The book analyses the lives of white females with regard to the harsh conditions they encountered in the slave social order prior to the Civil War. The author focuses on the letters, diaries as well as memoirs of hundreds of planer women and daughters. The book provides dramatic details relating to the day to day life with reference to the mistress and the uncertainty of her liaison situation in the hierarchical setting between the master and slave. Further, the author brings to the fore the challenges stumbled upon by the plantation mistress and makes informing interpretations as regards the circumstances in the Old South.
A reading of the book provides quality insight that provokes a rethinking in relation to the fundamental presumptions regarding two key institutions which are family during the 19th century as well as the slave plantations. The author provides varying approaches to the assumptions thereby altering the perception of people in relation to the life of women in the early Old South population. As such, the author provides information that fundamentally alters the thought of leisurely women and describes a vivid image of a life resplendent with inconsistency flanked by daily activities and the symbolic roles played by women. Such contradictions are depicted as the main antecedent to which activities denoting slavery were hinged.
Consequently, according to the author, although the women are regarded as people who were agile and worked hard as evidenced by the fact that the family based economy thrived more in the South. To this, the plantation mistress was projected as the key person that triggered such advancement due to her ability as a skilled worker and as an administrator. Conversely, the mistress is depicted as having been accorded the moral authority over her family as well as slaves yet had no power to back such authority. This is clearly brought out by the fact that the mistress could struggle to impose discipline and order among the slaves yet the latter were fully aware of the existence of the distinct authority along the color and gender aspects.
The plantation mistress was further provided education opportunity which could be a stepping stone towards achieving the status of a statesperson but was denied the opportunities of putting the education to such use in her matrimonial life. This is also evidenced by the fact that the book provides information to the effect that in the event that the attention of women drifted of their husbands and the property as well as the slaves belonging to their husbands, the same could stray to a significant assault on the social order. Subsequently, the circumstances and challenges became heightened in the wake of increased deliberations regarding the foregoing concerns (Clinton, 1983, pg 18).
Subsequently, the emergence of the civil war only acted as a trigger that amplified the already inexistence tension, deepened the moral predicament and increased the challenges that ultimately denoted the difficulties of the plantation mistress within the slave society. In response some women engaged in prayer while others engaged in laudanum dependence. As such they were belles of the ball for some years and afterward prisoners of the plantation structure without end.
The author further provides information relating the relationship that existed between the women and men in a multifaceted society. By expertly intertwining the existing literary observations for instance ‘a British Traveler and the remarks relating to southern women. This is evidenced by the author of the plantation by providing that she did not approve the juvenile era at which the y flourished and decayed (Clinton, 1983, pg. 61). The narrative clearly presents the aspect summary in relation to gender and the matrimonial dynamics. Clinton therefore opines that the lady pedestal view was characterized by the slavery connotations as well as the world disillusionment.
Consequently, the increased use of letters, plantation records and the existing diaries provide an important insight through a proper flow of information. The book further provides precise information with the thematic expressions well articulated. For instance, the book brings to the fore each issue resourcefully and emotively. This has been done through the recounting the characteristics concerning the dreadfulness of slavery especially in relation to inequality of women within the Northern society.
It is evident from the book that the women during the Civil War era were basically treated almost like slaves. This is clear for even in the most sumptuous plantations, the house mistress was expected to carry out chores such as making clothes, making butter and cream, educating children as well as ensuring that all valuables were safely kept from house hold helps. The lives that house mistresses went through, according to the narrative, resemble prison life. To this the author states that even white women who were from wealthier families could not move out of the compound without being accompanied by a white man yet the husband could hardly ever be home. In precise terms, women in the foregoing situation could find themselves deceived and ensnared.
Further indication of the problems encountered by women include the fact that women were expected to make exceptions with reference to what on earth sexual exploits their male companion or any other white gentlemen of the plantation might do. However, the exemption could only be exercised by the fact that a white woman could only beat banish, the woman since they could not act in any way that could question the husband’s betrayal. Accordingly, in some residential plantations, a wife was supposed to grow herbs spin thread knit socks, darn clothes and preserve vegetables. According to the plantation, the women were also supposed to bring up children since only the wealthiest families hired mammies. With regard to the foregoing, most inhabitants were certain that the plantation mistress was the absolute slave within the plantation.
With regard to the letters, the author has shown that they were mostly riddled with complaints. Such complaints show that indeed women resented their treatment by men even though they did not resist their enslavement. From the book we also learn that the transformation of belle to matron was usually rushed and distressing. Information is supported by the fact for unmarried daughters, they could be free to engage in fashion plates, relate at their leisure and act with no care and sense of responsibility. Such young women could swiftly n get wedded. Such new weds could then be moved on from their comfort zones and taken to secluded plantations where they could be expected to all of a sudden know how to carry out chores in relation to handling their land and their new families. As expected most newlyweds were untrained for such tasks. Most men faulted the education and suggested that less education for females ought to be taught from books and emphasis be made dairy and kitchen related matters.
As a consequence of the preceding, the book provides that the mistresses were completely engaged in chores during the day while their nights were often denoted by expression of grief. Subsequently, the married belles aged radically duet to plantation life. Further, they found it tough to get the romance they were so accustomed to before their marriage. Conversely, the author points out that the only joy among the abruptly married belles was the thrill of establishing their own families yet even such prospects and achievements, according were not without complications.
Although many women were excited by the prospect of starting own families, there was also a fear factor due to the fact that situations of death at childbirth as well as giving birth to stillborns were prevalent. From the book, the fact that married women were taken to remote and very large plantations suggests a trend where the belles and women in general were uprooted from the society and close by town settings. Further, the author discusses the issue of delivery of child as the mainly notable appreciation within families. Nevertheless, female children were discriminated against. Giving birth to a female child was therefore perceived as a disappointment since southerners who were without sons were faced with the annihilation of their family name and bequest. The author notes that such circumstances were experienced because sons were perceived as the only ones who were capable of enduring family customs and the ultimate continuation family name.
Moreover, another complication relating to plantation mistress is the issue of cousin marriages. The author has ably discussed the issue. According to the book, such marriages were prompted by the fact that even in their childhood cousins developed close interactions that subsisted during their life. The reason provided in the book is that the children were often isolated from other members of the society therefore had limited interactions. Another reason for such marriages according to Clinton was the need by families to retain family wealth within the family.
Conclusion
The book provides a credible material which expands the understanding of regional aspects relating to the historical characteristics of women as well as a comprehensive study of the Southern facets concerning womanhood. The author also provides the women as having been slightly more than slaves themselves. The book is a great read and the information provided can be relied upon for further research on the subject since it is based on actual letter that are still in existence from that period in the past.
The book provides considerable insight with reference to the untidy life of white females within the slavery social order. The author further provides precise information while recounting the challenges that the women faced in their day to day responsibilities. The confessions in the letters used by the author in compiling the book further amplify the authenticity of the information relating to the problems encountered by the women during an unpopular period in the history of America. Consequently, the book gives credible groundwork for the study of antebellum southern women. It queries the established thinking concerning the plantation mistresses and the themes characterized their existence. Most of all, the information provided helps researchers and readers in establishing the potential of white women.
Work Cited
Clinton, C. (1983). The Plantation Mistress: Woman's World in the Old South. New York: Pantheon Books.
