“Equal and exact justice would have taken this officer’s life”: sexual violence, military justice, and the gendered meanings of race in the occupied South

Barnes, E. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7873-7975 (2024) “Equal and exact justice would have taken this officer’s life”: sexual violence, military justice, and the gendered meanings of race in the occupied South. Civil War History. ISSN 0009-8078 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

This article examines the responses of Union military officers to sexual violence committed by white soldiers against Black women and girls during the Civil War. This article centers on the resulting courts martial to examine changing understandings of race, gender, and sexuality during the conflict. Through highlighting officers’ interventions in trials, this article reveals efforts to balance military discipline with the moral imperatives of protecting vulnerable people. These cases illustrate the broader federal initiative to impose racial equality in military justice, though this project often fell short of true equity. This article also examines the challenges and stereotypes faced by Black women in seeking justice, emphasizing how their testimonies and the support they received from some officers marked a radical departure from the prevailing nineteenth-century social and legal frameworks. This shift underscored the importance of Black communities to the Union war effort and the broader implications for post-war racial and gender dynamics.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/119522
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
Publisher	Kent State University Press
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