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Introduction

Concubines and sexual slaves, otherwise known as “fancy maids/ girls,” were usually light skinned black or mixed race women who were sold at high prices to wealthy white men. These female slaves would become a part of a slave trade system known as the “fancy trade” during the antebellum era in America. Cities such as New Orleans, Richmond, Lexington, and Kentucky, had active markets in fancy- girls, though the fancy- trade was mostly prominent in New Orleans, Louisiana. .  As research has shown, the “fancy” trade’s existence can be attributed to the fetishized commodification that many of these light-skinned women embodied. 2 Therefore, the Fancy Trade became a market which capitalized on the sexualization of light skinned black and mulatto women as sexual objects purchasable by the wealthiest white men. 3 While on the auction blocks, fancy girls wore the latest and most fashionable clothing and jewelry of the time. 4 Usually young and seen as very beautiful, these high-end, enslaved women were worth far more than an average slave. The fact that these were slaves marketed towards sex and used for the sexual pleasure of white men, placed them in higher position than that of a regular slave. Neither being white nor fully black, fancy-girls were worth top dollar in their day. In the 1850s, fancy-girls were valued at more than $1,500 (close to $30,000 in today’s dollars) which made the purchase of a fancy-girl expensive. 5 A purchase of a fancy- girl was seen as symbol of status amongst white men, yet there was also prestige in the men who sold the fancy-girls. Known for referring to themselves as ‘one-eyed men,’ these men were responsible for transporting and auctioning off the enslaved women. In many cases, fancy-girls became mistresses or concubines to the white men who purchased them. At other times, these women would be freed by their owners. And in some rare cases, some would marry their concubines. 6 History

The market for the fancy trade arose mainly out of a personal and social context which was further evolved into a market aimed at satisfying the sexual fetishes of white men. During the nineteenth century, white Americans held onto beliefs that black women were sexually aggressive, more so in contrast to white females, who were viewed as chaste and pure. 7 The black woman’s stereotyped sexuality increased her attractiveness to white men. “19th century literature characterized black female slaves as lustful and promiscuous “Jezebels” who shamelessly tempted white owners into sexual relations.” 8 These stereotypes of the promiscuous slave perpetuated a rationale for the sexual abuse of female slaves by white men. In 'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States, Edward Baptist states that: “with the rise of the domestic slave trade after 1790, new lands opened up in the South and new demands for plantation produce created a particular commercialized category of enslaved women that focused on white fixations. Within the trade, light-skinned or mulatto "fancy-maids" became to many white men the perfect symbols of slavery.” 9 To satisfy lustful desires of white men, slave traders known as ‘one-eyed men’ capitalized on the sexual fetishes that many whites held for light skinned black and mulatto women and marketed it into the fancy- trade. Slave traders and other "one-eyed men" singled out these women in particular, “she was neither precisely black nor white, and neither field labor nor cooking and cleaning, but rather the "fancy" of the market for selling the right to rape a special category of women marked out as unusually desirable” 10 Fancies could typically be seen in large urban areas, however the market for fancy- girls in New Orleans and Lexington, Kentucky, were particularly high. 11 “These cities were favorite locations for wealthy horse breeders and gamblers who were on the prowl for high-end female slaves for sexual purposes.”12 The ‘one-eyed men”

A ‘one-eyed man’ was a term that was used to refer to slave traders and their associates that engaged in sex with their female slaves. In the 18th century the term was synonymous for the word penis. 13 The term is often used throughout the fancy trade in letters written between self proclaimed ‘one eyed’ men and their trading associates. These letters reveal the systematic rape and abuse that these ‘one eyed’ slave traders readily engaged in amongst the fancy-girls they traded. For example, James Franklin was active in the fancy-trade and from the letters he writes Franklin brags about being a ‘one-eyed’ man and engaging in the rape of enslaved fancy-girls. In one letter that Franklin writes, he refers to the rape of a light-skinned fancy-girl by a ‘one-eyed’ man (which upon interpretation, Franklin could actually be referring to himself). “I have seen a handsome girl since I left Virginia that would climb higher hills and go further to accomplish her designs than any girl to the North & she is not too apt to leave or loose her gold[.] The reason is because she carries her funds in her lovers purse or in Bank & to my certain knowledge she has been used & that smartly by a one-eyed man about my size and age, excuse my foolishness. In short I shall do the best with and for the fancy white maid and excellent cook that I can.” 14 Franklin, his partners, and his buyers all consisted of a unit of one-eyed men together. Documents and letters detailing the fancy trade, often illustrate these men with swelled egos, in many cases the one-eyed man was proud of all the fancy-girls he raped. More so, these men often bragged with each other about the coercion of sex, abuse, and violence that they would enact upon women in the fancy- trade. 15 Edward Baptist, author of 'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States, asserts that “market participants were all greedy for male and female labor in the fields and for reproductive labor in the slave quarters, but also for fancy maids. So greedy were they, in fact, that such men spoke of themselves as if they were animated, erect penises, one-eyed men watching for mulatto women to rape.” 16

Economic and Sexual Exploitation The fancy-girl trade illustrates how enslaved women's sexual relations were simultaneously tied to market relations in the antebellum political economy. 17 “At a time when prime field hands sold for 1600, a fancy girl brought 5,000. Sex might be extracted from any enslaved woman or girl. However, an enslaved woman sold primarily for sex commanded a higher price than any other enslaved women.” 18 The fancy-trade market assigned economic value in correspondence to sexual attractiveness. 19 The seller reaped an extra profit by appealing to to he markets valuation of their sexuality, whether in skin color, hair, or whatever the buyer happened to personally value as erotic. 20 “To accommodate these buyers and ensure they were getting what they expected, fancy-girl traders might allow the buyer to “inspect” his proposed purchase alone. At this juncture, sexual abuse and economic profits brutally collided.” 21 The appearance of enslaved women as purely and strictly sexual commodities in the fancy-trade markets demonstrates how economic profits exploited enslaved women’s sexuality. 22

Author Uknown. “The Destruction of the Black Family: Part Four,”Febuary 2014. Available at: http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/02/01/the-destruction-of-the-black-family-part-4/

2 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 3 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 4 Fine clothing was essential to the fancy trade. Rather than be dressed as prostitutes, these women were dressed and marketed as fashionable ladies. While dressing up in beautiful and extravagant fashions offered a degree of freedom that differed from the average slave experience, fine clothing was another form of exploitation for these women. Author Uknown. “The Destruction of the Black Family: Part Four,”Febuary 2014. Available at: http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/02/01/the-destruction-of-the-black-family-part-4/

5 Green, Sharony. "" Mr Ballard, I am compelled to write again": Beyond Bedrooms and Brothels, a Fancy Girl Speaks." Black Women, Gender & Families 5.1 (2011).

6 Author Uknown. “The Destruction of the Black Family: Part Four,”Febuary 2014. Available at: http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/02/01/the-destruction-of-the-black-family-part-4/

7, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 8 Author Uknown. “The Destruction of the Black Family: Part Four,”Febuary 2014. Available at: http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/02/01/the-destruction-of-the-black-family-part-4/

9 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 10 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 11 Stevenson, Brenda E. "WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? CONCUBINAGE AND ENSLAVED WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH." Journal of African American History 98.1 (2013): 99-125.

12 Author Uknown. “The Destruction of the Black Family: Part Four,”Febuary 2014. Available at: http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/02/01/the-destruction-of-the-black-family-part-4/ 13 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 14 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 15These men were upheld by not only an economic vision of slave trade, but also one that was intensely sexualized. The sexual fetish of the fancy-trade, positioned one-eyed men with a sense authority and man hood stemming from the power of rape. Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 16 Baptist, Edward E. "'Cuffy', 'Fancy Maids', and 'One-Eyed Men': Rape Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States", in The chattel principle: internal slave trades in the Americas, Walter Johnson (Ed.), Yale University Press, 2004 17 The fancy- trade was an active market of enslaved women to be used for sexual purposes. The fancy-trade used the sexualization of a fetish which white men held for light-skinned enslaved women as a source of economic profit. “The economy in nineteenth-century America was built on what he called the "fetishization" of black female slaves.”DAVIS, ADRIENNE. "“Don’t Let Nobody Bother Yo’Principle:”The Sexual Ecomomy of American Slavery. Sister Circle: Black Women and Work (ed. S. Harley), Rutgers University Press (2002)

18 Fancy-girls as young as 13 could be marketed in the fancy-trade and be sold for 5,000 dollars or more.Green, Sharony." Mr Ballard, I am compelled to write again": Beyond Bedrooms and Brothels, a Fancy Girl Speaks." Black Women, Gender & Families 5.1 (2011). 19 DAVIS, ADRIENNE. "“Don’t Let Nobody Bother Yo’Principle:”The Sexual Ecomomy of American Slavery. Sister Circle: Black Women and Work (ed. S. Harley), Rutgers University Press (2002)

20 Green, Sharony. "" Mr Ballard, I am compelled to write again": Beyond Bedrooms and Brothels, a Fancy Girl Speaks." Black Women, Gender & Families 5.1 (2011). 21 DAVIS, ADRIENNE. "“Don’t Let Nobody Bother Yo’Principle:”The Sexual Ecomomy of American Slavery. Sister Circle: Black Women and Work (ed. S. Harley), Rutgers University Press (2002)

22 Green, Sharony. "" Mr Ballard, I am compelled to write again": Beyond Bedrooms and Brothels, a Fancy Girl Speaks." Black Women, Gender & Families 5.1 (2011).