Women of Violence: Challenging Perceptions of Enslaved Women's Resistance in the Antebellum United States, 1815-1861

本文将调查1815年至1861年间南方被奴役妇女使用暴力作为抵抗的一种形式。南方种植园成为白人种植园主和他们的奴隶财产之间重大冲突的场所，因为被奴役的社区以各种方式反对和抵制他们的奴役。大多数历史学家分析了黑人的证词，揭示了妇女遭受暴力的广度，但很少有人研究过奴隶妇女自己反对奴隶制所使用的暴力的性质和范围。此外，威廉·杜辛伯雷和黛博拉·格雷·怀特等著名学者已经确定了典型的抵抗策略，这些策略将暴力作为一种性别形式的抵抗，几乎完全由男性进行。相比之下，女奴被认为是非暴力抵抗的肇事者，她们习惯于利用间接的、微妙的异议形式。因此，尽管有证据表明被奴役的妇女经常通过暴力拒绝奴隶主的统治，但对妇女施加暴力的案件被视为是零星和罕见的。

This thesis will investigate the utilisation of violence by enslaved women in the Antebellum South as a form of resistance between 1815-1861. Southern plantations became sites of significant conflict between white planters and their enslaved property, as enslaved communities opposed and resisted their enslavement in a variety of ways. The majority of historians have analysed black testimonies to uncover the breadth of violence inflicted upon women, however few have examined the nature and scope of violence utilised by bondswomen themselves against slavery. Furthermore, leading scholars such as William Dusinberre and Deborah Gray White have typically identified resistance tactics which incorporated violence as a gendered form of resistance almost exclusively undertaken by men. In contrast, female slaves have been perceived to be perpetrators of non-violent resistance who conformed to the utilisation of indirect, subtle forms of dissidence. Cases of female inflicted violence have thus been viewed to be sporadic and uncommon despite evidence that enslaved women frequently rejected slaveholder dominion through violence.