White Women Slave Owners

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Of all of the people enslaved in the southern United States over time, 40% of them were owned by women. For example, when she married George Washington in 1759, Martha Washington was herself the enslaver of 84 people.

So why has the trading and enslaving of people been commonly perceived as a male domain? Why, in fact, were many white women so entrenched in this trade in human lives?

In this episode, Don is joined by Dan David Prize Winner, Stephanie Jones Rogers. Stephanie has been exploring the testimonies of these people formerly enslaved by women to find out more about their experiences.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Siobhan Dale. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The famous five are away on a splendid weekend adventure.
0:03.5	Do we have to go home today?
0:05.5	sighed Anne.
0:06.5	I agree said Dick.
0:08.0	Even Timmy looks sad.
0:09.5	Cheer up everyone.
0:11.5	Beams Julian, I booked long weekend tickets we can return anytime on Monday
0:17.0	Oh you are clever Julian said Anne save over 50% with the long weekend a ticket from Great Western Railway.
0:24.5	Adventures start here.
0:26.0	Selected routes turn supply, saving in comparison to an anytime return fare.
0:30.0	Whether it's novels, movies, or in the popular imagination, the usual stereotype of an
0:39.4	enslaver in pre-civil war America is certainly a male.
0:43.0	Today we're going to find out just how wrong this presumption really is.
0:48.0	White women of that era not only owned enslaved people, but profited from them.
0:53.2	For many it was a direct and efficient route to economic empowerment, and as such those same women
0:59.1	would have opposed the abolition of slavery to the strongest possible degree. Hello, this is American History Hit, and I'm Don Wildman.
1:18.0	Welcome and thanks for listening.
1:19.8	The Institution of Slavery in America is historically considered a thoroughly male domain.
1:25.6	The purview of, say, patrician plantation owners who manage their lands and their enslaved labor force
1:31.6	as legal holdings like the rest of everything else in that
1:33.7	patriarchal society and always important to remember prior to the 19th century this was
1:38.7	in the north as well as the south but is a surprising fact to many, including myself, that over time some 40% of the
	...

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