Summary Of Ar 'N' T I A Women By Deborah Grey White

In the book Ar’n’t I a women the author, Deborah Gray White, explains how the life was for the slave women in the Southern plantations. She reveals to us how the slave women had to deal with difficulties of racism as well as dealing with sexism. Slave women in these plantations assumed roles within the family as well as the community; these roles were completely different to the roles given to a traditional white female. Deborah Gray White shows us how black women had a different experience from the black men and the struggle they had to maintain their sense of womanhood against all odds, resist sexual oppression, and keep their families together. In the book the author describes two different types of women, “Jezebel” and “Mammy” they

On page 29 the author describes it as “a person governed almost entirely by her libido”. When we think of slaves we think of how they were forced to work without pay or respect but one never really wants concentrates on the idea of how African American women were sexually exploited. Some of the African American slaves were actually aiming to be a “fancy women” to use that to their advantage for the simple fact that they had better treatment. While others were forced into this position. White explains the character on page 38, stating that if the black women made themselves available, it only lend to the acceptance of the whites theory of Jezebel, but if black women remained refused to this idea, they faced the fear of being sold or whipped. Although some of the masters mistress were well taken cared of, there were times were the African American women was forced into having sexual relations with the master or his children and were still forced to work outside with the others.
The role of an African American women compared to the role of a white women were very different. In antebellum because of their sex most women were assumed to be weaker, and believed to be intellectually and physically suited for only domestic work. But most black women did as much work as black men, and “endured the brutal punishment meted out by slaveholders and their overseers,” they were also required to fulfill their jobs as mothers. As slaves, they struggled against the double discrimination having to take the maltreat given to all African-Americans as well as the one given to women in