Sexualization Of Reconstruction Politics Summary

In "The Sexualization of Reconstruction Politics: White Women and Black Men in the South after the Civil War," the author, Martha Hodes examines white southerner 's toleration of sexual relationships between white females and black males, post-Civil War. Hodes explores the entwined relationship between black male sexuality and political power and demonstrates a timeline of decreasing toleration whites had of sexual liaisons between black males and white females. The author examines the antebellum south, where sexual relations between black men and white women were tolerated because racism was over-shadowed by a more pressing issue, Classism. The political metamorphosis driven by the termination of slavery increased the political power …show more content…
This liaison, which was seen as disrespectful was used as the scapegoat to justify the whites for doing all sorts of evil to men who aimed for political strength in the black community. Martha Hodes argues that extreme anxiety over white females and black male liaisons were linked to fears of black men 's political and economic independence. Hodes effectively demonstrates a timeline of events, that sets the mood of her argument, and plays a major role in convincing readers. I agree with her main argument, however, it lacks clarity her evidence is subjective, and the structure of the essay lacks …show more content…
The evidence of story of the blacks was told mostly by white people, this creates a dimension separating the reads from the immediate emotions and struggles. One may argue that she is trying to view the white 's perspective on the reconstruction period. However, direct struggles from the one oppressed in their own words would have increased my trust in the validity of the sources. I picked up on a change of tone when she was talking about white on black rape, she criminalized the white, but when mentioned in the beginning about black men committing rape on white women it was more relaxed. This is shown in "As a part of their violent rampages, Klansmen also assaulted and raped black women" pg. 409. The description of the assault as violent had a personal connotation attached to it. Whereas when she mentioned rape in the introduction it said; "Black men could be acquitted or pardoned on charges of raping women". This statement seemed very subtle and almost as if she wasn 't speaking about a heinous issue as she did when mentioning the Klansmen 's actions. The evidence was tailored to support her argument, which is good but only few of the evidence were told from the blacks