| Popis: |
Susan Grigsby easily developed strong bonds of womanhood with her mother, and with a network of relatives who shared her same subjection to male authority in the southern patriarchal order. Grigsby could even harbor feelings of sisterhood toward a woman of middle-class origin and refined education such as the governess of her older children was. Yet, class and race barriers prevented her from developing similar feelings for the less fortunate members of her sex, either white and colored, free and enslaved. This chapter illustrates how Susan’s self-opinion as a compassionate mistress was repeatedly put to a test and grossly contradicted by her behaviors. Before the necessity to sell a few slaves, and before cases of pregnancy of some of her bondswomen suggesting rape by a white man, Grigsby plunged into a deep moral crisis. Yet, she always ended up with meeting the behavioral expectations traditionally placed on a married, plantation mistress. |
