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  1. Chastisement of Slaves
    date June 11, 1864map RICHMOND, Virginiatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    Emma Mordecai was enjoying the pleasantly cool weather when a very disagreeable affair concerning the servants disturbed her afternoon. The conflict began when the henwife, Georgiana, asked her mother, Sarah, to help her manage the chickens. Sarah then complained of being overworked and provoked the ire of her mistress and the master. In addition, Emma mentioned that Cyrus, Sarah's husband, behaved...

  2. Breastfeeding
    date 1830 to 1835map LIBERTY, Georgiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    In the days before baby formula, new mothers had far fewer options for food for their babies. Because of rampant childhood diseases and absence of many other options of sustenance for infants, breastmilk played a vitally important role in the development of society and families. Many slaveholding women designated enslaved women to be wet nurses for the newly born white children. As Robert Mallard describes...

  3. A Polite Education
    date September 18, 1828map CHATHAM, Georgiatags Arts/Leisure, Economy, Education, Women

    Education for women in the Antebellum South played a key role in defining and regulating social status. Many Southerners did not see education as a way to enlighten women, but rather to refine and polish them, and make them more suitable for marriage. In the Argus newspaper, published in Savannah, Georgia, an advertisement appeared in September of 1828. It announced Mr. Phillips's new school for young...

  4. A Woman's Worth
    date 1851map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    When reading novels from nineteenth century, one often sees an overbearing mother whose only joy in life is finding suitable matches for her infinite number of daughters. In these stories, the daughter does not normally have much, if any, say as to whom she will wed. On Tuesday October 25, 1851, Mary Jane Boggs Holladay of Virginia was busy in preparation for her marriage. She was confronted with afflictions...

  5. A Plot is Uncovered
    date January 29, 1820map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    On January 29, 1820, M. W. deBree wrote a letter to her father to tell him some distressing news. Her letter detailed a very melancholy circumstance that very nearly occurred on a ship bound from Norfolk, Virginia to New Orleans, Louisiana. Thirty slaves who were passengers on the ship had form'd a plot...to murder all the passengers and crew except two sailors who [were] to steer them to St. Domingo....