Buck Breaking
Buck Breaking is a supposed practice that occurred on male slaves in the colonial Americas. The practice supposedly involved sodomizing the slave after flogging his back, though this is disputed.
Background
Buck Breaking is a supposed practice that occurred during American and Caribbean slavery that involved flogging a male slave, then the slave would be subsequently sodomized by the enslaver. This process might have been confused for “Bucking”, which was another punishment that involved locking the slave into a “Buck”, then flogging the slave for hours.[1]
Americas
In Rethinking Rufus, Thomas A. Foster provides a description of an instance of the practice, from the perspective of John Brown, about a kidnapped freeborn named John Glasgow, who was enslaved in Georgia. John was caught sneaking out of his plantation and having a secret relationship with his love interest Nancy, which led to him being caught and being punished:[2]
The poor fellow having been stripped stark naked, his hands were fast tied and brought down over his knees, he being compelled, for this purpose, to assume a sitting posture, with his knees doubled up under his chin. A stout stake was then thrust under his hams, so that he was rendered completely powerless. In this position he was turned first on one side then on the other, and flogged with willow switches and the cowhide, until the blood ran down in streams and settled under him in puddles. For three mortal hours he endured this inhuman punishment, groaning piteously all the time, whilst his master looked on and chuckled. At last he was taken out of the buck, and his lacerated body washed down with salt, red pepper, and water. It was two weeks before he went to work again.
Caribbean
Accounts of the practice in the Caribbean have been reported in Jamaica. Thomas Thistlewood, an eighteenth-century planter in Jamaica, noted two instances of homosexual assault on male slaves. In one account, he noted that Mr. Watt, an enslaver, was sodomizing his waiting boy slave. Thistlewood mentioned that the abuse happened only between servants and enslavers, suggesting a form of pederasty on the plantation.[3]
Criticism
Buck Breaking has gained notoriety for being a controversial subject as it has been popularized by viral blogs. The documentary Buck Breaking by Tariq Nasheed explains the supposed institutional rape of male slaves in the colonial era, and the documentary subsequently received backlash due to it being questionable and having few or no sources for the claims.
Legacy
"Buck Breaking" became a popular meme on the /tv/ and /pol/ boards on 4Chan. Spawning terms like "Buck Status: Broken".
Buffalo Shooting
The mass shooter Payton Gendron had written "Buck Status: Broken" on his gun.
References
- ↑ FOSTER, THOMAS A. (2011). "The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 20 (3): 445–464. ISSN 1043-4070.
- ↑ "The Rape of Rufus? Sexual Violence against Enslaved Men". NOTCHES. 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ↑ "Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and the Legacy of Redlining". dsl.richmond.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
External links
Buck Breaking on IMDb Search this movie on 
This article "Buck Breaking" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Buck Breaking. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
