What is the role of brutality and violence in maintaining the peculiar institution of slavery?

Misogyny (and the resulting sexual abuse) is a vital piece of Northup's commentary on slavery. In his initial introduction of Patsey, Northup describes how as "The enslaved victim of lust and hate, Patsey had no comfort of her life" (135). As a female slave, Patsey was forced to succumb to Epp's sexual violence and physical violence. She not only belonged to him as a means of picking cotton, but sexual gratification as well.

Epp was therefore possessive of her in two ways: as the best cotton picker on his farm, and as a body he could claim. This inspired the jealousy that leads to the violence Patsey is victim to near the end of the novel, wherein Epp whips her until she is unconscious after she went to their neighbor's house for soap. A male slave would not have been subjected to this, and Northup recognizes this in his narrative: "If ever there was a broken heart — one crushed and blighted by the rude grasp of suffering and misfortune — it was Patsey's" (188).