Shannon Eaves
Associate Professor
Shannon C. Eaves earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently serves as an Associate Professor of African American History here at the College of Charleston. She is a specialist in 19th century U.S. History, African American History, and Slavery and Gender in the Antebellum South.
Her book, Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South, was published by UNC Press in 2024. This study examines how the rape and sexual exploitation of enslaved women created a rape culture that was woven into the very fabric of antebellum society, influencing daily life for both the enslaved and enslavers.
Eaves has been awarded postdoctoral research fellowships from the American Association of University Women and Rutgers University. At the College, she serves on the executive board for the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston and the Committee on Commemoration and Landscapes.
Education
Ph.D. in U.S. History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015
M.A. in U.S. History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010
M.A. in Teaching, University of South Carolina, 2005
B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003
Courses Taught
Comparative Slavery in the Americas
African American History to 1865
African American History since 1865
Civil War and Reconstruction
United States History to 1865
United States History since 1865
History of the New South: 1865-present
Honors and Awards
Dr. Eaves has been awarded fellowships from Rutgers University, the American Association of University Women, the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Department of History at North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School, as well as numerous research grants.
Publications
Book
Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2024.
Book Chapter
“‘The Greater Part of Slaveholders Are Licentious Men’: Articulating a Sexual Exploitation Consciousness in the Antebellum South.” In Ideas in Unexpected Places: Reimagining Black Intellectual History, eds. Leslie M. Alexander, Brandon R. Byrd, and Russell Rickford. Northwestern University Press, 2022.
Works in Progress
“‘It’s Possible That He is the Author of the Poor Thing’s Being’: Interracial Sex and the Battle with Honor.” In The Gendered Republic: Women and Men in the United States, 1776-1861, eds. Craig Thompson Friend and Lorri Glover. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, forthcoming).