On February 10, 2022, Shannon C. Eaves, Ph.D., will speak with us virtually about her research for her current book project.
On February 10, 2022, Shannon C. Eaves, Ph.D., will speak with us virtually about her research for her current book project. Dr. Eaves is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Charleston. She specializes in nineteenth century United States History, African American History, and Slavery and Gender in the Antebellum South.
Enslaved people’s recollections of rape and sexual exploitation reveal the depths of their pain, as well as their sense of responsibility to protect girls and women and their communities at large. They also expose how instrumental the South’s rape culture was in informing enslavers and the enslaved of their ascribed positions of power and powerlessness within the plantation paradigm.
In this presentation, Dr. Eaves illustrates enslaved people’s articulations of the South’s rape culture and how they formed these cultural understandings and transferred them across generational lines. Through these efforts, enslaved people learned how to survive and navigate terrains marred by sexualized violence.