Race Relations and the Ideology of Domesticity: A Study of the Women's Antebellum South

Melanie Firth

doi:10.6017/eurj.v4i1.9016

Abstract

This paper will examine the relationships that existed between white, southern plantation mistresses and their female slaves. These interactions were shaped by the social mores of the 19th century American South, including the imposition of the "ideology of domesticity" on the mistresses. Equally important to the relationships between mistresses and their slaves were the damaging psychological effects caused by the masters' often frequent sexual liaisons with the slaves. Unfortunately, this created an inherent contradiction in the relationships because while the mistresses were preoccupied with the ideology of domesticity, they simultaneously furthered injustice towards slaves when presented with their husband's sexual exploits. Careful examination of interviews from former slaves taken during the federal writers' project of the 1930s sheds light on these complicated and intricate biracial relationships.

Highlights

Race relations i n the Old South have been studied extensively by historians over the last century
Within the slaveholding south, white mistresses were expected to impart benevolence and religious direction on their slaves as part of their duties as genteel white women under the ideology of domesticity. These mistresses were not always able to live up to social expectations when they were faced with their husband's sexual exploitation of female slaves
Lay one of the great ironies of the institution of slavery i n relation to the ideology of domesticity; the system that was supposed to raise up the white mistress and enable her to fulfill her social obligations towards her slaves as a beacon o f pious morality was the same system that turned many white slaveholding women into jealous and contemptuous sadists as they took out their frustrations and impotence i n the face of their husband's sexual l i aisons with their slaves

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Race relations i n the Old South have been studied extensively by historians over the last century. One aspect of the interaction between blacks and whites i n the antebellum South that is complex was the relationship between white mistresses and their female slaves These relations were defined by various aspects of their surroundings, including the social mores which dictated their lives and the white men who had absolute control over both the black and white women. Never outspoken i n terms of political or social matters, like many "brazen" women to the North, the prototypical Southern woman was a warm and gentle mother and wife She was to be obedient to her husband while at the same time exemplifying ideal Christian piety. The Southern lady was a "symbol of gentility and refinement for plantation culture, designed to fill the requisites of chauvinist stereotype by embracing those qualities slave owners wished to promote . . ."x

THESOUTHERNWOMANAND HER SLAVE

CONCLUSION