This mental and physical abuse was used to dehumanize and rule the African American people at the time, making sure to continuously reiterate who was in power. The daily threat of not only physical/mental violence, but the thought of families being separated, and as well as basic human rights being denied, were used to keep the enslaved African Americans “in check.” African American slaves were exposed to sexual exploitation and violence, but were not only limited to just women, but men as well. “The sexual exploitation of enslaved people was a facet of enslavement in Virginia that took many forms for both women and men. Enslavers sexually assaulted and abused enslaved individuals, demanded reproduction from them to enhance their own bottom lines, and otherwise used the bodies of the enslaved for monetary gain, pleasure, and punishment (Sexual Exploitation of the Enslaved).” This quote shows African Americans were constantly abused, faced the threat of rape, used for pleasure, and sometimes even forced to reproduce with their slave owner to “enhance their own bottom lines,” all leading to not just physical trauma, but psychological trauma as
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