Reclaiming Your Body

            Slavery is an institution that suppressed the African American race for hundreds of years in the United States. Although slaves were burdened with the constant work and mistreatment to their White counterparts, slaves still found a way to take control of their bodies. In chapter three of Closer to Freedom, Stephanie M.H. Camp examines the ways in which slaves sought to reclaim their bodies from the commodification of slavery.

            In this chapter of her book, Stephanie Camp tells of the secret parties that slaves would indulge in deep in the woods away from their slaveholder’s eyes. Enslaved men and women would slip away to the illicit parties at night. At these parties, the slaves would dance, perform music, eat, drink alcohol, and court. Enslaved party goers would display their physical skill, enjoy their bodies, and express their creativity through dance competitions. These parties would last into the next morning, causing the slaves to be exhausted the next morning.

            I found this concept of the secret parties interesting. The women in particular would go to great lengths in preparations for the party. They risked themselves by stealing food and drinks from the slaveholders. To justify this act of defiance, they would say that they were “using master’s property for the pleasure of his property”. The women would also make and wear extravagant gowns, therefore, increasing their chances of getting caught by the slaveholders. In contrast, men wore normal clothes with no need to impress anyone.

            In the chapter, Camp emphasizes the variety of ways that women would claim their bodies. The ways in which women would attempt to seize control over their bodies ranged from controlling the representation of their physical selves in narrative and photographic forms to abortion. The idea of claiming control through abortion was very surprising to me. During the antebellum period, it was common for enslaved women to get raped by the slaveholders. Slaveholders saw the body of the African women as ideal for hard work and child bearing. By having abortions, the slave woman would not only reclaim her body, but rebel against her slave owner.

            In reclaiming their bodies from the slaveholders, slaves would gain a sense of what freedom meant. Claiming your own body was a freedom that slaves did not know in the antebellum period. For slaves, this was a risk that they were willing to take in order to have a taste of freedom. Because of the excess burden of being a woman, women were willing to go the extra mile in claiming their bodies. Although these secret parties were attempts to claim their body, slaves risked their lives for a night of pleasure. Would you risk your life for one night of freedom?