Rape: the unmentionable act of violence

     One thing that I find really interesting is Stowe's allusion to the rapes of black women. She speaks openly and sometimes graphically about the physical abuses and killing of black people, yet she never overtly speaks about the horrors that many black women were forced to endure. There are many references to mulatto women and men and quadroon women, yet I think readers tend to forget that many of these individuals were the products of rape. I'm sure there were some mutual sexual relationships (maybe even romantic as well) between some white masters and black women, but I'm guessing this was not the norm.  
    
     About two years ago, The New York Times wrote an article about Michelle Obama's mixed ancestry. Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, had this to say: “No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience."

     As readers, we catch glimpses of this when Simon Legree is checking out Emmeline at the slave auction. Susan, her mother, curses her daughter's beauty because she knows what is to become of her. I think Emmeline being such a religious and pious young women makes this scene even more heartwrenching. Its horrifying to think that this godly woman is going to be defiled night after night by a devil of a man. I definitely think that this was the image Stowe was trying to conjure up in the minds of her readers.