Rape and Sexual Power in Early America (Paperback)

Sharon Block

ISBN 10: 0807857610 / ISBN 13: 9780807857618

Published by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2006

About this Item

Paperback. In a comprehensive examination of rape and its prosecution in British America between 1700 and 1820, Sharon Block exposes the dynamics of sexual power on which colonial and early republican Anglo-American society was based. Block analyzes the legal, social, and cultural implications of more than nine hundred documented incidents of sexual coercion and hundreds more extralegal commentaries found in almanacs, newspapers, broadsides, and other print and manuscript sources. Highlighting the gap between reports of coerced sex and incidents that were publicly classified as rape, Block demonstrates that public definitions of rape were based less on what actually happened than on who was involved. She challenges conventional narratives that claim sexual relations between white women and black men became racially charged only in the late nineteenth century. Her analysis extends racial ties to rape back into the colonial period and beyond the boundaries of the southern slave-labor system. Early Americans' treatment of rape, Block argues, both enacted and helped to sustain the social, racial, gender, and political hierarchies of a New World and a new nation. In a comprehensive examination of rape and its prosecution in British America between 1700 and 1820, this work exposes the dynamics of sexual power on which colonial and early republican Anglo-American society was based. It demonstrates that public definitions of rape were based less on what actually happened than on who was involved. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780807857618

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rape and Sexual Power in Early America (Paperback)
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807857610
• ISBN 13: 9780807857618
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In a comprehensive examination of rape and its prosecution in British America between 1700 and 1820, Sharon Block exposes the dynamics of sexual power on which colonial and early republican Anglo-American society was based.

Block analyzes the legal, social, and cultural implications of more than nine hundred documented incidents of sexual coercion and hundreds more extralegal commentaries found in almanacs, newspapers, broadsides, and other print and manuscript sources. Highlighting the gap between reports of coerced sex and incidents that were publicly classified as rape, Block demonstrates that public definitions of rape were based less on what actually happened than on who was involved. She challenges conventional narratives that claim sexual relations between white women and black men became racially charged only in the late nineteenth century. Her analysis extends racial ties to rape back into the colonial period and beyond the boundaries of the southern slave-labor system. Early Americans' treatment of rape, Block argues, both enacted and helped to sustain the social, racial, gender, and political hierarchies of a New World and a new nation.

About the Author

Sharon Block is associate professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.