An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America's Domestic Slave Trade

Abstract

In An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America's Domestic Slave Trade, Alexandra J. Finley reconstructs the connections between the domestic, economic, and sexual labor that enslaved women performed in the making of the domestic slave trade in the antebellum American South. Finley uncovers the experiences of a small group of enslaved women to explore how bondswomen's work propelled the economy of slavery at the height of the internal slave trade. In a journey that starts in Richmond, Virginia, and weaves through the cotton South to New Orleans, Louisiana, Finley delves into the ineluctable relationship between the domestic slave trade and enslaved women's labor, illuminating the complexities of Black women's lives as concubines, seamstresses, housekeepers, and maids. She argues that it was enslaved women who completed the essential work that kept slave traders wealthy and kept the slave trade functioning through the antebellum and Civil War eras. Through deploying the concepts of the sexual, domestic, and reproductive economies of slavery, Finley unpacks how enslaved women's domestic labor was hidden in plain sight and how their work enriched the men who owned and partnered with them.One of Finley's strengths in An Intimate Economy is her adeptness at uniting the personal stories of women who have historically been difficult to locate in the archive. Utilizing feminist and legal theories of the sexual economy, Finley traces the tethers of enslaved women's lives and does so without losing sight of their extraordinary and difficult circumstances. In each chapter, Finley shows that enslaved women experiences were entangled with white men who became rich during the spree for enslaved labor in the nineteenth century. These women made difficult choices about their survival—and the survival of their children—within slaveholding societies where enslavers valued them based on their gender, skills, color, and contributions to the domestic economy.Finley begins with Corinna Hinton, or Corinna Omohundro, an enslaved woman who lived in Richmond, Virginia, as the enslaved mistress, housekeeper, and partner of Richmond slave trader Silas Omohundro. To understand Hinton's proximity to Omohundro, Finley poses a provocative question: Is it possible to understand the relationship between Silas Omohundro and Corinna Hinton “in the absence of legal consent and personhood?” (p. 31). In other words, can we understand Corinna Hinton on her own terms, outside of her relationship with Omohundro? According to Finley, we can. Corinna Hinton made strategic choices for herself and her children, while living and working with Omohundro as his wife and the manager of his domestic affairs. Even if enslaved women such as Hinton were trafficked in the “fancy trade” and sold into sexual slavery, they found ways to carve out spaces for themselves to survive the traumas of slavery and the challenges of concubinage.Moreover, Finley explores how the domestic economy of slavery shaped enslaved women's lives in important ways. Drawing attention to the enslaved seamstresses who worked for Richmond slave trader Hector Davis, Finley shows how enslaved women sewed the clothing that enslaved people wore on the auction block. The enslavers that Finley highlights increasingly relied on enslaved women to make the clothing for the enslaved people being sold to support their profits from slavery.Throughout An Intimate Economy, Finley tracks the connections between enslaved women, their enslavers, and the legality of enslavers’ property rights over their enslaved concubines and partners. She approaches the intersections of sexual violence, agency, and resistance with a nuance that underlies her understanding of the complexities of enslaved women's lives. Sarah Ann Conner and Lucy Ann Cheatham are examples. Conner was the enslaved concubine of Theophilus Freeman, the New Orleans slave trader who sold Solomon Northup into slavery in Louisiana. In examining Conner's life, Finley stays attuned to the ways in which enslaved women made choices about how to survive the violence and unpredictability of slavery. Lucy Ann Cheatham was enslaved in Richmond and New Orleans, serving as a housekeeper and the partner for her enslaver. For Conner and Cheatham, their roles within the domestic sphere of their enslavers reveal the convergence of the sexual and domestic economies of slavery in antebellum America.Ultimately, Finley shows how enslaved women's sexual labor was both visible and veiled. In an analysis that shows the increased contributions of enslaved women to the economy of slavery in the antebellum era, Finley deftly restores enslaved women to the center of the domestic slave trade in America. She reminds us of the value of women's work in nineteenth-century America, never losing sight of the extractive nature of American slavery and American capitalism. Although the contributions of enslaved women were often hidden, Finley convincingly shows that the sexual economy of slavery for enslaved women was subsumed under the umbrella of domestic labor.