Out of the House of Bondage

[Matt McKeon]

In this highly recommended book, Thavolia Glymph describes a constant low level war conducted in the kitchens and rooms of plantation houses. On one side were the enslaved domestic servants and cooks, on the other, their mistresses.

Quoting liberally from diaries and letters, plantation mistresses writes reams on the sloth, disrespect, laziness, clumsiness, and dirtiness of their servants. Some of these women simply hate the black women, they depend on, and that hatred is expressed in harsh scolding, hairpulling, slaps, punches, kicks and blows with fire tongs, brooms, cowhide whips and other implements. One mistress beats a maid to death with a chair, for breaking a cup.

The servants' voices are harder to access, but Glymph quotes slave narratives: they describe the other side of this continual conflict.

Then the war comes...

 

[rittmeister]

In this highly recommended book, Thavolia Glymph describes a constant low level war conducted in the kitchens and rooms of plantation houses. On one side were the enslaved domestic servants and cooks, on the other, their mistresses.

Quoting liberally from diaries and letters, plantation mistresses writes reams on the sloth, disrespect, laziness, clumsiness, and dirtiness of their servants. Some of these women simply hate the black women, they depend on, and that hatred is expressed in harsh scolding, hairpulling, slaps, punches, kicks and blows with fire tongs, brooms, cowhide whips and other implements. One mistress beats a maid to death with a chair, for breaking a cup.

The servants' voices are harder to access, but Glymph quotes slave narratives: they describe the other side of this continual conflict.

Then the war comes...

the pic is from amazon

disclaimer: i didn't read it (in fact i'd never heard of it before, but i think books should be shown)