Gender Race And Rank In A Revolutionary Age Sparknotes

Gender, Race, and Rank in a Revolutionary Age, was written by Betty Wood and surveys the diverse groups of women around the time of the revolutionary era. Dr. Betty Wood is a prominent scholar and has written many articles and books in the specific areas of early American and African American history in the colonial and revolutionary era Lowcountry. Because women’s history during that era is not well documented, her analysis of early American women during the revolutionary era is important. This book shows how women were linked by gender but divided by their race and social positions; it survey’s how their race and social standings affected their relations and encounters with each other during the fast growth of a slave based plantation society.

Christian masters and mistresses believed they were ultimately accountable for both the substantial and spiritual wellbeing of their slaves and servants. Servants and slaves were believed to docile and obedient. For women who aspired to become “ladies” their quest for gentility led to certain ideologies. “Ladies” were to possess matriarchy and maternalism. In Lowcountry some of the prevalent slaveholders were women. Less often than men, women did not free enslaved women from slavery. The men would release enslaved women sometimes based on services rendered. Although it may not have been a leading service, but sexual behaviors played a part in defining the relationships built between white women and enslaved black women. While relations existed between white men and enslaved African American women those relationships may have influenced why the enslaved women were not released from slavery after their mistress or master died. It may be symptomatic as a intentional form of punishment for the enslaved African American women. Enslaved women depending on their work could utilize varying quantities of time with their mistresses and female owners. Although not recorded my mistresses some “plantation mistresses” begrudged their maternal duties. Enslaved women were lashed out at by their mistresses perhaps from the frustration of having their maternal duties. For ladies the ideal of gentility necessitated a

In 1801 the plans to build a female boarding school in Savannah was initiated by the ladies of Lowcountry. The Female Asylum was a boarding school for orphans between the ages of 3 and 10 for underprivileged mothers. It was a public expression of the “ideal of gentility” and also the ideologies of both maternalism and matriarchy. African American women’s plight was not addressed when establishing this school. A Board of Trustees was established in order to handle the affairs of the school. The boarding school played a central role as an elite women’s endeavor to reorder the behavior of those women they categorized as their dependent social inferiors. The school also had a role in the definition and regulation of the elite’s own ethics and conduct. The girls after a certain time in the school would be bound out to work for “good” local families. Savannah’s ladies intended menial domestic services for the girls. Most decisions made by the board were reached through cooperation rather than by a official vote. A lot of the members were Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist. Although religious affiliation was important a determinant of whether a woman stood for and was accordingly elected to the Board of Trustees, what was more pertinent were the woman’s