They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy
 
“Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate
 
“Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
 
“Bracingly revisionist. . . . [A] startling corrective.”—Nicholas Guyatt, New York Review of Books
 
Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market.
 
Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.
1129229955
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy
 
“Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate
 
“Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
 
“Bracingly revisionist. . . . [A] startling corrective.”—Nicholas Guyatt, New York Review of Books
 
Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market.
 
Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.
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They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)

They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)

by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)

They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (LA Times Book Prize Winner)

by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

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Overview

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy
 
“Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate
 
“Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
 
“Bracingly revisionist. . . . [A] startling corrective.”—Nicholas Guyatt, New York Review of Books
 
Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market.
 
Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300251838
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 01/07/2020
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 12,797
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is associate professor and Chancellor’s Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Dan David Prize in 2023 for her scholarship.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Mistresses of the Market ix

1 Mistresses in the Making 1

2 "I Belong to de Mistis" 25

3 "Missus Done Her Own Bossing" 57

4 "She Thought She Could Find a Better Market" 81

5 "Wet Nurse for Sale or Hire" 101

6 "That 'Oman Took Delight in Sellin' Slaves" 123

7 "Her Slaves Have Been Liberated and Lost to Her" 151

8 "A Most Unprecedented Robbery" 181

Epilogue: Lost Kindred, Lost Cause 200

Notes 207

Bibliography 253

Acknowledgments 275

Index 279

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