First, what is “BUCK-breaking” (aka, buck-busting), a cruel and unusual punishment deployed by white slave masters during America’s chattel slavery era?
Buck breaking was a form of extremely sadistic punishment used by American slave masters who grew angry at African slaves who were male, defiant, or disobedient. As a result, homosexual slave masters would flog and rape the male slaves as a way to quickly emasculate and discipline them before their families and the broader slave community.
Essentially the male slave would be forced to lower his pants and bend forward over a tree stump or similar protrusion so that his buttocks were propped up and allowed for easy anal sex. Either the slave master, or someone else he relied upon (apparently family members, too), would then flog the slave to an almost unconscious state. The slave’s circumstances would then turn for the worse as the slave master began acting on his “sadistic” homosexual urges and proceeded to rape the slave in front of his wife, kids, and community. What’s even more humiliating is that the slave master would invite other white homosexual males to participate in the atrocious sodomizing act. Thereafter, the humiliated slave would be coerced by the slave master to wear his trousers without a belt so that they’d sag. Akin to branded cattle, the sagging pants served as proof that the slave had been aptly broken in. Needless to add, it was the ultimate emasculation of the African male slave for being defiant toward his white slave masters. To help ease the humiliation, sometimes the slaves would escape the plantation, leaving their families behind, or even commit suicide.
All things considered, buck breaking was an ungodly, evil disciplinary tool employed to strike fear into the hearts of African male slaves, their families, peers, and the community alike, in that they were never to challenge their slave masters on any level. Regrettably, African male slaves who endured the horrific brutality and humiliation would sometimes commit suicide or abandon their families altogether.
This may also interest you: “5 horrifying ways enslaved African men were sexually exploited and abused by their white masters” | And this, “The Story of Pata Seca, The Enslaved Man to Father 200 Children” | And this, a “Buck Breaking Official Film Trailer” | And this, “It’s estimated that 40 percent of slave owners may have been white women.” | And this, “Sexual Exploitation of the Enslaved” | And this, the “Transatlantic Slave Trade” | And lastly, this, “Impact of Slavery on Black Gay Masculinity and Desire” (Perhaps this article provides some context and logical reasoning around homophobia among Black men in the broader Black community).
