Gender and violence in early America

Authors

• John Gilbert McCurdy, Eastern Michigan University

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2020

Department/School

History and Philosophy

Publication Title

The Cambridge World History of Violence, Volume III: The Early Modern World

Abstract

From contact, gendered violence was critical to the European conquest of America. The Spanish conquistadors sexually exploited indigenous women as part of their subjugation of native societies in Mexico and Peru. French and English colonists also exploited native women, although they imagined themselves as victims of Indian sexual abuse. In the English colonies, the importance of the household as a unit of political organisation gave men enormous power over women and other dependents. This concealed sexual violence in the family and spousal abuse. Rape was illegal in the English colonies, but rarely prosecuted, except among the Quakers in Pennsylvania. The prevalence of unfree labour also contributed to gendered violence in early America. Indentured servants were often left to the mercy of their masters. Enslaved African American women were routinely brutalised and raped in order to reproduce more slaves. The Enlightenment and the American Revolution challenged colonial sensibilities. As the power of the household head weakened and marriages were idealised as loving relationships, spousal abuse and rape were problematised and prosecuted at higher rates. However, the persistence of slavery limited these changes to white women.

Comments

J. G. McCurdy is a faculty member in EMU's Department of History and Philosophy.

Recommended Citation

McCurdy, J. G. (2020). Gender and violence in early America. In R. Antony, S. Carroll, & C. D. Pennock (Eds.), The Cambridge world history of violence, volume III: The early modern world (pp. 255–273). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316340592.014