Plantation Mistress: Woman’s World in the Old South. By Catherine Clinton. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984). xix + 331 pp.
Catherin Clinton is a professor of history at Queen’s University that is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her specialty is not only American and African history but women’s history as well. ‘Plantation Mistress’ is groundwork research of a Southern beauty that presents the first deliberate and crucial review of the history of white women and their strident and confined place in the community of slavery shortly before the Civil War.
By the means of journals, notebooks, and records of experiences of countless women that were involved in the slavery system, the author presents an everyday routine of the plantation mistress and her enigmatic emissary stance in the hierarchy between a person who serves and a person who gives orders. ‘Plantation Mistress’ disputes and deciphers a multitude of concerns that are correlated with the history of the Old South.
As a historian, the author compels the reader to reevaluate his or her key presumptions towards two idiosyncratic foundations: the institution of slavery and the typical household of the nineteenth century. The author states that “relatively little is known of women’s work in the antebellum south” (p. 109). The wives of that time were more viewed as prisoners in guise. Moreover, she addresses the mundane issue of slavery in a new peculiar way; in consequence of this approach, Catherin Clinton manages to adjust the perception of the Old South and the position of a woman in it for all time.
Throughout the book, the author adheres to the idea of presenting the facts of the existence of plantation mistresses and their endeavors in being an exemplary wife, raising a child, and maintaining the household. “Women, especially upper class, were forced by their parents into marriages of convenience, often to other family members to keep the wealth in the family” (p. 61). Sadly as it was, the women were then considered to be reproductive components that could easily be replaced.
However, in my opinion, the most valuable and substantial offering that the author provides is the display of the impact of slavery on every phase of the life of a woman that endures in the South. The mental outlook for the southerners towards many aspects, such as wedded faithfulness, abortion, and birth control was adopted by the holder of the plantation and his requirements towards both slaves (mostly represented by blacks) and inheritors (whites). “Patriarchy was the bedrock upon which the slave society was founded, and slavery exaggerated the pattern of subjugation that patriarchy had established” (p. 6).
During her book, Catherin Clinton gives notice to her readers not to put one myth in place of the other: the sexless allure of innocence and pampered inaction with the modern idealistic illustration of concealed affection that is eager to break out at any moment. The author emphasizes that both fables, despite being so alluring, appear to be fanciful in equal measure, thus establishing the thesis of her work.
The book ‘Plantation Mistress’ focuses on the mistress of the landowner; throughout the book, the author demonstrates that the wife of a respectable man appeared to be more constrained in her actions than the actual women slaves on their territory; as a result, she was left alone without any assistance from another woman or society, which would help her deal with this encounter. One woman in the same situation wrote, “the Negroes are a weight continually pulling us down! Will the time ever come for us to be free of them?” (p. 145). The author presents the black women slaves as an opposition to the main character in this situation, as they experienced the burdens of the routine work in slavery through the common history and regional cultural subgroup with fellow black laborers.
To support the idea of the book, the author does not avert dubious issues that were misused in contemporary narratives about the antebellum period in history. She manages to reveal the idealized individuality of the adulterous and disloyal white wife by demonstrating that lechery was not an element of the established set of rules for the women in the South.
The author auspiciously uncovers the reality behind the illusion devised on the base of the amiable belles in the antebellum south. Catherine Clinton expertly regenerates the facts of the existence of the controlled and oppressed circle of women, which was glorified by mass media, Hollywood, and the prominent press for more than one hundred and fifty years. She has achieved her goal by the means of establishing the recreational time of the mistress of the landowner as a not so appealing fairy tale of the Old South: “The planter’s wife was in charge not merely of the mansion but the entire spectrum of domestic operations throughout the estate, from food and clothing to the physical and spiritual care of both her white family and her husband’s slaves” (p. 125).
Furthermore, to envision the restrictions and servitude of the white women that belong to the upper class, the reader has to observe it through the prism of slavery and the power of males. Men of the South were the only legitimate owners of the household; as a result, most of their white mistresses were deprived of the luxury of having their guide and the identity in general. The males were seen as the heads of the household, and they had to be obeyed. “All the comfort of my life depends on his being in good humor” (p. 231).
This state of affairs meant that until the white mistress and the slaves of the household knew their place, the master treated them pleasantly. In support of her thesis, the author states it was a common practice to grant a woman with the only privilege – a privilege of being sheltered and protected by her master. However, if a woman dared to violate the word of her master, he had a legal right to abuse his women slaves or his mistress.
According to the author, wives were considered as much enslaved like blacks. “It did not, however, suggest that all upper-classmen were abusive of their patriarchal position or the women of their households; it merely pointed out that it was within their rights and prerogatives to have done so” (p. 167). The arguments of the author are extremely efficient and convincing, as she provided a fair and eye-opening view of the plantation mistresses’ lives in the Old South.
The book ‘Plantation Mistress’ provides a renewed vision of the realities of women of the South and debunks the myths that were implemented by mass media. As the book suggests something new and unexplored to discover, it was interesting to me and definitely would be compelling for other readers. The style of the author captures the attention of a reader from the very beginning of the book to an end readily in a mesmerizing and charming fashion.
Moreover, the author proves her theses and points of view with facts, statistics and written evidence of that period; by the means of evaluating more than five hundred pieces of written evidence such as manuscripts, letters, family records and so on she gathers enough evidence to support the thesis of ‘Plantation Mistress’. As a result, the idealistic and romantic perspective of the life of a landowner’s wife is comprehensively dispersed throughout the story.
The only denunciation I have to note about this book is that the author mostly relies on the letters and the diary entries that were taken on the plantations of various acreages and at various times. I believe that these are the factors that impact the lives of the women, both slaves, and mistresses: the wider the territory is, the more the mistress is entangled. To my opinion, the author failed to take the diversity of the plantations and rules of different times into consideration, this altering the realities of women’s lives.
The book is well-written and easy to perceive, thus making it suitable for the audience of all ages and levels of education. ‘Plantation Mistress’ would be of particular interest both to students and educators who are exploring the American, African-American, and women’s history. I consider the book to be a work of great demand that appeared as a result of the current prominence of the women’s history exploration.