What
I found sinister as well as ingenious was how white wealth was held in the families.
The female would get the slaves and the sons would get the land, that way when
they moved on and married other people it was a match made in heaven, she had
the slaves to work the land she just married into.
White
women were very much a part of slavery and all its dealings. However; we have
been programmed to believe that white women were innocent when it came to slavery and that they were not
aware of “men folks business.”
On the
contrary, many were being groomed into being successful slave mistresses, just
as their counter-parts.
From the book: They Were Her Property: White Women who were Slave Owners in the American South, many slaves were giving to white women as
wedding gifts…one slave recalls that one of his owners gave his daughter “50
niggers as a gift…”
I find
it interesting that early on during slavery… black women were discourage in
having children; because it took away from their “white women bearing children…”, but in 1808 when slavery became
illegal from Africa. That law drastically effect white folks income…therefore
the prize was child-bearing enslaved females, so they could now breed and begin
to record those unions and off-springs…
Slave
owning females are recorded forcing their female slaves to have sex with
different black men…it did not matter whether that black female was “married.”
One of
the many stories of white slave owning women was that how one- started with 30
slaves; however within 10 years she had over 100 all she created mixing and
matching black men or any other ((white)) man that paid “the right price” impregnating
her “good-nigger
gals…” One slave recalls hearing
his white slave owner saying “she wouldn’t depart from her favorite
breeding nigger girl for no amount of money!…”
Because white women had loss
their legal rights to their goods…if there was not a legal letter stating that
their property was solely theirs before they got married. When I women got
married she was called a “feme covert” or married woman. Many white women
fathers would leave wills stating that they gave slaves to their daughters to
use at their own well and not to be included with their husbands property…that
way this legal paper protected their daughters property from her (future)
husband(s) misfortunes… because many white men did lose a lot of their belongs
and the creditors would sometimes try and take their wives property for
payment.
Even
though white woman had some restrictions, they at least had the opportunity to
have their voices be heard thru the courts, without fear of being killed, raped
or their husbands being mutilated for speaking up.
It was also believed that
enslaved peoples didn’t understand what was going on around them, this is a
myth: according to the recordings left by freed and former slaves “they were
very aware…” what their owners** were doing; considering it was them that was being sold. Many enslaved
people also knew what would happen if their owners died with NO will(s) and the
risk of being sold to someone else.
White women were often at
odds with their mates, even though they had some say when their husbands fucked
up, they also wanted some form of protection (law) and would often fight for
it. Also, white women did not like their husbands very much, and I feel that
most white women got married because of their religious beliefs, but more so
for social status. And they reproduced with these men only because they both
were on the same understood, that nothing was in their way in creating wealth
and a legacy.
Yet
black people did not have this luxury. We were shipped here together; as a
collective, as one unit. We are in this fight together, there is no individual
success story, even with white families today; as well as the past, and there
was not just one individual that was successful. It was a network, a joint
effort to make sure that the wealth stayed in the family…and they made sure
that every slave they owned-that those descendants of those slaves-they owned as well.
My thoughts
and understanding on the Book: They Were Her Property
A ADOS book club selection.
**slaves
did not refer to their owners as “master”
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