples) in several states, it
is hardly surprising that at least a degree of the focus should
be on specific instances and that there are difficulties in
identifying more general trends. Indeed, this in itself is a
testament to the diversity and complexity of the attitudes
towards rape and race in the nineteenth century. Further-
more, the rest of the text more than compensates, offering a
detailed analysis of the treatment of black men accused of
rape from the antebellum period through to Reconstruction.
As a study of race relations in the nineteenth century
South, Sommerville’s work is clearly of interest. In particu-
lar, she dispels the myth that black men accused of rape were
subject to the harshest of legal or extralegal punishments,
citing numerous examples of cases in which men convicted of
J. Cox (&)
Department of English, University of Wales Lampeter,
Ceredigion, Wales SA48 7ED, UK
e-mail: [email protected]
123
Arch Sex Behav (2009) 38:310–311
DOI 10.1007/s10508-008-9452-8
rape were later pardoned, often following petitions by mem-
bers of the white community; of instances in which black men
were found not guilty, sometimes in spite of overwhelming
evidence; and of cases in which leniency was shown by the
judge in handing down punishment. Furthermore, she ob-
serves that white communities, prior to the end of slavery
at least, generally allowed the legal system to deal with ac-
cused rapists, rather than attempting to enact any form of
vigilante justice, again challenging widely held popular ideas
about race relations in the nineteenth-century South, al-
though lynchings became more common in the Reconstruc-
tion period.
Sommerville’s work is, however, not only of interest as a
study of race relations, but, perhaps even more so, for its
insights into class and gender relations. While this volume
challenges long-held assumptions about the relationships
between blacks and whites in nineteenth-century America,
that these are more complex than is suggested by numerous
films and novels (in particular, Sommerville cites Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird) is hardly surprising. Further-
more, while Sommerville’s study demonstrates that black
men accused of rape were not automatically lynched or sent
to the gallows, but more often than not faced ‘‘justice’’ in the
form of a structured legal system, there can be no question of
the inherent racism of the South during this period: black men
were far more likely to be prosecuted, and executed, for rape
than white men; black women were generally unable to make
accusations of rape, at least in the pre-emancipation period;
and the white community’s defence of black slaves charged
with rape had much to do with the economic value of slaves,
and less to do with any notion of defending innocent men––a
fact reinforced by the increase in lynchings of black men
accused of rape in the post-emancipation South. While this
work problematizes the issue of race relations, the inherent
racism identified by numerous earlier critics is an unques-
tionable factor.
In some respects, then, Somerville’s study is of greater
interest for its assessment of class and gender relations in
the nineteenth-century South. The revelation of seemingly
inherent misogynistic attitudes towards victims of rape is
particularly disturbing, not so much in relation to women who
transgressed the strict moral codes enforced in the nineteenth
century, attitudes towards whom have been well documented
by both historians and literary critics, but more so in relation
to child victims of rape who were often deemed guilty by
association: the child of an unmarried white woman of the
lower classes could, according to such attitudes, hardly ex-
pect anything else, and was as guilty, if not more so, than the
perpetrator himself. Such misogynistic attitudes further ex-
tended to nineteenth-century definitions of rape in the South,
and Sommerville cites a number of cases in which the ac-
cused was not convicted because the attempt was made while
the victim slept; as force wasn’t used, such instances could
not, under law, be classified as attempted rapes. The dem-
onising of the ‘‘black beast rapist’’ towards the end of the
century thus follows an earlier prejudicial construction of the
white lower class woman as temptress, as Sommerville’s
study makes clear.
This volume thus not only contributes to the increasing
wealth of material on American race relations in the nine-
teenth century, but also provides a valuable insight into class
and gender divisions, and the way in which these various
factors converged. It is an ambitious project, covering an
extensive period of history, as well as the mammoth issues
of race, gender and class relations and divisions. Herein,
though, lies its success: in exploring race relations in the
nineteenth-century American South, Sommerville treads a
well-worn path, but her detailed research and insightful
conclusions make this book a valuable addition to the field,
while her accessible style means it will appeal to both
scholars and general readers alike.
Arch Sex Behav (2009) 38:310–311 311
123