Castration of slaves was exemplary punishment, not a project to destroy masculinity.
Evidence
If white women and men had really been obsessed by the idea of destroying black masculinity, they could have physically castrated all black men aboard slave ships or they could easily have forced black men to assume “feminine” attire or perform so-called “feminine” tasks. White slave-holders were ambivalent in regards to their treatment of the black male, for while they exploited his masculinity, they institutionalized measures to keep that masculinity in check. Individual black men were castrated by their owners or by mobs but the purpose of such acts was usually to set an example for other male slaves so that they would not resist white authority. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 59
Related
- Slavery stripped black men of patriarchy but not of masculinity. (similarity 0.83)
- Slavers exercised unchecked power over unshackled black women on slave ships. (similarity 0.79)
- Black women’s exploitation is better described as masculinization than black men’s de-masculinization. (similarity 0.78)