Southern Women Hated Slavery & Their Husbands Relations With Black Slaves

[muzzleloader]

One of the best literary examples of this is "Mary Chestnuts Civil War" which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 as non-fiction. She stated it well- she hated slavery during the war and after it. She was a South Carolinian- the strongest pro confederate State. Almost all of these wives of plantation owners hated the peculiar instituition and although they supported the Civil War they hated slavery that they saw make their husbands and sons so lazy and immoral. Immoral in the fact that they raped and pillaged the black woman slaves. So many books and history of the era have confirmed that.
The North without slavery was actually more productive than the South in many area of agriculture and most in manufacturing business. Slavery made many of these Southern plantation owners, sons and their ilk lazy, non productive souls. It was wretched at the time and many Southern Women realized this but were caught in that trap.

[unionblue]

Clarification please,

ALL Southern women hated slavery, most of them, some of them, a few of them? Any source information we could refer to? Books, websites, etc?

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[matthew mckeon]

Frances Kemble, the beautiful English actress, married a Southern planter(Georgia, South Carolina?) and was very hostile to slavery, divorced the guy(tough in the 1850s).

Wasn't there another famous female plantation owner, who gave up the plantation and became an abolitionist? Later she would acknowledge some of her male relatives black children...let me check on this, I'm sure I'm mixing it up somehow.

[matthew mckeon]

By the way, our own Dr. Faust, new Prez of Harvard wrote a book on antebellum Southern women. Anyone read it?

[gary]

I always suspected that some of the Southern aristocracy disliked slavery. What I do know of women is that they can be extremely jealous of others including dogs (yep, I knew a fellow who couldn't get another dog because the wife was jealous of his dog). So, for a Southern plantation class woman to see their spouse give attention (sexual and otherwise) to another women (white or black) would be a source of chagrin is not at all surprising. As for the other classes of whites including non-slave owners, that may be a different story since hubby can't afford to have his extra cirricular activity.

[ole]

I suspect the original statement was a bit over the top. Most certainly some slaveowners' wives did not approve of the peculiar institution and, in some instances, didn't care for their husbands' dalliances in the quarters. (Which is not to say that all husbands did.)

Gary's point is pertinent in that some in the slave-owning aristocracy would have welcomed a way out of the money trap they had built. There was no single "attitude" attributable to the "south." I'll go on record of saying that even the slaves held no unanimous feeling (although I'd guess that they generally leaned away from approval).

We're trying to get into the minds of people who lived in several generations and traditions more than 150 years ago. We are hindered in that effort by trying to put numbers to them.

I have a diary (Edmondston, I believe, it's by my reading chair in the other room) in which the lady of the plantation records her bitter hatred towards anything Yankee and attitudes echoing Fitzhugh. So there is at least one who didn't notice if or if not her husband dallied. Mary Chesnut disliked slavery -- she neither abhorred it nor condemned those who lived by it. She was simply uncomfortable with the need for it.

Some slaveowners were uncomfortable with secession because they believed their property was safer within the union than it would be without. Some of those had a genuine affection for and dedication to the union beyond the safety of their property. In the end, when it came to bearing arms against their friends, family, and neighbors, they were forced to commit. Neighborhood trumps nation.

Ole

[whitworth]

had been anti-slavery, I doubt there would have been a Civil War, or a Confederate Constitution, as it was, heavily in support of the right to own slaves.
Slaves produced wealth, and I'm sure woman were as strong for their families enjoying a better life, as were their slaveowning husbands and fathers.
Slavery was defended as good for the South. That areas that had more slaves, produced more taxes revenues for the state. That wealth came from slaves, and few southerners of wealth were involved in industry.

[samgrant]

Check out James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, who while not knocking about with the slave girls, was making out with his Brother-in Law's (Wade Hampton II) teenaged daughters!

[matthew mckeon]

Dr. Faust, our new president of Harvard, has also written a book about J. H. Hammond.

I say "our" meaning Civil War historian.

[Will Posey]

Originally Posted by matthew mckeon

Dr. Faust, our new president of Harvard, has also written a book about J. H. Hammond.

I say "our" meaning Civil War historian.

So, do you mean that you are a Civil War historian, or that Dr. Faust is?