Abstract/Summary

In this chapter, Elizabeth Barnes analyses the ways in which white law enforcers used sexual terror against African American women in the wake of emancipation. Barnes argues that, while the links between policing and white supremacy in America have long been acknowledged, Black women’s interactions with the police have received less attention than those of their male counterparts. Looking to the post-emancipation period is especially important, as policing was professionalised in the South while emancipation progressed: the police built on the established behaviours and tactics of slave patrollers. Barnes argues that sexual terror, a central element of the oppression of slavery, was used by law enforcers after emancipation to undermine Black women’s freedom, reassert white control of Black women’s bodies, and challenge shifting ideas of race, rape, and citizenship. Using the testimony of freedwomen to explore the nature and impact of police sexual violence, Barnes’ chapter emphasises the importance both of policing as a tool of white supremacy and the centrality of gender in experiences of emancipation.