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Title details for Ties That Bound by Marie Jenkins Schwartz - Available

Ties That Bound

Founding First Ladies and Slaves

by Marie Jenkins Schwartz
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Behind every great man stands a great woman. And behind that great woman stands a slave. Or so it was in the households of the Founding Fathers from Virginia, where slaves worked and suffered throughout the domestic environments of the era, from Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Montpelier to the nation's capital. American icons like Martha Washington, Martha Jefferson, and Dolley Madison were all slaveholders. And as Marie Jenkins Schwartz uncovers in Ties That Bound, these women, as the day-to-day managers of their households, dealt with the realities of a slaveholding culture directly and continually, even in the most intimate of spaces.

Unlike other histories that treat the stories of the First Ladies' slaves as separate from the lives of their mistresses, Ties That Bound closely examines the relationships that developed between the First Ladies and their slaves. For elite women and their families, slaves were more than an agricultural workforce; slavery was an entire domestic way of life that reflected and reinforced their status. In many cases slaves were more constant companions to the white women of the household than were their husbands and sons, who often traveled or were at war. By looking closely at the complicated intimacy these women shared, Schwartz is able to reveal how they negotiated their roles, illuminating much about the lives of slaves themselves, as well as class, race, and gender in early America.

By detailing the prevalence and prominence of slaves in the daily lives of women who helped shape the country, Schwartz makes it clear that it is impossible to honestly tell the stories of these women while ignoring their slaves. She asks us to consider anew the embedded power of slavery in the very earliest conception of American politics, society, and everyday domestic routines.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 6, 2017

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780226460727
      • File size: 3051 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780226460727
      • File size: 3051 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2017

      Schwartz (emerita, history, Univ. of Rhode Island) addresses the rare mention of the integral roles of domestic slaves and their mistresses in the biographies of America's founders. Martha Washington, Martha Jefferson and daughter Polly, and Dolley Madison managed endless household business as well as their staffs of domestic slaves. Schwartz explains the paradox that slavery was central to upholding the status of social and political elites who championed equality and liberty. This book details the attitudes of these Virginian slave mistresses toward slavery in general, and their domestic servants in particular (some of whom were their own half relatives), and outlines the complicated issues regarding emancipation. Schwartz outlines day-to-day household activities of mistresses and bound servants that supported the lavish lifestyle of three presidents. She addresses the complex and tense interrelationships that defined the drama of slaveholding: privileged whites did not regard black slaves as equal beings, and considered themselves kind masters who feared sabotage, insurrection, and worse. Slaves pretended to return their treatment with thankfulness, caring, and loyalty, but sometimes challenged authority by feigning illness, injury, forgetfulness, or taking flight. VERDICT This engaging and thorough examination of the relationships between first ladies and their slaves will be of interest to all readers.--Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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