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Douglass, 62.
6. Rethinking Rufus should be of interest to a wide range of scholars of African American history, the history of American slavery, and the history of sexuality.
Copyright © AAIHS. The book’s title, Rethinking Rufus, is in reference to the story of Rufus, an enslaved man who was forced to bear children with an enslaved woman named Rose in Texas during the mid-nineteenth century.Foster builds upon historians such as Daina Ramey Berry, Deborah Gray White, and Jennifer Morgan, who have used gender as an analytic to more fully understand how enslaved women experienced and challenged sexual abuse under enslavement. Rethinking Rufus analyzes the “history of the peculiar conditions that enslavement established, nurtured, and expanded that enabled those in power to dominate many enslaved men through sexual violence” (10).
Foster’s combination of historical methods and feminist theories of sexual assault inform one of Rethinking Rufus’s main arguments, that enslaved men could not consent to sexual activity given their legal status as property and vulnerable position in the social order of slavery.
Through five chapters, Foster examines the multiple forms of sexual violence against enslaved men from a variety of perspectives.
Such acts were expressions of dominance rather than consensual relationships.
Punishment and Perception
Same-sex relationships among the enslaved were often met with severe punishment, rooted in both the racial and moral ideologies of the time. . In this way, Foster’s study interrogates broader systems of power and domination that led to the sexual abuse of enslaved men.
Rethinking Rufus makes an important intervention into the historiography of slavery in the Americas.
Foster notes that while the possibility of establishing a household and assuming the role as guardian of the family was severely limited for enslaved men, love affairs and the ability to choose one’s own partner served as a key component for developing models of manhood. Using interviews and testimonies from formerly enslaved men, Foster highlights how those who were valued for their reproductive capabilities were often singled out from their communities, relocated to different regions, and forced to couple with multiple women.
European colonizers imposed their Christian beliefs, which viewed homosexuality as sinful, exacerbating the stigma and violence against such behaviors.
Homosexuality During Slavery in Other Contexts
Islamic Slave Systems
In parts of the Islamic world, where slavery also existed, same-sex relationships were not uncommon.
Understanding this history enriches our perspective on the complexities of human relationships and the enduring impact of slavery on societal attitudes toward sexuality.
Related
To shed light on same-sex experiences of American slaves, author Charles Clifton suggests re-reading narratives written by former slaves.
Foster also argues that while visual depictions of enslaved men’s bodies often highlighted their athleticism, strength, and muscularity, this same imagery eroticized enslaved men’s bodies in ways that fueled the physical abuses and sexual exploitation of enslaved men. . For instance, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, former slave Equiano discloses that, on his passage from Africa, a white co-voyager named Queen “messed with me on board” and “became very attached to me, [saying that] he and I never should part.”[1] Equiano “grew very fond of” another white companion.
The repeated absence of narratives from enslaved men that document their experiences with sexual violence propels Foster’s deeper exploration into the conditions of slavery that gave rise to the sexual abuse and exploitation of enslaved men.
Foster begins Rethinking Rufus by examining how enslaved men’s bodies were depicted in Western art and sculptures that were widespread in the visual culture of slavery.
can, and does, develop all its malign and shocking characteristics . Foster’s use of WPA interviews and slave narratives that center the perspectives of Black men illuminates how the separation of enslaved men from their communities for the purpose of reproduction often severed intracommunal relationships that resulted in psychological pain and generational trauma.
In sum, Rethinking Rufus illuminates new dimensions of how sexual violence operated during slavery by incorporating the perspectives of Black men.
Accounts suggest that same-sex interactions, whether consensual or coercive, occurred during this period.
Homosexuality in the Americas During Slavery
Plantation Systems
- Same-Sex Relationships Among Enslaved People: Enslaved individuals often formed close bonds with others of the same sex.
While Islamic law generally condemned homosexual acts, historical accounts suggest that relationships between male enslavers and young male slaves occurred, often reflecting power imbalances rather than consensual connections.
Ancient and Indigenous Societies
Some indigenous cultures that practiced forms of slavery had more fluid understandings of gender and sexuality.
Foster uses feminist theories of sexual assault to examine how corporeal punishments functioned as displays of power that constituted sexual violence against enslaved men. Clifton, 358.
8. In some cultures, same-sex relationships were accepted or integrated into spiritual and social practices, while others strictly regulated sexual behaviors.
The Middle Passage
The brutal conditions of the Middle Passage—where enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas—created an environment of extreme deprivation and exploitation.