Review: They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

This book deserved every bit of the 5 stars I gave it. I’m just at a loss for words. Through watching many movies and reading snippets on slavery, we are never shown the role that white women had. In fact, they had a MAJOR hand in slavery. I mean, MAJOR. They were involved in trading, disciplining and even holding free slaves captive for their own benefit. My mind is truly blown with all that I learn. I always assumed that their husbands powers the enforcers of the things mentioned and that they simply just followed their direction. Boy was I wrong. In fact, a lot of times women owned more slates coming into a marriage than their soon to be husband did. Simply because their family gifted them slaves. White women even took to signing prenups to protect their property.

This is definitely a piece of history that everyone needs to read and be aware of. It’s a book that took me a while to finish but that’s only because there was so much information to consume. Highly recommend this one.