Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America

Part 1 Precolonial West Africa: Context and Perspectives 1 "Dey Fooled Dem to Come": Seduction and Trickery in the African Slave Trade 15 2 "Before the Arrival of the Good Ship Jesus": African Women in Precolonial West Africa 29 Part 2 Historical Grotesque Realities 3 "Trouble Done Bore Me Down": Intimate Violence against Enslaved Women 53 Enslaved Women and Domestic Violence: "Dey wuked me lak a dog an' beat me somepin turrible" 56 4 "Dat Man Grabbed Me an' Strip Me Naked": Enslaved Women and Sexual Violence 71 5 "In the Company of My Sisters": Violence among Women in the American Colonies 85 Enslaved Women and Sisterhood Violence: "Misses would beat and stomp away, with all the venom of a demon" 86 Enslaved Women and Sistah-hood Violence: "That woman was simply mean" Preface Ancestral Scratchings What that song? I ast . . . She hum a little more. Something come to me, she say . . . Something you help scratch out my head. 1 "An excellent and refreshing contribution to studies about the cultural and social sources of violence. This comprehensive book should be read by everyone concerned about the prevalence of violence and the need for healing in our world today."--Delores S. Williams, Author of Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk "An ambitious historical excavation of the violence and religion of U.S. slavery! With unflinching honesty Harrison presents a wide range of stories about the brutality black women slaves experienced and creatively organizes those stories within unique, womanist frameworks." - Traci C. West, Author of Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter "Harrison 'done gone and started something now!' With this searing, soaring, and majestic work she has created an intellectual and spiritual clearing and invited our ancestral forebears to speak ... This book deeply reaches and teaches us in places beyond words. The heretofore unsung witness of our ancestors, our mothers, bids us enter into healthy and life-affirming streams in our own day and time. Ashe!" - Alton B. Pollard, Dean and Professor of Religion and Culture, Howard University School of Divinity "This book is timely for a public hungry for fresh perspectives on race, violence, and healing ... Crafted in poetic prose, the book offers full-bodied scholarship, original interpretations of violence and resistance, and daring proposals for action. It deserves to be widely read." - Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean and Professor of Theology and Education, Boston University School of Theology "Scholarly, Harrison captures the rhythmic moral, beauty, and power of black women's protest tradition of the slave era. She does this without romanticizing the aesthetic and moral flaws of either black victims or white victimizers." - Riggins R. Earl, Jr., Professor of Social Ethics, Interdenominational Theological Center Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 “Dey Fooled Dem to Come”: Seduction and Trickery in the African Slave Trade....Pages 15-28 “Before the Arrival of the Good Ship Jesus”: African Women in Precolonial West Africa....Pages 29-50 Front Matter....Pages 51-51 “Trouble Done Bore Me Down”: Intimate Violence against Enslaved Women....Pages 53-70 “Dat Man Grabbed Me an’ Strip Me Naked”: Enslaved Women and Sexual Violence....Pages 71-84 “In the Company of My Sisters”: Violence among Women in the American Colonies....Pages 85-112 “Fix Me Jesus”: Enslaved Women and Self-Violence....Pages 113-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 “However Far the Stream Flows It Never Forgets Its Source”: Five Strategies of Subversion and Freedom....Pages 147-193 “The Current Continues”: Four More Strategies of Subversion and Freedom....Pages 195-231 Back Matter....Pages 233-282 Draws on mid-seventeenth to nineteenth-century slave narratives to describe oppression in the lives of enslaved African women. Investigates pre-colonial West and West Central African women's lives prior to European arrival to recover the cultural traditions and religious practices that helped enslaved women combat violence and oppression. This book draws on mid-seventeenth to nineteenth-century slave narratives to describe the depths of multi-dimensional oppression and violence in the lives of enslaved African women