Rewriting the Rape of Rachel: Historical Methods, Historical Justice

Abstract: "Rewriting the Rape of Rachel" offers a critical reflection on my own historical practice in light of recent scholarship in feminist, Black, Indigenous, and critical archival studies as well as the growth of digitization and digital humanities. Centering my previously published work as a document for revision, I retell the rape of Rachel Davis by her uncle in the early nineteenth century by placing that act within family, community, and life-course narratives. In doing so, I offer a feminist methodology that centers traditionally marginalized historical subjects, sees archival silences as productive, engages in historical research as a community endeavor, and promotes ethical concerns that connect past and present. This approach reshapes how we might understand sexual violence and questions the terms by which we produce historical scholarship.