ABSTRACT

The language used in divorce petitions from slavery reflects the white racial framing of white men, white women, and enslaved black women from this period. The language used by white women to describe the enslaved black women and their husbands' behavior allows for an analysis of intersectionality and the power dynamics between white men, white women, and enslaved black women. Throughout such divorce petitions, white women framed enslaved black women who were victims of their husband's sexual coercion and violence as "wenches" and "mulattoes," and frequently described the sexual encounters as consensual "adulterous" relationships. The role of white women and the deflecting language they used to discuss the rape of enslaved black women reflects the mechanisms at work within the matrix of domination. Revealing the interrelatedness between the incentives and reproduction of oppression reframes potential incentives associated with whiteness and white femininity as far less valuable than the incentive to end oppression overall.