Plantation Mistresses

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how Clinton's book addresses the lives of the plantation women in question. It shows how the book looks at the effects of patriarchy on the lives of the plantation mistresses. Although rich white women certainly had more freedom than slaves, Clinton argues that they, too, faced oppression as a result of patriarchy.

From the Paper:

"Much of the literature concerning women in the South is centered around "chivalrous cavaliers and belles in hoop skirts" (xi). Author Catherine Clinton believes that due to a "New Englandization" of women's history in the United States, much of the lives of Southern women were distorted into myths, folklore and stereotype. As a result, Clinton argues, "relatively little is actually known of women's work in the ante-bellum South" (7). Since much of the literature on life in the South focused on the planters themselves, the lives of white plantation mistresses were further subject to Scarlett O'Hara images."

More papers on Plantation Mistresses:

• Book Review # 101246 : "Females in American Slavery"
• Analytical Essay # 54527 : "Margaret Walker's "Jubilee"
• Research Paper # 122391 : "Development of the Slave Family"

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