Further Reading

Racial Politics of the Antebellum Era

The antebellum period in Virginia was a time of political unrest. Slavery was a hotly debated topic during this period, even before the Civil War. The American Revolution brought upon a greater sense of sensitivity to human liberty issues, but with white Americans in both the North and the South benefiting from slavery in one way or another, many viewed abolition as impossible. In 1782, the Virginia legislature restored the right to slaveholders to legally liberate their “human chattel” (Eslinger 261). The civil liberties available to free Black people were then determined by federal and state statutes and laws (Eslinger 261). However, rebellions such as the Gabriel rebellion and the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia prompted additional legislative restrictions on both enslaved and free Black populations (Eslinger 261, 265). These laws affected nearly every aspect of Black life in Virginia, ranging from where a person could live to something as trivial as smoking on a public street (Eslinger 261). 

Class in the Antebellum Era

Economic class was a major part of life in antebellum Virginia. In the period when Newman’s book appears to be set during, there were five easily identifiable classes: the gentry, land owners, landless, free Blacks, and the enslaved Black population. Class determined the type of job you had, your level of education, and who you were allowed to associate with. The class divide also had a major impact on the political divide, as those of the same class often found themselves siding together in politics (Shade).

Southern Gender Norms in the Nineteenth Century

Nineteenth-century southern gender norms established clear boundaries between one’s self-determination and the power of the state over public and private life (Hornsby-Gutting 664). In white society, it was determined that men and the wives who took care of their children were considered upstanding figures of society and were deserving of political rights. Ideal manhood for white males was associated with honor and “good conduct.” White, well-to-do ladies were expected to “embody self-denial and to find happiness in pleasing others” (Hornsby-Gutting 667). Girls were considered “ladies-in-training.” If a young white woman wanted challenge these ideals, they had to do so without overtly challenging men, like staying single longer to avoid the birthing process or staying engaged longer to avoid marriage (Hornsby-Gutting 668). In other words, these ideals of white womanhood functioned to exert control over women (Hornsby-Gutting 665). For white women, widowhood often allowed them more privileges than they had otherwise, as they were able to manage household property, including enslaved people who were considered property during the antebellum period, and partake in society in a way traditionally reserved for the patriarchal figure (Hornsby-Gutting 666).

Gender norms for African Americans were not only influenced by their gender identity but were also influenced by their class, age, and sexuality (Hornsby-Gutting 671). Black manhood was typically centered around the idea of being a community caretaker, whereas Black women were mostly seen as domestic workers, laboring both at home and in white households (Hornsby-Gutting 665-666). In the white imaginary, Black men and women were often treated as asexual or hypersexual, and therefore inferior to white male and female ideals, as a way of justifying the system of slavery. Within Black communities, there were often strong tensions between accepting and resisting white patriarchal norms (Hornsby-Gutting 664).

Credit: Benjamin Kimble and Joelle Minicucci

Works Cited

Coclanis, Peter A., and Stanley L. Engerman. “Would Slavery Have Survived Without the Civil War?: Economic Factors in the American South During the Antebellum and Postbellum Eras.” Southern Cultures, vol. 19, no. 2, 2013, pp. 66–90.

Eslinger, Ellen. “Free Black Residency in Two Antebellum Virginia Counties: How the Laws Functioned.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 79, no. 2, 2013, pp. 261–98.

Hornsby-Gutting, Angela M. “Manning the Region: New Approaches to Gender in the South.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 75, no. 3, 2009, pp. 663–76.

Maltz, Earl M. “Fourteenth Amendment Concepts in the Antebellum Era.” The American Journal of Legal History vol. 32, no. 4 1988 pp. 305–46.

Shade, William G. “Society and Politics in Antebellum Virginia’s Southside.” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 53, no. 2, 1987, pp. 163–93.