While enslaved people could not legally marry, they developed their own commitment rituals and family cultures. Evidence of male-male and female-female bonds appears in various forms:
In the Caribbean, the word "mati" (shipmate) evolved into a term for female lovers, tracing back to erotic bonds formed between women in the sex-segregated holds of slave ships.
In his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom , Frederick Douglass describes a "band of brothers" as being profoundly loving, which some scholars interpret as a form of homoerotic affiliation.
An 18th-century observer in Cuba noted enslaved men in long-term relationships where they referred to each other as "husband," with one partner performing domestic labor typically assigned to women.
While enslaved people could not legally marry, they developed their own commitment rituals and family cultures. Evidence of male-male and female-female bonds appears in various forms:
In the Caribbean, the word "mati" (shipmate) evolved into a term for female lovers, tracing back to erotic bonds formed between women in the sex-segregated holds of slave ships. naked gay sex slaves
In his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom , Frederick Douglass describes a "band of brothers" as being profoundly loving, which some scholars interpret as a form of homoerotic affiliation. While enslaved people could not legally marry, they
An 18th-century observer in Cuba noted enslaved men in long-term relationships where they referred to each other as "husband," with one partner performing domestic labor typically assigned to women. naked gay sex slaves
