History of subincision in slavery

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TetherSpout
Posts: 282
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:25 am

History of subincision in slavery

Post by TetherSpout »

Back in the 70’s, in the TV miniseries Roots, Kunta Kinte is depicted as having had the end of his right foot chopped off as punishment for having tried to escape. This was supposedly common practice. I never believed it. If blood loss, gangrene and infection didn’t kill him, it would have taken months before he could walk again and he never would have again been as useful as before. It made no sense. What slave owner would do that?

A friend told me that what often really happened was that they would slice the slave’s urethra clear down to the base of his penis with scissors or a knife (no merciful clamp & cut technique there), stemming the bleeding with hot tar or pitch after sticking a twig in his new peehole. The story was that the pain, the disfigurement and scarring of his penis, and the humiliation of from then on having to forever squat to pee like a woman, would make any slave think twice about trying to escape. It also effectively made slaves sterile, while for repeat offenders there was still the possibility of castration and penectomy. Most importantly, from an owner’s perspective, whether just sub incised, or castrated and worse, slaves could return to work almost immediately.

At the time I didn’t believe that story either, especially not the part my friend added about owners still being able to breed the slave, by jerking him off and collecting his semen just like any other piece of livestock. That might have been possible, but I doubt anyone thought of it at the time. I think, being a vet student who was just learning about artificial insemination, my friend's imagination and wishful thinking got the better of him.

In any event, I had grave doubts about the practice of subincision and whether it was even real until many decades later when I saw my first actual sub incised cock. I have since learned that subincision was and remains quite common in many aboriginal societies, and of course is now quite common in our own modern society. But I haven’t been able to find any historic reference to it having been used as punishment or a deterrent to stop slaves from escaping in the US. If anyone knows whether this actually occurred, or knows of any historic references, please speak up. Besides being of prurient interest, I think it is important to know how American slaves were sexually treated in the past.
kalahari.
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:56 pm

Re: History of subincision in slavery

Post by kalahari. »

I don't remember that from the series, but I do remember Kunta Kinte being circumcised. You didn't see anything "interesting", but he stood in a line of other boys and was told to "Hold out your fitou" (I remembered that word!). The circumciser came along and cut off each boy's foreskin in turn with a sharp blade, with no anaesthetic.
K
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