Summary of Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers's They Were Her Property

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 White southern girls learned how to be slave owners through an instructional process that spanned their childhood and adolescence. They practiced techniques of slave discipline and management, made mistakes and learned from them, and eventually decided what kind of slave owners they wanted to become.

#2 Before the American Revolution, primogeniture was the practice of leaving all the family property to the eldest son. But after the Revolution, Americans looked upon primogeniture unfavorably, as it disadvantaged many young men and women.

#3 The wills of slave-owning parents and relatives would leave decisions about equitable distribution up to the executor. Under these circumstances, estate administrators would arrange drawing ceremonies in which they portioned out the slaves.

#4 Slave-owning parents allowed their daughters to assume the roles of instructor and disciplinarian early on, and they forced enslaved people to use the salutations Master and Mistress when referring to their children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669352228

IRB Media

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Insights on Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers's They Were Her Property

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

White southern girls learned how to be slave owners through an instructional process that spanned their childhood and adolescence. They practiced techniques of slave discipline and management, made mistakes and learned from them, and eventually decided what kind of slave owners they wanted to become.

#2

Before the American Revolution, primogeniture was the practice of leaving all the family property to the eldest son. But after the Revolution, Americans looked upon primogeniture unfavorably, as it disadvantaged many young men and women.

#3

The wills of slave-owning parents and relatives would leave decisions about equitable distribution up to the executor. Under these circumstances, estate administrators would arrange drawing ceremonies in which they portioned out the slaves.

#4

Slave-owning parents allowed their daughters to assume the roles of instructor and disciplinarian early on, and they forced enslaved people to use the salutations Master and Mistress when referring to their children.

#5

Enslaved people were required to call their owners’ children Master or Mistress. This was to reinforce the difference between white children and all other children, and the superiority of the former.

#6

Slave-owning families made it clear that they had the power to claim other human beings as their property when they selected specific enslaved children to serve them. When Betty Cofer was born, her master’s daughter Ella was only a little girl, but she nevertheless claimed Cofer as her slave shortly after the child’s birth.

#7

White girls also learned about and practiced different management and disciplinary strategies when they were in charge of their slave playmates. They would develop and refine the skills they would need once they became mistresses of their own households.

#8

The beating of Alfred, a twelve- or thirteen-year-old enslaved boy, by his master, Green Martin, and his brother, Godfry, was reported to the authorities. The sisters of the two men who were convicted of the murder testified about what they saw.

#9

The Martin sisters were not afraid of their father or brother, and they did not intervene when they saw Alfred being beaten to death. They believed that Alfred deserved the