 Slaves were frequently forced into undesired sexual liaisons with each other as well, based on the whims or the breeding plans of their owners. Ultimately, as Collins observes, “Black women as a class emerged from slavery as collective rape victims” (2005, 223), and the rape of black women, like the lynching of black men, was a centerpiece of Klan activity post-Emancipation. Collins points out, however, that unlike lynching, black women’s sexual abuse by white men during and after slavery did not become a central or universally understood icon of American racism. The legacy of slavery and its attendant ideologies has meant that, both legally and socially, “for most of American history the crime of rape of a Black woman did not exist” (Roberts 1997, 31).