In many of the canonical community studies of the mid-twentieth century, scholars leaned heavily on the concept of the Black family: a monolithic, hetero-normative family formation that included one man, one woman, and their children. Writing against the pejorative depiction of Black family life in the infamous Moynihan report, studies of enslaved communities sought to center African American resilience and survival in the context of their families, childrearing, and cultural formation despite practices of nuclear family separation perpetrated by enslavers. In the years since, scholars have greatly expanded the definition of family, kinship, and intimacy among enslaved people. Recently, scholars have returned to looking at the intimate lives of enslaved people to excavate their strategies for survival and liberation. Now, scholars have reached beyond a stagnant definition of family to include diverse family formations, kinship structures, and sexual practices. This chapter explores the recent work on Black women’s sex, sexuality, and intimacy during the antebellum period to answer the question: what might the history of intimacy and slavery have to teach us about freedom and liberation?