Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power Katrina Songanett Smith Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power By Katrina Songanett Smith A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007 The members of the Committee approve the Thesis of Katrina Songanett Smith defended on June 8, 2007. _________________________________Candace Ward Professor Directing Thesis _________________________________Jerrilyn McGregory Committee Member _________________________________Amit Rai Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To the black and colored women in the Caribbean whose trials, tribulations, and triumphs served as the inspiration for this project. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I must thank my family. I thank my parents for instilling in me the values and ethics that have made my life successful up to this point. I extend thanks to my sisters for listening to me when I was complaining about how much work I had to do and for telling me that I could do whatever I set my mind to. Without the love and support of my family, none of this would have been possible. I must also thank the incredible friends who have gone through this long and arduous process along with me. Lindsey, thanks for always knowing everything about everything. Anytime I’ve had a question, you’ve always had the answer. Thanks also for the many dinners and lunches we’ve shared throughout this process. Sami, thanks for always telling me that I would get done. At times, I wasn’t so sure. Also, thanks for always keeping a smile on my face. Tao, thanks for the advice and the words of wisdom. Without you telling me what I had to do, I’m sure I would have missed a step somewhere along the way. Danielle, thanks for always being a breath of fresh air. Pete, thanks for always threatening me with the fear of not being a serious scholar. I love you guys so much. Last, and definitely not least, thanks to Dr. Ward for being a great major professor. Even when the work that I turned in to you was sub-par, you always showed me the positives. You never made me feel inadequate. Your constant motivation and support have helped me tremendously in my journey towards academic success. Not only have you been a great major professor, but you’ve been a great role model as well, someone I can aspire to be like when I grow up. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................vi Introduction …………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter One: Historical Accounts of Black Women’s Sexuality and Strategies of Resistance: The Narratives of Mary Prince, Thomas Thistlewood, John Stedman, Maria Nugent, and Janet Schaw...........................................................8 Chapter Two: The Revenge of the Shrew: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko ..................32 Chapter Three: The Sacrifice of the Colored Woman in J.W. Orderson’s Creoleana .................44 Epilogue ……………………………………………………………….… .66 Works Cited .……………………………………………………………….... .70 Biographical Sketch ……………………………………………………….... 72 v ABSTRACT This thesis examines both historical and fictional representations of interracial relationships in the 18th century. My argument in this project is two-fold. First, I argue that some black women used sexual relationships with white men to gain advantages for themselves and their fellow slaves. Second, I argue that novelists of the time period re-wrote history in an attempt to erase the positive aspects of miscegenation. vi INTRODUCTION Oh the horrors of slavery! – How the thought of it pains my heart! But the truth ought to be told of it; and what my eyes have seen I think it is my duty to relate; for few people in England know what slavery is. I have been a slave – I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows; and I would have all the good people in England to know it too, that they may break our chains, and set us free. -Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince For much of her adult life, Mary Prince’s main objective was to gain her freedom. She was willing to use any means necessary, from sleeping with a white man who she thought would purchase her freedom to fleeing from her owner’s house in England, to ensure that she would not spend her entire life in bondage. At a time when black women, both in America and the Caribbean, had no tangible power, Prince used the one commodity that she had, her body, to gain agency and thus guarantee her freedom. This theme of using one’s body to gain freedom is one that was replayed over and over both in real life and in fiction during the eighteenth century. Building off of Mary Prince’s description of how she gained her freedom, this project looks at how enslaved black women used their sexuality to gain agency. For the purpose of this project, agency is used to describe the ability to empower oneself in whatever arena one so chooses. Agency, then, is defined on a personal level and in relation to the goals one is trying to achieve. Therefore, in this project, I use the word agency to describe the black woman’s ability to negotiate within the dominant power structure and wrestle away some measure of control over her situation. During the period of slavery, enslaved women’s sexual relationships with their masters often became a tool for their survival. By becoming a mistress, voluntarily or otherwise, black women gained some measure of control over their circumstances. In many cases, these black mistresses served as substitute wives, taking care of the household, the children, and their “husbands.” Additionally, many of these women no 1 longer had to work outside in the fields. Upon the death of their masters, many of these mistresses were manumitted. This research project seeks to look at the ways that enslaved women in the Caribbean used their sexuality to gain agency and to manipulate the dominant culture’s expectations of them. In some cases their white lovers were in a position to manumit them and in other cases white men were able to provide their black mistresses with enough money to purchase their freedom. I argue that for many black women in the Caribbean, relationships with white men provided them with benefits they could not attain otherwise. A secondary goal of this project is to look at how many novels of the long eighteenth century dealing with miscegenation depicted interracial relationships differently than non-fictional narratives of the time period. Specifically, I argue that the novelists make sure that none of the black mistresses survive events depicted in the novel. In doing so, novelists effectively erased the agency that black women gained through these relationships with their “masters.” This study, then, will explore the reasoning behind this erasure, and the implications of the act. The depictions of black women in the novels of the eighteenth century are quite fascinating. Instead of being praised for her perseverance and endurance, the Afro- Caribbean woman is continuously depicted in literature as a promiscuous tramp or written about in recent scholarship as a sad victim of sexual abuse during slavery. White accounts of black women in the Caribbean during the eighteenth century – for example Edward Long in The History of Jamaica – often write of their lack of morals and their sexual depravation. Few have argued for the strength, endurance, and ability of the Afro-Caribbean woman to survive the abuses she suffered during slavery. This project seeks to help re-coup some of the respect that Afro-Caribbean women have lost at the hands of novelists, a project that’s especially important at this point in literary history when a number of these works are being rescued. It is important to historicize these novels so that they’re not taken as accurate historical representations of 18th and 19th century life in the Caribbean. 2 When examining the sexual relationships between masters and their black/coloured mistresses, it is tempting to limit our reading of black women to see them as victims of white male patriarchal domination. No one can dispute that white plantation owners used their slaves for sexual as well as economic purposes, yet scholars often overlook one of the most obvious sources of power for enslaved women in the Caribbean. It is important to note that in this project “power” is a relative term that I use to imply having some measure of control over one’s life. Through the sexual power that they wielded over their masters, many black mistresses became pseudo- wives, fulfilling many of the productive as well as reproductive functions of the household. Within these relationships, enslaved black women were able to acquire money, in many cases enough to buy their freedom1. Unlike Oroonoko, Creoleana, or The White Witch of Rose Hall, the non-fictional narratives of the time period portrayed the relationships between white men and black women as committed and most often as serious as legally recognized marriages. Many of the narratives illustrate positive benefits of these relationships, including relief from working in the fields, not having to worry about having one’s children sold to another plantation, and ultimately, manumission. To lay the foundation for this project, I will analyze one such nonfiction work to demonstrate one woman’s use of her body to gain freedom.