On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies welcomed Dr. Shannon Eaves for this year’s Adrenée Glover Freeman Lecture. Hosting Dr. Eaves was a special “homecoming,” as she described, because not only is she a Columbia native, she also earned her M.A. in teaching at USC. Dr. Eaves is an Associate Professor of African American History at the College of Charleston, where she also serves on the executive board of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston. Dr. Eaves recently published her first book, Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South, which she drew on during her lecture.
Dr. Shannon Eaves gave a lecture titled, “Sexual Violence & American Slavery: A Local Examination of the South’s Rape Culture,” examining the systemic sexual exploitation that endured throughout American chattel slavery, framing rape not as a rare occurrence, but as a central mechanism of power and control.
Through the lens of Frederick Douglass’ testimony about witnessing his aunt Hester’s assault by their enslaver, Aaron Anthony, Dr. Eaves highlighted how sexual violence operated as both a means of domination and a formative element of the daily horrors suffered by enslaved people. Her analysis highlights that the trauma of slavery extended beyond the immediate victims to those who bore witness, cultivating a pervasive culture of terror and constant awareness of potential danger. Eaves also emphasized the complex forms of agency enslaved women exercised within this violent system. The stories of women like Mary Walker and Julia Alexander illustrated how experienced sexual exploitation were sometimes strategically used to negotiate limited autonomy and challenge white patriarchal definitions of manhood. By tackling both the normalization of sexual violence and the modes of resistance it produced, Eaves positions rape culture as an enduring structure whose afterlife continues to shape understandings of gender, power, and racial violence in the United States.
Dr. Eaves' lecture was attended by students and faculty as well as many interested community members who were interested in the lecture topic – evident in the insightful questions asked at the end of her lecture. Questions were posed about how the culture impacted the intimate relationships amongst enslaved people, the behavior of the wives of slaveholders, and the functions of community and institution building in the face of such extraordinary community violations.
The turnout and enthusiasm for Eaves' lecture demonstrate the enduring and important issue addressed annually during the Freeman Lecture. During her return to USC, Dr. Eaves had lunch with undergraduate students, and the WGST department had the opportunity to host Dr. Eaves as a guest on our student-run podcast, Women’s and Gender Studies: Unboxed. Listen to the podcast here!
The Adrenée Glover Freeman Lecture in African American Women’s Studies was established in 1993 in memory of Adrenée Glover Freeman, a Columbia attorney who was active in civic affairs and served on the Community Advisory Board of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department. Each year the lecture is given by a prominent African American woman.