How Did The Plantation Mistress Have

The Plantation Mistress by Catherine Clinton is a historical non-fiction book which details the lives and the daily struggles of the white women of the planter class as it existed during the antebellum era in the southern United States. Through the use of historical records and diary entries of the women themselves, Ms. Clinton clearly documents that the lives of the Plantation Mistresses were remarkably different and significantly more difficult than what is that of Scarlett O’Hara and her family. Furthermore, the expectations of the white females of the time were not that of the pampered southern bell who was indulged and spoiled by her husband and whose every need was tended to by slaves. In fact, the women of the time were in only a
slightly better place than the slaves themselves. They, too, were consider possessions of their husbands. They were unable to hold property, they were unable to conduct business. From the time of her birth, emphasis was placed on the marital and reproductive roles of the planter class daughter. Although she played many roles on the plantation, two of her most important roles were to ensure the continuation of the family line by providing her husband with children (especially sons) for as long as she was able and being the mistress of the plantation. When the plantation daughter became of childbearing age, she was usually allowed to make the single most important decision that would affect the rest of her life, that being she was allowed to decide who she wanted to marry; however, if she was younger, her parents would encourage her to look towards the suiter that they wished for her to marry. Many times, daughters were groomed from a very young age to marry the son of a neighboring plantation in order to increase family holdings. Rightly so, Clinton notes that “early marriages for women contributed to higher female mortality, and youthful childbearing caused premature aging.” p. 60. Once married, plantation wives became the property of their husband along with any property the new wife held. Further, the law of the time prohibited women from handling any financial or business transactions publicly. If a woman became a widow, oftentimes she had to either remarry or have a male family member assist her to conduct business. Not only did she have no right to conduct any financial business, she also had no legal right to her own children. In addition to all of the above, plantation wives were often also isolated. If their husband moved away, the wife was expected to follow him, even if it meant leaving her family and friends. Oftentimes the planter husband would conduct business away from the plantation and would be gone for weeks and sometimes months, leaving his wife charge but also the sole white woman on the plantation. The above paragraphs list what the Plantation Mistress did not have.
Now it is time to discuss what the Plantation mistress did have. They had a great deal of responsibility to the point that it was overwhelming. The plantation mistress was the foreman of all things on the plantation that were not used to produce cash for the plantation. She was in charge of all food production, which included the gardening and the animals used in the production of food, smokehouses, slaughterhouses, soap making, candle making, spinning yarn and material and making clothes for everyone on the plantation. For anything that was locked, the plantation mistress had the key. Clinton notes that “The plantation mistress held the keys as the symbol of her domain.” P. 7. The plantation mistress was responsible for tending to anyone on the plantation who got ill. The plantation mistress was responsible for the upbringing of her children as the planter rarely took an interest in them until they got older. The plantation mistress was responsible for the religious education of the occupants of the plantation. In the absence of her husband, the plantation mistress was also responsible for the planting, tending, and sale of the cash
crops.

This book was not what I expected and it totally destroyed the picture I had in my mind of the women of the old south. Furthermore, I have a problem reconciling it with any knoweldge that I had before. For the most part, all I really thought about the past for these women I learned in Gone with the Wind where the southern belles were spoiled and indulged by all. In other shows that I saw (although I cannot remember their names) the plantation mistress is often portrayed as the the bitter wife who looks away while the slave women are being molested or the angry woman who blames the fact that her husband is molesting a slave woman on the slave woman.