[Grapappytek]

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/05i...ender/rape.htm


Colonial laws regarding statutory rape were not applied to Blacks and Indians. Indians and Blacks, as well as their children, were prohibited by law from defending themselves against abuse, sexual and otherwise, at the hands of Whites. A slave who defended herself against the attack of a White person was subject to cruel beatings by either the master or mistress. Liaisons between Whites and Blacks or Indians were illegal. The females of color received the harshest punishment if discovered in a liaison with a White male. Females of color, regardless of their young age, were viewed as seducers of White men. Pregnancy became the evidence of the illegal liaison. A mulatto baby the indicator of the race of the father - White male. The child, by statute took the status of the mother and is thus born into slavery. The full benefit of the relationship and the off-spring enured to the White male. Under English precedent, the status of children was determined by the father. The colonists changed the law to increase the wealth and domination of the White master who had eliminated certain costs of purchasing human labor by becoming "a breeder of slaves." The Black female, woman or child, was forced into sexual relationships for the White slave master’s pleasure and profit.

White and African abolitionists condemned slavery but often for very different reasons. White abolitionists in Massachusetts in 1712 condemned slavery, not for its diabolical construct, but because the Certain Whites argued for the importation of more White servants and an end to slavery because African slaves were having a negative effect on White servants. The plight of Black and Indian girls sexually abused by their White Masters was a known "secret" of slavery. The girls, their plight ignored, unprotected by law or policy, persevered in silence. Even if the girls acquiesced, consent assumes a right of refusal. Although the institution of slavery remained, the 1807 Foreign Slave Trade Bill proposed the ending of the trafficking of African human deeming it to be "contrary to the principles of justice humanity and sound policy." It was not a decision based solely on altruism. The drastic drop in profits, a surplus supply of sugar, a fear of continued slave rebellions, in addition to the pressure of abolitionists, led England to abolish its role in the slave trade. The real deal.