The terms, Jezebel and Mammy, were created to explain or rationalize the treatment of the female slave. The Jezebel was considered a loose, ungodly, and over sexualized slave women who seduced the slave owners and a Mammy was a matronly, virtuous female slave who was superior as a homemaker and nurturing maternal figure. The Jezebel was despised and the Mammy was revered. According to the reading material, the young Jezebel used her sexuality to gain favor of the slave owner. In contrast, the elderly Mammy was asexual and served her master because she loved them as family.
The female slave had two attributes working against her. She was both a slave and a woman. As a slave, she was considered property and an object. She had no rights
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She was asexual and only viewed as faithful and loyal to her owners. This figure portrayed an ideal of the ideal relation between the owners and their female slaves. She was obedient and subservient. She did not cause a treat or competition for the slave owner’s wife. Mammy was another figure used to soothe the slave owner’s conscience or rationalize the treatment of slave woman.
The reading material was thought provoking because it made me think of the idea of woman as property with no rights. Then, I thought of the idea of property seducing or having the power to seduce their owners. These ideas are the polar opposite and unimaginable.
Either you have power or you are powerless. The slave owners were human; but, they thought that it was a good idea to procreate with ungodly, lewd and nonhuman beings. A good argument would be to ask, “Why would the slave owners need to participate in breeding slaves when he owned both male and female slaves?”. This passage has made me want to read the book by Deborah Gray White so that I can marvel more at the rationalize of slave