Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South

“Extremely well researched and meticulously referenced. . . . A valuable addition to the field.” — Archives of Sexual Behavior

“A provocative and important book.” — Georgia Historical Quarterly

“Sommerville deconstructs a number of myths that both white southerners and historians have constructed. . . . This ambitious and interesting book will force historians to rethink the roots of the rape myth and the solidarity of white southerners.” — H-SAWH

“Well-written and tightly argued. . . . Will be of strong interest to scholars of race, sexuality, and the social history of the law in the nineteenth-century South. . . . Offers valuable analysis and will be read with avid interest by historians of the American South.” — Journal of the History of Sexuality

“This is an important monograph that makes a number of contributions to the way we understand southern history. . . . Sommerville’s well-researched and well-written volume has made a lasting contribution to the way that we understand race and rape in the American South.” — American Historical Review

“Sommerville [offers] lucid prose, extensive research, and clear-eyed tackling of a difficult subject.” — Civil War History#

“Shifting our attention from rhetoric and written law to lived reality, Diane Sommerville challenges the very existence of the so-called 'southern rape complex.' Black men, she argues, did, in fact, sometimes rape women, and the reaction of the white community was shaped as much by misogyny and class prejudices as by white solidarity. Sommerville’s astute reading of local sources conjures up a world populated by complex human beings rather than sensationalized types. Using rape as a marker, she grapples with issues ranging from southern distinctiveness to the nature of segregation and offers persuasive revisions of some of southern history’s major themes.” — Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South is a controversial and beautifully researched work that should have a large impact on the writing of southern history, as well as the writing of histories of sexual violence. Sommerville insists on the significance of class conflict within the white community, and she challenges the conventional wisdom of southern history that divides the society too neatly along racial lines. The result is a historically plausible and coherent understanding of rape, one that builds on rich data and that speaks to concerns that all American historians should share.” — Hendrik Hartog, Princeton University

“Telling courtroom dramas from before and after the Civil War, Diane Sommerville finds a significant difference between the trials involving interracial rape and the fate of black rapists in the two periods.” — William S. McFeely, author of Frederick Douglass and Sapelo’s People: A Long Walk into Freedom