The plantation mistress
Popularity 10
This study of the much-mythologized Southern belle offers a serious look at the lives of white women and their harsh and restricted place in the slave society before the Civil War. Drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of hundreds of planter wives and daughters, the author sets before us the daily life of the plantation mistress and her ambiguous intermediary position in the hierarchy between slave and master.
MistressesPatriarchyPlantation lifePlantation owners' spousesSex customsSlaveholdersSocial life and customsWomen plantation ownersPlantation owners' wivesWomen, united states, historySouthern states, social conditionsPatriarchy--southern states