Deviant and dangerous: Pro-slavery representations of Jamaican slave women's sexuality, c. 1780–1834

Abstract

This article analyses the pro-slavery debate about Jamaican slave women's sexuality in the period 1770–1834. The first part shows that two images of slave women dominated this debate and argues that these served primarily to displace fears about the viability of the plantation system. The second part explores the link between the two images and the practice of interracial sex, amongst others, by comparing Jamaican attitudes towards interracial sex with on the North American mainland. The conclusion links the analysis to the existing scholarship on pro-slavery discourse and describes some long-term effects of the two images of slave women's sexuality.