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How Should We Look at Rape in Early America?
Author(s) -
Block Sharon
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00323.x
Subject(s) - sexual coercion , coercion (linguistics) , psychology , sexual assault , sexual behavior , criminology , social psychology , suicide prevention , developmental psychology , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , linguistics , philosophy
While rape may not have affected events associated with traditional linear histories, sexual assaults were regular features of early American life that affected individuals and society at large. But how should historians determine the influence of rape on early America? Based on nearly one thousand incidents of possible sexual coercion and hundreds of extra‐legal commentaries on rape, this article explore how early Americans discussed rape and what impact it may have had on their lives. Attending to the micro and the macro influences of rape can help historians understand early Americans’ worlds and relationships to one another.