Her Body Is Not An Object
WC Blogpost by: Herstorian of Crime
Photo Credit: Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
Commonly, when thinking of women in crime my mind immediately jumps to modern female victims of kidnapping, sexual violence, or homicide, but females in crime are much more than that, and the only way to fully understand the current system of females and the justice system is to study the evolution of women in crime. Hearing stories of women taking their situations into their own hands has made me realize that women in crime throughout herstory are commonly misunderstood or untold.
It is often believed that women did not have a voice of their own or did not stand up for themselves when, in reality, it is solely that women’s herstory is a topic that is often glazed over in a classic historical teaching.
In the class “Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History”, we have had the opportunity to discuss both female criminals and female victims, which are both commonly untouched topics of discussion.
Typically, when I thought about women committing crimes in the modern day, I thought of classic crimes of desperation. I envisioned theft to provide for oneself or loved ones. This class has shifted that mindsight especially when reading the stories of many Black young enslaved females, my eyes were opened to a new type of desperation, desperate for their lives. These women were so much stronger than I had ever imagined, committing crimes to defend themselves and their families, overcoming immense odds. But I also never imagined such horrible crimes being committed against females, such as both assault and homicide.
When reading “She Must Go Overboard and Shall Go Overboard” by Dr. Sowande Mustakeem, my eyes were opened for the first time to enslaved females and their deaths on board slave ships. This story tells this enslaved woman’s story onboard D’Wolf’s ship, the Polly. When I began to read the article, I was immediately struck by the intended destination of the enslaved woman's journey, Rhode Island. As a resident of a neighboring state, I was bewildered to think that the captain and slave traders on board this ship were from the northern region of the United States. When learning about United States history so often the South, which I consider to include Missouri, is the bad guy, and the North was who I considered to be proactive in fighting against slavery. This narrative was immediately shattered within the first sentence of this piece. When continuing to read and learn about this piece it became much clearer that Captain James D’Wolf, who was based in Rhode Island, was in fact one of the most powerful leaders in the slave trade, with a large hold of power over the slave trading economy.
From the moment the enslaved people are boarding the ship each woman is medically examined. These medical examinations were, in short, insufficient. Seamen or captains completed them with no medical qualifications and simply used their own judgment to decide whether enslaved people were worth bringing onboard. Once onboard, there was no improvement in treatment with crowded rooms where disease could easily spread. Due to the lack of a proper medical examination, women could easily board already carrying diseases. Eventually, during their journey, they discovered this enslaved woman's illness, whom they will continue to refer to as a bondwoman. It is probable that this bondwoman already was carrying smallpox when boarding the ship and suffered the consequences she did simply due to the seamen's lack of care during the examination. However due to the tight quarters enslaved people were kept in, the seamen feared disease would easily spread, so she was isolated from other slaves with no care to help her recover. Eventually, they tied her to a chair placing a sack over her head, throwing her overboard to rid the ship of her and her ailments. The inhumane nature of her death shows the lack of respect for bondwomen aboard ships. Even after her death, Captain D’Wolf shares his regret not about the loss of life but over the loss of the chair in which she was thrown overboard.
Above is an image depicting the conditions in which slaves were placed as they sailed the
middle passage on board ships such as the Polly
Additionally, the fact that as readers we were told the name of this ship while not being able to name the woman who died places emphasis on how little care there was for enslaved females. The article focuses on this lack of value they place on diseased enslaved people on board the ships, considering how much monetary value they will provide for the ship captain. When the seamen determined she was of no value to them anymore, they gruesomely tossed her overboard. To them, ridding her of the ship was an investment decision rather than the taking of a life. If they had kept her onboard they ran the risk of spreading disease to the other enslaved people, so by removing her at the risk that she may get better enough to be sold they saved the rest of the people onboard and the money that they would get from selling them. While this may seem too transactional, that is the harsh truth of what would go through these men's minds.
This theme of monetary value placed on human life continued to be a theme as we read other pieces such as, “Mad Enough to Kill” by herstorian Wilma King, which tells the stories of numerous enslaved people and the murders which they committed. In this piece, I found the side-by-side comparisons of each crime to be especially intriguing. Due to the lack of an established criminal system, there was no set punishment for each crime. Therefore, each crime received varying punishments depending on the value placed on both the victim and the accused. In Nelly’s case there was an argument for her to be pardoned of punishment, while in Celias, she was executed with what to me seemed to be no doubt. In Nelly’s case, they believed that this infant had little to no value to those who enslaved it, which to me seems preposterous. A newborn child should hold equal value due to the possibility of the life that it could hold. But in this case, it seems to me that a large factor is also the race of the baby that Nelly bore. Would the discussion have been different if Nelly was a white woman who killed her white child? I do not doubt that it would be. The reason I believe that to be true is because, in comparison to Celia’s case, where she was convicted of murdering her owner, she was without a question to be killed for her actions. Ned, an enslaved male, provides a contrasting perspective where a black man sexually assaulted two young enslaved girls and was hanged as a consequence. His situation made me wonder how a white male sexual offender would be punished for their actions, in this paper every white male accused of sexual assault was already deceased, but say that was not the case, would those men be as harshly punished as Ned? If not, would it be because Ned assaulted children, or is it because he was a black enslaved male? These are some of the questions that came to my mind when considering the various punishments served for the different crimes. Even when there was a statute put into place for the rape of enslaved people under 12 the punishment still ranged from beating to death. This wide range of punishment still allows inequities to occur amongst the various punishments the accused would receive. Due to this range, white males remained willing to commit acts of sexual violence against enslaved children.
This vulnerability to assault continued throughout the teenage years, as we can see from the examples of Nelly and Celia's assault. In both of their cases, they appeared to commit crimes of desperation to rid themselves of trauma. The trauma faced from both sexual assault and pregnancy often resulted in leaving these enslaved women to resort to drastic measures. The root cause of all of these murders appears to be the trauma that they endured due to the sexual violence. Many male slave owners turned to their slaves for sex when they did not want to impregnate their wives due to fear of their death during childbirth. However, this unwanted burden of sexual harassment and pregnancy created large issues with psychological trauma for young Female slaves. While I thought it was enlightening that they acknowledge the presence of psychological trauma to me it felt as though they were using psychological distress at the time of conviction in more of an accusatory sense than an acknowledging sense. Saying these women were crazy and had lost their minds, as justification for punishing them with death.
Overall, throughout these pieces, I found that there were themes of women being treated as objects only valued as objects holding monetary value rather than human lives.
These women, in my eyes, were much more than that. They were strong, and they were fighting for justice in a system where they were treated as objects. This theme of value was continued into another aspect, which I saw throughout readings: the punishment each of the accused faced. Depending on how much value the accused or the victim was assumed “valued” made the punishment vary immensely. Examining how they viewed children versus adults and enslaved people versus owners of slaves was extremely crucial to examining not only the entire outcome of the crime but also the considerations the offenders must have taken into account before committing the crime. Beyond that, when discussing offenders, their mental state is a crucial part of the consideration of punishment in particular for enslaved women and postpartum and sexual assault distress. Overall my eyes have been opened to a historical context of how women committing crimes was often them creating justice for themselves and fighting against an unfair system.
Comments
Post a Comment