They Were Her Property by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
Using extensive archival evidence, the book demonstrates that white Southern women were active agents in the system of slavery: they bought, sold, managed, and exploited enslaved people, deploying maternal rhetoric and legal authority to justify and profit from bondage. By tracing probate records, bills of sale, correspondence, and runaway notices, the author overturns the myth of the passive, benevolent mistress and shows how women’s property rights and economic ambitions made them central to the violence, sexual exploitation, and commercialization of enslaved labor. The study reframes how gender and capitalism operated together to sustain slavery and highlights women’s direct responsibility for and benefit from the institution.
- Published
- 2019
- Nationality
- American
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
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