Customer Reviews

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (Gender and American Culture)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese has produced a very scholarly and enlightening examination of women of the old South. In vivid detailed with painstaking research, she presents the daily lives of women, black and white, within the plantation household. Though written from an academic perspective, the author has succeeded in presenting her research in an entertaining and even captivating narrative style. For those looking for the behind the scenes lifestyle of unknown women of the South, this is the one book of choice.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors."

An absolutely excellent study of of the relationship between slave-owner and the enslaved. The book struck me a college-level treatise but is easily read and enjoyable even for the casual reader. Tremendous details of both black and white lives in the pre-Civil War era. Highly recommend to anyone interested in life in the south during that period.

The book appears to be comprehensive, but it is written in a pedantic and boring way, very much like so many history books I had to read in school. That made it difficult to retain my interest. Don't get me wrong; I love to read, but I'm not a scholar, researching to write about the plantation life, but just an ordinary person who found the title interesting, so was curious enough to buy it. For me it was a mistake. I won't send it back, because the effort would just add to my aggravation, but I wouldn't buy it again and do not recommend it for anyone who's not doing research.

This is an impressive and large-scale achievement. I would have appreciated more acknowledgment of the role that white male eurocentric paradigms played (and continue to play) in the south and oppresion of Women of Color. Overall, a good starting place.