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A review by iygatac_reads
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Jones-Rogers pulls on various sources, including interviews with formally enslaved people that were conducted as part of the Works Progress Administration, court documents, and contemporary print sources, to illuminate the role that white women played in slavery. Her investigation reveals the full extent to which slave-owning women were active participants in the slave economy. These women were also no less brutal than white men in the way they interacted with the enslaved people they owned or came into contact with.
I listened to this on audiobook since it was available to borrow on Libby and I wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to read a physical copy. I learned a lot, but I feel this is one that I have to get a physical copy of so I can re-read it and make highlights and notes. There is a lot that's covered in this book.
While listening to this history, I was making connections to the present day - to how we can trace a thread from slave-owning white women and their ideas of, sense of entitlement to, and actions toward enslaved persons and Africans in general to present-day white women and the way they relate to and speak about Black people.
Content warnings and notes: When quoting interviewees and other sources, the n-word and other slurs are written out in the text/read out in the audiobook
I listened to this on audiobook since it was available to borrow on Libby and I wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to read a physical copy. I learned a lot, but I feel this is one that I have to get a physical copy of so I can re-read it and make highlights and notes. There is a lot that's covered in this book.
While listening to this history, I was making connections to the present day - to how we can trace a thread from slave-owning white women and their ideas of, sense of entitlement to, and actions toward enslaved persons and Africans in general to present-day white women and the way they relate to and speak about Black people.
Content warnings and notes: When quoting interviewees and other sources, the n-word and other slurs are written out in the text/read out in the audiobook
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence
Content warnings - everything to do with slavery. The n-word is written out (spoken in the audiobook), along with other slurs, since quotes from former enslaved people and others are used in full.