Sex without Consent: Rape and Sexual Coercion in America

Introduction: Studying Rape in American History

Introduction Studying Rape in American History Merril D. Smith SINCE THE PUBLIC ATION of Susan Brownmiller’s pathbreaking book, Against Our Will, rape has become a significant topic of research. Although Brownmiller’s work has been criticized for weaknesses in its historical analysis,1 it opened the subject up to serious examination “by uncovering the existence of rape as an important element in world history .”2 The aim of this book is to examine rape in what is now the United States from the time of early contact between Europeans and Native Americans to the present. Two questions need to be addressed here. First, why examine rape in American history? Second, can we put rape in historical perspective? By exploring the experience, the prosecution, and the meaning of rape in American history, we add a larger dimension to the study of crime and punishment, as well as to gender relations, gender roles, and sexual politics. Limiting this book to what is now the United States, with the addition of one essay on Upper Canada, is partly a matter of practicality—a detailed history of rape in the world would take several volumes.3 The essays included here, however, explore changes in rape law over three centuries, cover a wide area geographically, and analyze topics and situations that are unique or relevant to the history of the United States, such as interracial encounters due to colonization and slavery, and rape on contemporary college campuses. The study of rape can and should be put into a historical context. As the essays in this book make clear, what individuals thought about rape and how it was prosecuted depended very much upon their society and 1 backgrounds. For example, in her essay in this volume, Else L. Hambleton notes that though there are certain constants in the experience of rape, the belief system of Puritan Massachusetts affected who made complaints about rape, who was prosecuted for the crime, and how they were punished. For one thing, judges and juries believed that a woman could not conceive from a rape. Thus, no matter how good the character of the woman nor how credible her story, if she became pregnant , Puritans assumed the woman must have consented to sexual intercourse . In such cases, the victim of the crime might be punished herself —for fornication.4 The perception of women’s and men’s natures and ideas about their proper roles differs and changes throughout the centuries and places studied here. Women were variously considered “lustful daughters of Eve,” pure or asexual creatures, and demure but willing temptresses. Sometimes these notions coexisted at a particular time or depended upon the race, ethnicity, or class of the women involved. Similarly , men might be considered the “protectors” of women, hapless victims caught in their snares, or lust-filled beasts. These ideas about women and men, in turn, colored the perception of rape throughout American history and the formulation of rape laws and prosecutorial procedures. In exploring rape over the centuries of American history, we see some similarities in the experiences of all female victims, who might be of any age, class, race, or ethnicity, and who might be raped by strangers or acquaintances. Some examples from this book include a group of men who raped an intoxicated fifteen-year-old girl to “make a woman of her,” a young woman raped by soldiers, an immigrant woman who was raped after accepting a ride from a stranger, and a young mother who was accosted after a neighbor escorted her home from a tavern. In another case, a college frat party was the scene of the crime. Although these incidents appear similar to accounts one can read in the newspapers almost any day in the United States, only the last one occurred in this century. Each, however, involved a woman or girl compelled to have sex against her will.5 The short title of this volume is Sex without Consent, and this is the theme that binds the essays together—women, children, or men forced into sexual encounters. Whether the rapes discussed here were accomplished by threats or violence is irrelevant—all were coerced in some fashion. Although the topics overlap, some of the essays focus more on 2 MERRIL D. SMITH rape law and its prosecution, while others are more concerned with societal issues. All, however, focus on what rape meant at a particular time and place in...