BOOK REVIEW

Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South

By Diane Miller Sommerville. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill,North Carolina, 2004, 411 pp., $24.95

Jessica Cox

Published online: 20 February 2009

� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Taking as her premise the notion that ‘‘rape is an important

historical marker of race and gender relations in the Ameri-

can South’’ (p. 3), Sommerville presents a fascinating and

eminently readable assessment of the significance of black-

on-white rape in the nineteenth-century South, a topic which,

perhaps surprisingly, has received relatively little critical

attention from historians. This, Sommerville argues, is lar-

gely a consequence of an early tendency, following the end of

the American civil war, to demonise the figure of the black

rapist, a view countered by claims that such abuses simply did

not occur, and that reports of such were largely racist pro-

paganda, and so leading to a reluctance by many critics to

acknowledge that such crimes took place. As Somerville

states, ‘‘black rape had become so politically charged that

dispassionate historical treatment of the topic was all but

impossible for much of the twentieth century’’ (p. 2).

One of the key aims of this study, therefore, is to dispel

many of the myths surrounding notions of race relations in the

nineteenth-century South, in particular the notion that black

rape polarized communities along racial lines, with black

men accused of rape or attempted rape inevitability posited as

the devil incarnate and punished accordingly by an outraged

white community intent on preserving the purity of its wo-

men. In questioning such assumptions, Sommerville adds to a

growing body of work which seeks to emphasize the com-

plexity of black-white relations in the nineteenth century, and

challenge the idea of a society unequivocally divided along

racial lines. Somerville’s contribution to this area is indicated

by her assessment of critical studies of these issues which she

presents in the book’s appendix––content which perhaps

would have benefited from inclusion in the introduction,

placing as it does Somerville’s study in a critical historical

context. However, this does not detract from her assessment

of the treatment of black men accused of rape in the nine-

teenth-century South, which is the study’s primary purpose.

Sommerville begins her work by citing numerous exam-

ples of black men accused of rape by white women through-

out the Southern states in the nineteenth century, and trac-

ing, as far as possible, the fate of the accused. There can

be no doubt that her study is extremely well researched and

meticulously referenced; the numerous case studies she

identifies attest to this. However, while such instances are

clearly of interest, the citing of specific cases would at times

have benefited from a wider identification of more general

trends in certain areas, particularly in the first two chapters,

which, in comparison to the rest of the study, are somewhat

lacking in detailed critical analysis. However, given the

scope of the study, which covers 100 years of rape and

race relations (even more, in fact, as Somerville includes a

number of eighteenth-century examples) in several states, it

is hardly surprising that at least a degree of the focus should

be on specific instances and that there are difficulties in

identifying more general trends. Indeed, this in itself is a

testament to the diversity and complexity of the attitudes

towards rape and race in the nineteenth century. Further-

more, the rest of the text more than compensates, offering a

detailed analysis of the treatment of black men accused of

rape from the antebellum period through to Reconstruction.

As a study of race relations in the nineteenth century

South, Sommerville’s work is clearly of interest. In particu-

lar, she dispels the myth that black men accused of rape were

subject to the harshest of legal or extralegal punishments,

citing numerous examples of cases in which men convicted of

J. Cox (&)

Department of English, University of Wales Lampeter,

Ceredigion, Wales SA48 7ED, UK

e-mail: jessica.cox@ntlworld.com

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Arch Sex Behav (2009) 38:310–311

DOI 10.1007/s10508-008-9452-8

rape were later pardoned, often following petitions by mem-

bers of the white community; of instances in which black men

were found not guilty, sometimes in spite of overwhelming

evidence; and of cases in which leniency was shown by the

judge in handing down punishment. Furthermore, she ob-

serves that white communities, prior to the end of slavery

at least, generally allowed the legal system to deal with ac-

cused rapists, rather than attempting to enact any form of

vigilante justice, again challenging widely held popular ideas

about race relations in the nineteenth-century South, al-

though lynchings became more common in the Reconstruc-

tion period.

Sommerville’s work is, however, not only of interest as a

study of race relations, but, perhaps even more so, for its

insights into class and gender relations. While this volume

challenges long-held assumptions about the relationships

between blacks and whites in nineteenth-century America,

that these are more complex than is suggested by numerous

films and novels (in particular, Sommerville cites Harper

Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird) is hardly surprising. Further-

more, while Sommerville’s study demonstrates that black

men accused of rape were not automatically lynched or sent

to the gallows, but more often than not faced ‘‘justice’’ in the

form of a structured legal system, there can be no question of

the inherent racism of the South during this period: black men

were far more likely to be prosecuted, and executed, for rape

than white men; black women were generally unable to make

accusations of rape, at least in the pre-emancipation period;

and the white community’s defence of black slaves charged

with rape had much to do with the economic value of slaves,

and less to do with any notion of defending innocent men––a

fact reinforced by the increase in lynchings of black men

accused of rape in the post-emancipation South. While this

work problematizes the issue of race relations, the inherent

racism identified by numerous earlier critics is an unques-

tionable factor.

In some respects, then, Somerville’s study is of greater

interest for its assessment of class and gender relations in

the nineteenth-century South. The revelation of seemingly

inherent misogynistic attitudes towards victims of rape is

particularly disturbing, not so much in relation to women who

transgressed the strict moral codes enforced in the nineteenth

century, attitudes towards whom have been well documented

by both historians and literary critics, but more so in relation

to child victims of rape who were often deemed guilty by

association: the child of an unmarried white woman of the

lower classes could, according to such attitudes, hardly ex-

pect anything else, and was as guilty, if not more so, than the

perpetrator himself. Such misogynistic attitudes further ex-

tended to nineteenth-century definitions of rape in the South,

and Sommerville cites a number of cases in which the ac-

cused was not convicted because the attempt was made while

the victim slept; as force wasn’t used, such instances could

not, under law, be classified as attempted rapes. The dem-

onising of the ‘‘black beast rapist’’ towards the end of the

century thus follows an earlier prejudicial construction of the

white lower class woman as temptress, as Sommerville’s

study makes clear.

This volume thus not only contributes to the increasing

wealth of material on American race relations in the nine-

teenth century, but also provides a valuable insight into class

and gender divisions, and the way in which these various

factors converged. It is an ambitious project, covering an

extensive period of history, as well as the mammoth issues

of race, gender and class relations and divisions. Herein,

though, lies its success: in exploring race relations in the

nineteenth-century American South, Sommerville treads a

well-worn path, but her detailed research and insightful

conclusions make this book a valuable addition to the field,

while her accessible style means it will appeal to both

scholars and general readers alike.

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