Buxton Books is proud to host a launch event for College of Charleston Professor Shannon Eaves and her book, Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South. Shannon will be in conversation with Dr. Kenneth L. Johnson, II, Assistant Professor of African American Literature at College of Charleston.
This is a free event with an RSVP. Please email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com to reserve your spot!
About Sexual Violence and American Slavery:
It is impossible to separate histories of sexual violence and the enslavement of Black women in the antebellum South. Rape permeated the lives of all who existed in that system: Black and white, male and female, adult and child, enslaved and free. Shannon C. Eaves unflinchingly investigates how both enslaved people and their enslavers experienced the systematic rape and sexual exploitation of bondswomen and came to understand what this culture of sexualized violence meant for themselves and others.
Eaves mines a wealth of primary sources including autobiographies, diaries, court records, and more to show that rape and other forms of sexual exploitation entangled slaves and slave owners in battles over power to protect oneself and one’s community, power to avenge hurt and humiliation, and power to punish and eliminate future threats. By placing sexual violence at the center of the systems of power and culture, Eaves shows how the South’s rape culture was revealed in enslaved people's and their enslavers' interactions with one another and with members of their respective communities.
About Shannon Eaves:
Shannon Eaves is assistant professor of history at the College of Charleston. She earned her Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has held postdoctoral research fellowships from the American Association of University Women and Rutgers University.
Dr. Kenneth L. Johnson II:
Born and raised in East Gainesville, Florida, Dr. Kenneth L. Johnson, II is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature at the College of Charleston (Charleston, SC). A proud HBCU graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Dr. Johnson earned a Ph.D. in African American Literature and Culture from The Florida State University in 2021. His research interests include 20th and 21st century African American Narrative, Contemporary Black Southern fiction, Black boyhood literacy, Black masculinity studies, Black queer theory, and hip-hop studies. Dr. Johnson’s most recent essay, “The Laymon Letter: Using Kiese Laymon’s How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America in the HBCU Writing Classroom,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics in spring/summer 2023.