Interracial Relations Over Time

After reading James Davis’s articles, I was struck by the ways in which interracial relations have changed. Originally, the ownership of a female slave meant “owning her sex life” (Davis, 38).  White boys were taught to associate both emotional and physical pleasure as well as sexual desire with the slave women that nursed and raised them throughout their childhood.  Oftentimes slave women were coerced into performing sexual favors for their white masters.  Although on the rare (very rare) occasion two individuals of different races fell in love, most of the relations between blacks and whites were rape, concubinage, and prostitution between black slaves and their white male dominants.  Slave girls even courted sexual relationships with their masters in order to gain advantage and distinction in the household and obtain favored treatment.