More handpicked essays just for you.
Women's role before the industrial revolution
The southern perspective on slavery
Womens impact in industrial revolution
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Gender Did Not Disappear, but Skill Overpowered the Role of Gender During the period of antebellum Georgia, the Industrial Revolution began to take place. Meaning, wealth, labor, and top notch crops became important. In result of this, the need for slaves and their distinct skills increased. Understanding that the plantation owners had one goal only, which is to produce efficient crops that will encourage increased profit; one would say gender was set aside during labor that interfered with crop production. Crop production and quality were a main priority, and owners did not care what it took to reach their goal amount, or to have the best crop in the south. It is argued that femininity and gender roles did not exist during this period of labor. Labor was not based on gender, …show more content…
Gender in society has changed. In our present generation, women are displeased with the fact that society does not want them to do men’s work or labor, but during the 1800s, women would do anything to be relieved of the hard labor they endured. Labor is a productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain. This definition alone describes the drive of plantation owners in Antebellum Georgia, economic gains. As readers there must be an understanding that labor is divided into skilled and unskilled labor. These two distinct types of labor determined who worked, how hard they worked, and what workers received in return. Plantation owners wanted not only the best slaves, but slaves that could make them a better profit. Here is where Gender comes into play. In Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe, Diana Berry suggests that gender disappears, which is true, but is only true during unskilled labor. During unskilled labor tasks men and women worked together day in and day out to maintain cotton and rice plantations, of which Georgia held the title as the leading producer. The women being more efficient and most commended for their labor in the fields , put in
During his time as an indentured servant, Moraley would travel to the countryside for jobs and would describe that “ Almost every inhabitant, in the Country, have a plantation … where Gentlemen live on the Labour of the Farmer, to whom he grants a short Lease, which expiring, is raised in his Rent, or discharged him Farm.” 7 Colonial America was known for its plantation economy and as described here the gentlemen Moraley refers to live off of the labor of tenant farms, along with servants and slaves as well. Moraley uses the word “gentlemen” to invoke a tone of elitism that the plantation owner embodies. The plantation owner maybe using farmers as his tenants but he still has overbearing power on them because of the farmer’s predicament. The predicament, in this case, is that the farmer has nowhere else to turn to rather than what is essential in an agriculture-based economy, and therefore has to be willing to be under the supervising control of a landowner. This shows the advantages that many affluent landowners, masters, and elites can get since they have an abundance of what the servant, farmer, or poor laborer desires and therefore can subsequently use it for their own capitalistic
The books “Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices” by Rebecca Sharpless and “The Path to a Modern South” by Walter L. Buenger paint a picture of what life was like from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s. Though written with their own style and from different views these two books describe the modernization of Texas through economics, politics, lifestyles and gender roles, specifically the roles of women during this era. Rebecca Sharpless’ book “Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices” tells the stories of everyday women in Central Texas on cotton farms. She argues that women were not just good for keeping house, cooking, sewing and raising children but that they were an essential key to the economy. Whether they were picking cotton alongside men or bearing children
Were women in the 1850s not valued more than to live life as concubines? Did black men not deserve equal rights just as white men? The Antebellum Era was a pre-Civil War time when white men were positioned as the head of the house, and women and wives below them at their husbands’ service, and inferior to all remained the Negro population. In Celia, A Slave, Celia’s story revealed many difficulties faced by female slaves. Her story conveyed the position of women in Missouri during the 1850s, along with the position of slaves in regards to the resistance of oppression. Her trial gave a strong idea of the rights between masters and slaves.
Slaves during the mid-1800s were considered chattel and did not have rights to anything that opposed their masters’ wishes. “Although the slaves’ rights could never be completely denied, it had to be minimized for the institution of slavery to function” (McLaurin, 118). Female slaves, however, usually played a different role for the family they were serving than male slaves. Housework and helping with the children were often duties that slaveholders designated to their female slaves. Condoned by society, many male slaveholders used their female property as concubines, although the act was usually kept covert. These issues, aided by their lack of power, made the lives of female slaves
In this essay, we will examine three documents to prove that they do indeed support the assertion that women’s social status in the United States during the antebellum period and beyond was as “domestic household slaves” to their husband and children. The documents we will be examining are: “From Antislavery to Women 's Rights” by Angelina Grimke in 1838, “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” in 1844, and “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” by Margaret Fuller in 1845.
Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.
In “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South,” Jacquelyn Hall explains that future generations would need to grapple with the expenses of commercialization and to expound a dream that grasped financial equity and group unanimity and also women’s freedom. I determined the reasons for ladies ' insubordination neither reclassified sexual orientation parts nor overcame financial reliance. I recollected why their craving for the trappings of advancement could obscure into a self-constraining consumerism. I estimated how a belief system of sentiment could end in sexual peril or a wedded lady 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, in any case, should cloud a generation’s legacy. I understand requirements for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the section of ladies into open space and political battles beforehand cornered by men all these pushed against conventional limitations even as they made new susceptibilities.
In most instances, men and women were segregated into different work gangs and tasks were given to slaves according to their genders. In describing the economics of slavery, historians point out that male slaves were generally valued for their labor and physical strength, while females were valued for their offspring (Hallam, 2004). Men were given jobs such as, carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, potters, and sugar boilers (Hallam, 2004). Jacobs (1861) points out “slavery is terrible for men; but is far more terrible for women” (p. 45). Some plantation owners preferred to buy women because they could do the hard work and bear children. This caused women to outnumber men in gang systems. Female slaves had a lot of responsibilities, such as work on the plantation, producing children and working in the household. Household slaves were seen to be better off than plantation slaves and their tasks included cooking, cleaning and taking care of their slave owner’s children (Hallam, 2004). Jacobs (1861) says, “why does a slave ever love? Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wretched away by the hand of violence?” (p.7). This explains that enslaved women were used as breeders, forced to bear children and have them ripped away to add to their master 's workforce. While slavery was terrible for both men and
In antebellum America, cotton became an extremely important economic factor in the South, as well as the rest of the United States. Cotton was the oil of the nineteenth century. As its importance grew, so did the emergence of plantations and the need for slavery. Those who owned plantations were usually very wealthy and could afford a large portion of land, and the labor to maintain it. Gender roles on plantations were somewhat different than what would be seen in a New England household. Plantation mistresses were needed to manage the property in the absence of the male. Therefore, these women had some power over what when on around the plantations. For some women, this was not always a power they wanted.
Gender plays an enormous role in society, it distinguishes the difference between men and women. Men and women has different role to play in society because it is what they have to do in order not to be criticized. Moreover, they have to be the head of the household and they have to provide for their family. On the other hand, women has to be the housewives and have to take care of the family. Gender roles takes place in every single era that people lived in and it always had an influence over every single individual. During the 1700-1900s, women had few rights and they never had a voice in society. They had to stay pure until marriage and men who are sexually inactive are considered less of a man. Women couldn’t divorce their husbands, or own properties. In addition, women were treated more like a property or an animal to be tamed by men. Once a baby is born, s/he has to live up to the expectation of society or
Industrialization had a major impact on the lives of every American, including women. Before the era of industrialization, around the 1790's, a typical home scene depicted women carding and spinning while the man in the family weaves (Doc F). One statistic shows that men dominated women in the factory work, while women took over teaching and domestic services (Doc G). This information all relates to the changes in women because they were being discriminated against and given children's work while the men worked in factories all day. Women wanted to be given an equal chance, just as the men had been given.
Many of people today feel trapped inside their homes, just how the women of Pre-Industrial Europe felt. Working day in and day out inside the homes, just to keep the family together, and make a little money on the side, these women were an integral part of Pre-Industrial families. Not only were the women important to Pre-Industrial European families, but so were the households. Much of the money was made in the households, and this is where families either succeeded or failed. The household and women of Pre-Industrial Europe played an integral role in the economy of the families, and more importantly, the women of these households kept them running smoothly. Without either of these important aspects of life in Pre-Industrial Europe, it is safe to say that the families would have collapsed, due to a lack of organization and structures. Pre-Industrial Europe, in which the women and the household were “the factories” per se, due to the income they generated, was much different from the Europe we know today. Leading into the Industrialization of Europe beginning in the late 1700's and lasting through the early 1800's, the household played an integral role in the family’s income. Without the household, the families would literally collapse, due to a lack of organization and stability. Within these important family sub-units, there was one married couple, their children, the family’s servants, and in some cases, depending upon the region of Europe, there were grandparents, aunts and uncles. Not only did the father and servants of the house work, but also the women and children. Also, in the case of there being more than one generation of family in a single household, depending upon the region of Europe, the grandparents, aunts, and uncles would also work within the house. Once the children of these households reached a certain age, usually the early teens, they were sent off to work in a house as a servant. These servants were different then the servants of today, as they worked for room, board, and food, not waiting on the family. Once they started to generate income, the teens would save up the money necessary to begin their own family. However, there were the few exceptions; teens that did not work as servants, and ended up marrying into an existing household. This however,...
Most miners, lumberman, and cowboys produced jobs typically done by men due to their overwhelming demand of the task. If it wasn’t for the Women who “tended the garden and animals, preserved food, and helped us at harvest time” (Henretta 479) the agricultural aspect wouldn’t have strived.
Deborah Gray White in Aren’t I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South theorizes that black women in the plantation south were the most vulnerable group in early America. These were black women in a white Southern society, slaves in a free American society, and women in a society ruled by men which gave them the least power and the most vulnerability in the plantation south. Their degradation was the result of American stigmas that understood black women as being promiscuous, licentious females who had high birth rates as well as a high pain tolerance. Although black women were seen as a part of the weaker sex, they were not seen as being as not seen as ineffectual. These women were sold for their abilities that include, but are not
This of course was not negative since domestic and household work was regarded as being of a higher rank than field work and it was the only other position in which females had a chance to escape the tedious, back-breaking work of the fields. Because the nature of this work was much lighter, those slaves who were given it were envied by those who had to work in the field or the sugar mills or rum distillation factories. Both males and females began work as servants from the young age of 7 or 8.