They Were Her Property

Taut and cogent . . . . They Were Her Property joins a tide of recent books-among them, Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton, Edward Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told, Walter Johnson's River of Dark Dreams and Caitlin Rosenthal's Accounting for Slavery-that examine how slavery laid the foundation of American capitalism. -Parul Sehgal, New York Times Jones-Rogers is a crisp and focused writer . . . . This scrupulous history makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present. -Parul Sehgal, New York Times Compelling. -Renee Graham, Boston Globe Stunning. -Rebecca Onion, Slate Jones-Rogers brings an unseen world to life -Parul Sehgal, International New York Times Dissects the unacknowledged ways that white women were avid participants in (and beneficiaries of) the American system of slavery. -New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice Jones-Rogers's They Were Her Property delivers an unsparing look at the white women who wielded power in their own right as owners of enslaved people -Amy Murrell Taylor, Times Literary Supplement Shatters the narrative that married white women were passive bystanders in the business of slavery. -Rodney Brooks, Washington Post/About Us One of the most significant books on the history of women and slavery. -Edward E. Baptist, author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Stephanie Jones-Rogers has written a highly original book that will change the way we think about women enslavers in the United States. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of gender, slavery and capitalism. -Daina Ramey Berry, author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation This is a deeply researched and powerfully argued book that completely overturns romanticized notions of the plantation mistresses and resistant southern white women. Stephanie Jones-Rogers reveals how deeply complicit slaveholding white women were in upholding the everyday cruelties and barbarity of racial slavery. -Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition They Were Her Property casts brilliant, unsparing light on the history of slaveholding women and the terrible oscillation of domination and dependence that defined identities-as wives, as mothers, as mistresses-purchased in the slave market. -Walter Johnson, author of River of Dark Dreams They Were Her Property is nothing less than phenomenal. It shatters many sacred cows about women's history and legal history and shows how slaveowning women skirted the limitations of gender norms and statutory law in ways that have been previously underestimated. The findings are buttressed by reading anew a rich and prodigious body of primary sources. This is a must read. -Tera W. Hunter, Edwards Professor of History and Professor of African-American Studies, Princeton University