Day 7 - Sukie
Ah, Sukie, Sukie, Sukie…
Sukie was an enslaved woman whose story was nothing short of revolutionary.
As quiet as it is kept in American history books and its historical iterations today, sexual assaults on Black enslaved women were normal.
Sukie’s story, as told by another enslaved woman named Fannie Berry, based on a 1937 Work Projects Administration (WPA) slave narrative, remembered that Sukie was a fierce woman ... who flat-out resisted her master’s sexual advances.
“She tole him no,”, leading to a fight, "Den dat black gal got mad. She took an’ punch ole Marsa an’ made him break loose an’ den she gave him a shove an’ push his hindparts down in de hot pot o’ soap … It burnt him near to death… Marsa never did bother slave gals no mo’,” Berry recounted.
According to WPA accounts, because of this insurrection, Sukie was sold off, but her strong-mindedness remained even while on the auction block, Sukie maintained her self-possession.
Sukie’s brazenness, resistance, and obstinance were traits that other enslaved Black women wielded to withstand the deprivation and disrespect assailed on their bodies by owners. Sukie’s actions of resistances, and the actions of other historical Sukie’s, served as a notice to masters trying to sexually assault other enslaved women.
As Janelle Hobson wrote, “We will probably never know the full story behind Sukie’s actions and what finally happened to her or where she lived out the rest of her life. Maybe she was able to run off, maybe she didn’t survive, maybe she was eventually freed during emancipation, as Berry was.”
What I do know is that Sukie’s protest provides strategies for us today and reminds us that “even within an institutionalized system” Black women can reclaim and maintain their own agency. In a patriarchal, white supremacy infused society, Black women’s stories are necessary and important, and the integrity of our stories is demonstrated best when other Black women hold space to tell them.
In remembering Sukie’s story, The Fannie Lou Hamer Institute of Advocacy & Social Action is excited to introduce “sukie’s revenge,” a womanist truth-telling resistance writing collective comprised of Diasporic girls and women. Through our writings we will honor the spirit of Sukie, by confronting patriarchal white supremacy, its manifestations(micro-aggressions and misogyny), and reject privileged whiteness.
Black women and girls making space for Sukie’s story and their own storytelling find healing and liberation.
#sukie #revolutionaryblackwomen #revolutionary #31daysofrevolutionaryblackwomen