Here are historically documented examples of white women on plantations engaging in sexual relationships with Black men. Because of the structure of slavery, these were always coercive and exploitative, regardless of how they may have been described in records:
Dorothea Bourne & Edmond (Virginia, 1820s)
Her husband, Lewis Bourne, sought a divorce claiming Dorothea lived “in open adultery” with Edmond, an enslaved man. Testimony indicated she bore children by him. This case appears in Virginia’s legislative petitions and has been analyzed by historian Joshua Rothman.
Polly Lane & Jim (Virginia, early 1800s)
Lane accused Jim, an enslaved man, of rape. However, evidence showed she was already pregnant before the alleged incident, suggesting she had been in a sexual relationship with him earlier. Scholars such as Martha Hodes and Diane Miller Sommerville note this case as an example of a white woman’s sexual involvement with a black man that later became framed as assault when exposed.
Patterns in Divorce and Church Discipline Records (Virginia & North Carolina, 1800–1861)
In adultery suits and church investigations, records show white married women occasionally accused or had sexual relationships with enslaved men. Communities often treated these as scandals, and husbands used them to seek divorce. These cases confirm that such relations did occur, even if rare compared to the more common abuse of enslaved women by white men.
Thomas A. Foster (“The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery” and Rethinking Rufus) compiles evidence that black men were victims of sexual coercion by both white men and women.
Martha Hodes (White Women, Black Men) provides detailed accounts of these cases, including Dorothea Bourne and Polly Lane.
Encyclopaedic sources on Virginia and Southern slavery summarize that white women sometimes exercised sexual power over enslaved men, though cases are less documented because they threatened prevailing ideas of white womanhood.
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Here are historically documented examples of white women on plantations engaging in sexual relationships with Black men. Because of the structure of slavery, these were always coercive and exploitative, regardless of how they may have been described in records:
Dorothea Bourne & Edmond (Virginia, 1820s)
Her husband, Lewis Bourne, sought a divorce claiming Dorothea lived “in open adultery” with Edmond, an enslaved man. Testimony indicated she bore children by him. This case appears in Virginia’s legislative petitions and has been analyzed by historian Joshua Rothman.
Polly Lane & Jim (Virginia, early 1800s)
Lane accused Jim, an enslaved man, of rape. However, evidence showed she was already pregnant before the alleged incident, suggesting she had been in a sexual relationship with him earlier. Scholars such as Martha Hodes and Diane Miller Sommerville note this case as an example of a white woman’s sexual involvement with a black man that later became framed as assault when exposed.
Patterns in Divorce and Church Discipline Records (Virginia & North Carolina, 1800–1861)
In adultery suits and church investigations, records show white married women occasionally accused or had sexual relationships with enslaved men. Communities often treated these as scandals, and husbands used them to seek divorce. These cases confirm that such relations did occur, even if rare compared to the more common abuse of enslaved women by white men.
Thomas A. Foster (“The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery” and Rethinking Rufus) compiles evidence that black men were victims of sexual coercion by both white men and women.
Martha Hodes (White Women, Black Men) provides detailed accounts of these cases, including Dorothea Bourne and Polly Lane.
Encyclopaedic sources on Virginia and Southern slavery summarize that white women sometimes exercised sexual power over enslaved men, though cases are less documented because they threatened prevailing ideas of white womanhood.
Dorothea Bourne & Edmond (Virginia, 1820s)
Her husband, Lewis Bourne, sought a divorce claiming Dorothea lived “in open adultery” with Edmond, an enslaved man. Testimony indicated she bore children by him. This case appears in Virginia’s legislative petitions and has been analyzed by historian Joshua Rothman.
Polly Lane & Jim (Virginia, early 1800s)
Lane accused Jim, an enslaved man, of rape. However, evidence showed she was already pregnant before the alleged incident, suggesting she had been in a sexual relationship with him earlier. Scholars such as Martha Hodes and Diane Miller Sommerville note this case as an example of a white woman’s sexual involvement with a black man that later became framed as assault when exposed.
Patterns in Divorce and Church Discipline Records (Virginia & North Carolina, 1800–1861)
In adultery suits and church investigations, records show white married women occasionally accused or had sexual relationships with enslaved men. Communities often treated these as scandals, and husbands used them to seek divorce. These cases confirm that such relations did occur, even if rare compared to the more common abuse of enslaved women by white men.
Thomas A. Foster (“The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery” and Rethinking Rufus) compiles evidence that black men were victims of sexual coercion by both white men and women.
Martha Hodes (White Women, Black Men) provides detailed accounts of these cases, including Dorothea Bourne and Polly Lane.
Encyclopaedic sources on Virginia and Southern slavery summarize that white women sometimes exercised sexual power over enslaved men, though cases are less documented because they threatened prevailing ideas of white womanhood.