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Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph
mcqconor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I’m never watching Gone With The Wind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, and Slavery
circularcubes's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading this book, but enjoyed isn't quite the right word for it. It's an academic book about a heavy subject, and it could be difficult to read about the ways black women were treated and ways in which white women thought about black women. At the same time, I really valued how Glymph analyzed interracial relationships in the antebellum and post-war South, and hearing the voices and stories of women who lived in that era, white and black alike, was chillingly informative.
I was supposed to read this for my senior history seminar in college, but other things got in the way that semester and this whole book fell by the wayside. I kept it around because I had a feeling that I'd really enjoy it once I got around to it, and I'm glad I got to read this at my leisure in my new, post-college life.
I was supposed to read this for my senior history seminar in college, but other things got in the way that semester and this whole book fell by the wayside. I kept it around because I had a feeling that I'd really enjoy it once I got around to it, and I'm glad I got to read this at my leisure in my new, post-college life.
marginaliant's review against another edition
5.0
Glymph makes a convincing argument about the political nature of plantation households in the US South before and after the Civil War. In her narrative women are not solely figures of the "private sphere," removed from the political contexts of the worlds around them. Slave holding women were as much agents of violence as their husbands were. As mistresses and freedwomen negotiated emancipation and the transition from master-slave relations to employer-employee relations, they transformed the plantation household into a contentious battleground over political rights. I would absolutely recommend this book.
vanlyn87's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent study of women on both sides of slavey in the south. Works hard to dispel the myths of the kind, sympathetic plantation master. The footnotes/bibliography are amazing to mine for new reads as well.
greeniezona's review against another edition
5.0
Another book from the Less Stupid Civil War Reading Group -- and probably my favorite. Mostly because it covered an area that I knew the least about -- the day-to-day lives of women -- both slaveholder and slave -- in the South -- before, during, and after the Civil War. Richly documented and compiled from mostly first-hand sources -- it is filled with diary accounts of white women bitching about their slaves, then complaining about having to do without them, or starting to fear them during the war, then grappling with the new realities of having to do business with them after the war. There are slave narratives, too -- some written at the time, some recollected decades after, of beatings, of ill-treatment at the hands of the wives (not just the husbands) in slave-owning households, stories of running off, of setting up households after the war and fighting for their dignity.
I have spent hours discussing this book and could go on and on about it -- but I want to mention two things in particular. First -- I appreciated Glymph's insistence on slave women's "recalcitrance" as explicit political resistance to the system of slavery, and how that shaped post-war race relations. Second -- that the ideal of domesticity that Southern white women were held to was one that was impossible -- and (this is me reading in, here) how that is something that has always been true -- and an effective way to control women.
Finally, this book had me thinking about the psychology of power -- that put in an unjustifiable situation -- the power to beat, kill, remove children and families from slaves -- the brain will work hard to invent justifications so that it can continue thinking of itself as a good person. Perhaps even a righteous, beleaguered one. Maybe even the real victim here! And whether it is possible to structure society in a way that will encourage the perpetuation of justice, rather than injustice.
A sometimes difficult, but rich and rewarding read. I am grateful for the discovery.
I have spent hours discussing this book and could go on and on about it -- but I want to mention two things in particular. First -- I appreciated Glymph's insistence on slave women's "recalcitrance" as explicit political resistance to the system of slavery, and how that shaped post-war race relations. Second -- that the ideal of domesticity that Southern white women were held to was one that was impossible -- and (this is me reading in, here) how that is something that has always been true -- and an effective way to control women.
Finally, this book had me thinking about the psychology of power -- that put in an unjustifiable situation -- the power to beat, kill, remove children and families from slaves -- the brain will work hard to invent justifications so that it can continue thinking of itself as a good person. Perhaps even a righteous, beleaguered one. Maybe even the real victim here! And whether it is possible to structure society in a way that will encourage the perpetuation of justice, rather than injustice.
A sometimes difficult, but rich and rewarding read. I am grateful for the discovery.
readiac1999's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Read for a graduate school class. Very informative and well researched book. I found Chapter 7 to be particularly compelling. Only some stars off because it felt a little repetitive at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery