Criminology Commons^™

Ain’T I A Woman, Too?: The Thirteenth Amendment, In Defense Of Incarcerated Women’S Reproductive Rights, Alexandria Gutierrez

Alexandria Gutierrez

In her memoir, Harriet Ann Jacobs highlights the unique impact slavery had on women. The physical dominion imposed upon female slaves included both internal and external bodily control. Beyond sexual exploitation, the bodies of female slaves were used for a type of labor for which their male counterparts were not capable: reproduction. Forced pregnancy in the slavery context was a tragic and violative experience affecting women physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Long after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery-like practices lived on through social, political, and economic mechanisms. In the penological context, peonage laws, penal plantations, and chain gangs were …