Slaves Condition in the U.S., the One-Drop Rule and Their Effects on the Black Su !

ect
Ownership of the female slave on the plantations generally came to include owning her sex life. Large numbers of white boys were socialized to associate physical and emotional pleasure with the black women who nursed and raised them, and then to deny any deep feelings for them. From other white males they learned to see black girls and women as legitimate objects of sexual desire. apes occurred, and many slave women were forced to submit regularly to white males or suffer harsh conse!uences" as early as the time of the #merican evolution there were plantation slaves who appeared to be completely white, as many of the founding fathers enslaved their own mixed children and grand$children. %&'his %one$drop' definition of who is black is crucial to maintaining the social system of white domination in which widespread miscegenation, not racial purity prevailed. (") #merican slave owners wanted to keep all racially mixed children born to slave women under their control, for economic and sexual gains" *t was intolerable for white women to have mixed children, so the one$drop rule favored the sexual freedom of white males, protecting the double standard of sexual morality as well as slavery" +y defining all mixed children as black and compelling them to live in the black community, the rule made possible the incredible myth among whites that miscegenation had not occurred, that the races had been kept pure in the ,outh. (-avis, Who is Black? .//., 01, 21$2/, 34, .52) 67hat he %schoolteacher' did broke three more ,weet home men and punched the glittering iron out of ,ethe8s eyes. Leaving two open wells that did not reflect firelight.9 (:orrison /) %On :r. ;ardner8s former treatment of slaves' 6&here8s laws against what he done< letting niggers hire out their own time to buy themselves. =e even let em have guns> #nd you think he mated them niggers to get him some more? =ell no> =e planned to them to marry> if that don8t beat all> ,choolteacher sighs, and says, doesn8t he know it? =e had come to put the place aright.9 7omen represented 6property that reproduced itself without cost9 (443, 441) 6;randma +aby said people look down on her because she had eight children with different men. @oloredpeople and white people both look down on her for that. ,laves not supposed to have pleasurable feelings on their ownA their bodies not supposed to be like that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever owned them. ,till, they were not supposed to have pleasure deep down. ,he said for me not to listen to all that. &hat * should always listen to my body and love it.9 (4B/) C9&hey got me out of jail,9 ,ethe once told +aby ,uggs. 6&hey also put you in it,9 ,he answered. 6&hey drove you across the river.9 6On my son8s back.9 6&hey gave you this house.9 6Dobody gave me nothing.9 6* got a job from them.9 6Eou got a cook from them, girl.98 (422)

Different "enerations positionin" vis-#-vis slave $e$ories

&hey were a twosome, saying 6Eour daddy9 and 6,weet =ome9 in a way that made it clear both belonged to them and not to her. &hat her own father8s absence was not hers. Once the absence had belonged to ;randma +aby F a son, deeply mourned because he was the one who had bought her out of there. &hen it was her mother8s absent father. Dow it was this hazelnut stranger8s absent friend. Only those who knew him (6knew him well9) could claim his absence for themselves. Gust as only those who lived in ,weet =ome could remember it, whisper it and glance sideways at one another while they did. (.0) %-enver' 6* can8t live here. * don8t know where to go or what to do, but * can8t live here. Dobody speaks to us. Dobody comes by. +oys don8t like me. ;irls don8t either.9 (...) 6*t8s not the house. *t8s us. #nd it8s you.9 (.2)

Sethes %cts throu"h the &enses of the 'hite and Black Co$$unities
=e had made up his mind to show him the piece of paper F newspaper F with a picture drawing of a woman who favored ,ethe except that was not her mouth. Dothing like it. (") &he print meant nothing to him so he didn8t even glance at it. =e simply looked at the face, staking his head no. Do. #t the mouth, you see. #nd no at whatever it was that black stretches said, and no to whatever it was ,tamp Haid wanted him to know. +ecause there was no way in hell a black face could appear in a newspaper if the story was about something anybody wanted to hear. # whip of fear broke through the heart chambers as soon as you saw a Degro8s face in a paper, since the face was not there because the person had a healthy baby, or outran a street mob. Dor was it there because the person had been killed, or because maimed or caught or burned or jailed or whipped or evicted or stomped or raped or cheated, since that could hardly !ualify as news in a newspaper. *t would have to be something out of the ordinary F something white people would find interesting, truly different, worth a few minutes of teeth sucking if not gasp. #nd it must have been hard to find news about Degroes worth the breath catch of a white citizen of @incinnati. ,o who was this woman with a mouth that was not ,ethe8s, but whose eyes were almost as calm as hers? 7hose head was turned on her neck in the manner he loved so well it watered his eye to see it" the more he heard the stranger the lips in the drawing became. (.I3) some of the 6pride youth before a fall9 expectations of the townfolk had rubbed on him %,tamp Haid' anyhow $ which would explain why he had not considered ,ethe8s feelings or -enver8s needs when he showed Haul - the clipping. (.5.) -enver thought she understood the connection between her mother and +eloved< ,ethe was trying to make up for the handsawA +eloved was making her pay for it. +ut there would never be an end to that, and seeing her mother diminished, shamed and infuriated her. Eet she knew ,ethe8s greatest fear was the same one -enver had in the beginning F that +eloved might leave. %,ethe8s reason for killing +eloved' 7hite people could take your self no matter for what. 6Dot just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. -irty you so bad you couldn8t like yourself anymore. -irty you so bad you forgot you were and couldn8t think it up. #nd though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her now. &he best thing she was, was her children. 7hites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing F the part of her that was clean. (") #nd no one, nobody on this earth, would list her daughter8s characteristics on the animal side of the paper. Do. Oh no. :aybe +aby ,uggs could worry about it, live with the likelihood of itA ,ethe had refused F and refused still.9 (4I.) *t is when she lowers her eyes to look again at the loving faces before her that she sees him. ;uiding the mare, slowing down, his black hat wide$brimmed enough to hide his face but not his purpose. =e is coming into her yard and he is coming for her best thing. (") Do. Do. Donono. ,he flies. &he icepick is not in her handA it is her hand. ,tanding alone on the porch, +eloved is smiling. +ut now her hand is empty. ,ethe is running away from her, running, and she feels the emptiness in the hand ,ethe has been holding. Dow she is running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving +eloved behind. #lone. #gain. &hen -enver, running too. #way from her to the pile of people out there. &hey make a hill. # hill of black people, falling. #nd above them all, rising from his place with a whip in his hand, the man without skin looking. =e is looking at her. (434$0)