Summary of 'Ar'n't I a Woman?' by Deborah Gray White

Deborah Gray White, author of Ar’n’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, courageously plunges into the research and understanding of the slave experience through race and gender. The overall slave experience of the antebellum South is often represented by the male experience. For the first time, White brings forth an understanding of slave life through the female lens. White reasons that the female slave experience differed from the male slave experience due to the assigned gender roles. In addition to gender roles, White introduces a double consciousness of the black woman by identifying their struggle to escape restraints placed on both the slave and the woman. White supports this claim when she declares,“ If she [the black woman] escapes the myth of woman, the myth of the Negro still ensnares her.” Through the evaluation of appointed gender roles and labor, White convincingly contends that women experienced slavery differently than men.
Similar narratives of bondwomen are provided in White’s monograph to support and validate convincing claims made by White. Stories provided by several women help the reader develop an intimate understanding of what life was like for the female slave. The …show more content…
Although the male experience shaped the image of slavery, White brings forth attention to the lack of enslaved women perspectives when she asserts, “Rather, black women were invisible because few historians saw them as important contributors to America’s social, economical, or political development…” Enslaved narratives published before White’s book disregarded gender distinctions to analyze slavery life. I agree with White’s argument as she opens the doors to view slavery through a different lens. The experience of slavery contrasted among each individual, requiring more than the male perspective to disclose the story of slave life in the antebellum