In the reading, Out of the House of Bondage, Ch. 1, The Gender of Violence, Thavolia Glymph argues against the false phenomenon that is the Sothern White mistress. White women in the slave-holding south were thought to be ladies of delicacy. They are portrayed in film and other popular media as managers of the household who bore the inexhaustible task of overseeing slaves. The plantation mistress has been depicted by feminist historians to have been subjected to a patriarchal authority that forced their hand in the slave system. They have obtained a characterization of those who testified for the better treatment of slaves.
These portrayals significantly contrast the accounts of slaves who endured extreme violence at the hand of southern mistresses. “As Norrece T. Jones writes, slaveholding women were ‘depicted frequently [by slaves and ex-slaves] as the most stringent and sadistic of the manor born.’ He describes the plantation household as a ‘war zone’ where ‘spilling milk, breaking dishes, and a variety of other kitchen peccadilloes could and often did trigger barbaric responses from slaveholders throughout South Carolina’” (Glymph 25).
However, the acts of violence displayed by white women are not evaluated the same as those of white male plantation owners. Mistress’ acts of violence are often excused as nonsystemic and hysterical. Violence delt by the hands of white women is not attributed with the same kind of authority as white men. The narrative of the mistresses’ role in the slave system being attributed to their entrapment in a patriarchal society reduces the responsibility for their active participation.
Great post—I like how you spell out the argument clearly in the first sentence. At the end, however, I’m not clear whether you agree with the last sentence as written, or whether you are still explaining Glymph’s criticism. Perhaps one additional short paragraph detailing your reaction to the reading and how persuasive you found it would have helped to clarify this.