Behind every great man stands a great woman. And behind that great
woman stands a slave. Or so it was in the households of the
Founding Fathers from Virginia where slaves worked and suffered
throughout the domestic environments of the era, from Mount Vernon,
Monticello, and Montpelier to the nation's capital. American icons
like Martha Washington, Martha Jefferson, and Dolley Madison were
all slaveholders. And as Marie Jenkins Schwartz uncovers in Ties
That Bound, these women, as the day to day managers of their
households, dealt with the realities of a slaveholding culture
directly and continuously, even in the most intimate of
spaces.Unlike other histories that treat the stories of the First
Ladies' slaves as somehow separate from the lives of their
mistresses, as if slavery should be relegated to its own sphere or
chapter, Ties That Bound closely examines the relationships that
developed between the First Ladies and their slaves. For elite
women and their families, slaves were more than an agricultural
workforce; instead, slavery was an entire domestic way of life that
reflected and reinforced their status. In many cases slaves were
more constant companions to the white women of the household than
were the white men themselves, who often traveled or were at war.
Thus, by looking closely at the complicated intimacy these women
shared, Schwartz is able to reveal how they negotiated their roles,
illuminating much about the lives of slaves themselves as well as
class, race, and gender in early America.By detailing the
prevalence and prominence of slaves in the daily lives of women who
helped shape the country, Schwartz makes it clear that it is
impossible to honestly tell the stories of these women while
ignoring the slaves in the background. She asks us to consider anew
the embedded power of slavery in the very earliest conception of
American politics, society, and everyday domestic routines.
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