He begins by comparing the work of the slave men to the work of the slave women. Slave women worked long days, in and out of the home, waking up the men and feeding the men too. This immediately shows how the women played big parts in the work on plantations, working in the field and also helping prepare the men for work also, reinforcing his original argument. He possibly hints that women had harder work than the men in the plantations. Later in the chapter Genovese writes about slave women giving birth to kids. The idea of raising children that would become slaves and probably get sold. was morally toxic for the motherly figures of the slave women. Genovese supports this by explaining instances in which slave women would abort their kids to save their children from the demoralization of slavery. Those women who did keep their kids, sometimes had humane masters that let the mothers leave work for a month after birth, or let the women leave early to tend to their kids. Genovese kills two birds with one stone in this chapter, strengthening his argument with examples of women’s roles affecting slaves lives and slaveholders
He begins by comparing the work of the slave men to the work of the slave women. Slave women worked long days, in and out of the home, waking up the men and feeding the men too. This immediately shows how the women played big parts in the work on plantations, working in the field and also helping prepare the men for work also, reinforcing his original argument. He possibly hints that women had harder work than the men in the plantations. Later in the chapter Genovese writes about slave women giving birth to kids. The idea of raising children that would become slaves and probably get sold. was morally toxic for the motherly figures of the slave women. Genovese supports this by explaining instances in which slave women would abort their kids to save their children from the demoralization of slavery. Those women who did keep their kids, sometimes had humane masters that let the mothers leave work for a month after birth, or let the women leave early to tend to their kids. Genovese kills two birds with one stone in this chapter, strengthening his argument with examples of women’s roles affecting slaves lives and slaveholders