"A meticulously documented and gut-wrenching account of the gratuitous acts of violence
against women's bodies, black and white, slave and free, young and old... A major work of
scholarship that was long overdue, and that all historians should be grateful
for."
—Susan Brownmiller, author, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape
The American Civil War is often regarded as a
"low-rape" war, due to gentlemanly "restraint." Nearly thirty Union soldiers were executed
for the crime. As a result, rape is perceived to have been dealt with harshly. On the
surface, the numbers reflect the view that rape was indeed far from widespread. In
reality, few soldiers received harsh punishment for a crime considered a capital offense in
the nineteenth century.
I Had Rather Die is the first book dedicated to the topic of rape during
the war. Through newspapers, Official Records, diaries, letters, and
court-martial documents, Kim Murphy exposes the misrepresentations about the topic of
rape during the war. Not only were women raped during times of battle, but those who
bravely stepped forward to name their attackers were interrogated in the justice system,
often by their assailants. Courts-martial revolved around a woman's consent and her
degree of resistance against a man's force. Poor and black women frequently had their
reputations called into question. For far too long, women's claims have been dismissed
as hearsay and propaganda. Behind the brother-against-brother war lurks the hidden war
of brother against sister.
|