Chains of Love by Emily West

Author:Emily West [West, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies
ISBN: 9780252092848
Google: cJhy5N6bRQEC
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2010-10-01T03:57:29+00:00

Gender Exploitation

The exclusive oppression faced by female slaves has provoked considerable scholarly debate. Angela Davis claimed in 1971 that slavery could not infer privilege on black men vis-à-vis black women: “The manslave could not be the unquestioned superior within the ‘family’ or community. … The attainment of slavery’s intrinsic goals was contingent upon the fullest and most brutal utilization of the productive capacities of every man, woman and child. They all had to ‘provide’ for the master.”48 In her analysis of the construction of black womanhood, Davis shows how slave women and men were equal as workers: they were both exploited by owners. Female slaves were also excluded from the ideology of true womanhood that idealized white women through its emphasis on piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.49 However, it remains true that bondage did subject women to gendered oppression, not least because they experienced the “double-day” before most other women in American society.50

Evidence presented here contradicts the assertion that slavery rendered men and women equal as workers. It is true that both were exploited, but the sex-segregation of slaves by owners illustrates how female labor was often regarded as inferior to that of men. Moreover, men had more opportunities than women to obtain skilled or prestigious positions that gave some degree of job satisfaction and helped to break the monotony of the everyday routine. Many historians have questioned the extent to which owners treated male and female laborers equally. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese has claimed that while “no slave holder refrained, out of respect for female delicacy, from letting a slave woman exercise her full strength,” slave women were more inclined to work with other women, since owners reserved certain types of heavy tasks for men.51 Thus, “masters … had differing expectations for the quantities of work that slave men and women should be expected to perform.”52

Fox-Genovese’s analysis of the gender divisions operating in the work lives of slave men and women is similar to that of Deborah G. White, who states that “despite their limited sensitivity to regarding female slave labor … owners did reluctantly acquiesce to female physiology … men were given the more physically demanding work unless there was a shortage of male hands.”53 Certain important tasks were reserved for men, and furthermore, while slaves of both genders would work in the fields during planting, growing, and harvesting, men completed the hard labor of preparing the fields for cultivation by ditching and embanking.54 Marli F. Weiner writes: “Although slaveholders rarely had scruples about charging black women with physically demanding tasks, their assumptions about gender often influenced the assignments they made.” Owners also worried that having men and women working together would disrupt the routine of the working day.55 In this respect, gender discrimination toward female slaves would seem to be in their own interests, since they were given the less arduous tasks. However, such bias could also operate against women. It will later be shown how female slaves were limited in their opportunities for occupational mobility because of their gender.

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