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

本论文将探讨1815-1861年间，内战前南方被奴役的妇女利用暴力作为一种抵抗形式。南方的种植园成为白色种植园主和他们被奴役的财产之间发生重大冲突的场所，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，以揭示对妇女的暴力行为的广度，但很少有人研究奴隶妇女自己对奴隶制所使用的暴力的性质和范围。此外，William Dusinberre和Deborah Gray白色等著名学者通常将暴力作为一种几乎完全由男子采取的性别抵抗形式。相比之下，女性奴隶被视为非暴力抵抗的肇事者，她们遵循间接的、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自治领，但妇女遭受暴力的案件被视为零星和罕见的。

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.