Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South

From Library Journal
This book challenges the myth of the Southern mammy and other myths and attempts a richer, more complex pic ture of the lives of black women in slav ery. Drawing on historical evidence, in cluding slave narratives and the diaries and autobiographies of white Southern ers, as well as on recent scholarship on the black family, the author examines slave women's daily life, occupations, family roles, and female networks. She finds strength and resourcefulness, but denies that female slaves played a dom ineering role in their families. Her view will be of interest to scholars, especial ly those studying comparative female social roles. For most readers, howev er, the story of slave women is better told in Jacqueline Jones's comprehen sive work on black women, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow (LJ 3/1/85). Mary Drake McFeely, Smith Coll. Lib., Northampton, Mass.Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Carl N. Degler, Stanford University
Original and balanced. . . . [A] splendidly written book.


Anne Firor Scott, Duke University
This is one of those rare books that quickly became the standard work in its field. Professor White has done justice to the complexity of her subject.


Book Description
Living with the dual burdens of racism and sexism, slave women in the plantation South assumed roles within the family and community that contrasted sharply with traditional female roles in the larger American society. This new edition of Ar'n't I a Woman? reviews and updates the scholarship on slave women and the slave family, exploring new ways of understanding the intersection of race and gender and comparing the myths that stereotyped female slaves with the realities of their lives. Above all, this groundbreaking study shows us how black women experienced freedom in the Reconstruction South-their heroic struggle to gain their rights, hold their families together, resist economic and sexual oppression, and maintain their sense of womanhood against all odds.


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White (history, Rutgers U.) shows how women in the plantation south assumed very different roles in the family and community than in traditional African society. She explores the intersection of race and gender, compares the myths that stereotyped female slaves with the reality of their lives, and discusses how they experienced freedom during Reconstruction. The first edition was published in 1985. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)


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