Rape in the American Civil War: Race, Class, and Gender in Union Army Court-Martial Cases (2008)

Undergraduate: Maureen Stutzman

Faculty Advisor: William Barney
Department: Women's and Gender Studies

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The Civil War was a crucial moment in our nation’s history; politically, economically, and socially. In the context of the Civil War, which shook or uprooted many social institutions, studying rape, which is the quintessential expression of patriarchal control over women’s sexuality, can reveal much about how the social ideologies of the antebellum period were changed by the war. Since sexual practices, ideologies, and definitions are cultural constructs created by the specific social forces active at a particular point in history, experiences of sexual power are based on factors of gender, race, and socioeconomic status. In this thesis I analyze three court-martial cases in which men were charged for rape or attempted rape during the Civil War and explore how the intersections of race, class, and gender are represented in these trials. By situating these cases in a broader framework of 19th century experiences of rape and rape trials it can be seen that the experiences of women and men involved in rape trials shifted due to the social changes caused by the war. I argue that in these cases we can see class discrimination towards poor white women, the first chance for black women to pursue legal justice for crimes against them, and the beginning of the move towards severe punishments for black men accused of raping white women.