Review by Choice Review
The story of Rufus, an enslaved man compelled into sexual relations with an enslaved woman, Rose Williams, briefly appears in Williams's ex-slave narrative, illustrating the ubiquitous sexual violence African American women endured during slavery. Recentering the saga to focus on Rufus, Foster (Howard Univ.) offers a compelling contextualization of the myriad ways enslaved men also experienced sexualized violation. While enslaved women remain the central victims of US slavery, Foster delineates five general categories of exploitation enslaved men endured: the objectification of their bodies as symbols of prowess and danger; the loss of agency in developing their own intimate relationships with women; the costs of forced reproduction to individual black males and the enslaved community; the challenging power dynamics of white female attention to black bodies; and the destructive role of the master's power in same-sex relationships. Persistent racism, especially an assumption of black men's hypersexuality, and the self-evident reality that enslaved women endured even greater sexual abuses, have hitherto kept this topic hidden in plain sight. Foster's exploration offers new avenues of further gendered study and augments the history of US slavery as an inherently and completely abusive enterprise rooted in white self-interest and inhumanity. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty. --Edward R. Crowther, emeritus, Adams State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
