How ‘Wench’ Became A Slur Against Black Women

notice of public sale of negroes in 1833
Briona Lamback
December 21, 2024

Back in the day, it was common to hear some elders hurling the word "wench" at Black women and girls. Once an Old English word used to describe a servant of any gender, along the way, its meaning changed and was turned against us.

After the Middle Ages, the word evolved: "In addition to connoting gender, social status, sexual availability, and age, it had become racialized to designate an enslaved [B]lack woman."

Not only was “wench” used as a verbal assault, it also connoted Black women’s inferior status to white women. Black women were called "nasty wenches" because of the hard agricultural labor they performed and their perceived hypersexuality.

Newspaper advertisements for escaped enslaved women often used the phrase to categorize them as "legally and culturally as productive, reproductive, and sexual property." An ad in the February 1777 Independent Chronicle of Boston, Massachusetts, stated: "To Sell–A hearty, likely negro wench, bout 12 or 15 years of age." In 19th-century minstrel shows, “the wench” was caricatured by white men in drag to mock and demean Black women and girls. These images still affect the way society views us.

We must always recognize the true meanings of the words colonialism introduced. Let's watch what we say and always choose to speak power and positivity into one another instead.

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