#heiresses

🎶But tell me Does she kiss Like I used to kiss you? Does it feel the same When she calls your name? Somewhere deep inside You must know I miss you But what can I say? Rules must be obeyed🎶

Suspicion (1941, Alfred Hitchcock)

The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock)

The Wings of the Dove (1997, Iain Softley)

Owned?: No, library Page count: 416 My summary: When you think of enslavers in the Americas, who comes to mind? Doubtless, you picture a wealthy white man, the sort of landowner and property owner who can afford to enslave people on a mass scale. Very little do you think of his daughter. But women were paid 40% of the compensation money afforded to enslavers when slavery was abolished, a debt that Britain only finished paying in 2015. Women inherited property in the Caribbean too, and part of that property was the people who worked the land. Here are the stories of nine wealthy women who were Caribbean enslavers in the 18th and 19th century. My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

It's something people don't think about it much. When it comes to historical bigotry, crimes, and atrocities, we tend to lay the blame at the feet of white men. Who, to be fair, are responsible for a lot of it. But the role of white women in colonial atrocities tends to be sidestepped; we have this notion that women had no agency, and so they couldn't possibly have been responsible for anything. At best, when you see a white woman in this sort of history, she tends to be an abuser on a more individual scale (abusing individual enslaved people 'owned' by her husband/father) than an enslaver in her own right. And yet, wealthy upper-class white women were just as able to enslave people on a mass scale as their male counterparts. This book, by author of Black Tudors Miranda Kaufmann, aims to set the record straight by highlighting the often complex lives of the female enslavers, usually heiresses who gained control of their fathers' properties when they died, and in different ways and to different degrees were perpetuators of slavery in the same way that their men were.

The lives of these nine women are fascinating. They come from a variety of backgrounds - one was Jewish, and faced discrimination for it, another was a mixed-race woman born to an enslaved mother whose father legitimised her and made her his heiress. But all of them, at some point in their lives, were the legal owners of actual human beings. This book is very conscientious about the lives of the enslaved people; while some of the focus is on the heiresses themselves, care has been taken to record the names of any enslaved people whose names are known, and to tell their stories where they can be known. Historical records on the individuality of enslaved people are, regrettably, often lacking, but Kaufmann has tried her best to record them where she can find them. And where individual stories aren't known, she still tells the stories of enslaved people (or, with the later heiresses, formerly enslaved people) from the islands and plantations where that heiress owned property. I was really impressed by the care taken throughout to humanise and centre Black lives and experiences, even while talking about white enslavers for the most part. She also makes a point of referencing and remembering the Indigenous people of the Caribbean, referring to them accurately as Taíno or Kalinago or whatever group she is discussing. This should be the bare minimum, but so many books fail to clear that bar! Kaufmann also takes the time in an appendix to talk about the history of the enslavers in her own family. It's a very thoughtful approach, and it's to be commended. It was a really interesting book, and I'd recommend it highly!

Thank you for asking :)

Black: Do you have any bad habits, if so, what?

I bite my nails and chew on my hair, especially when I’m feeling anxious.

Burgundy: Favourite month?

December. I like all the stuff leading up to Christmas.

Coral: Favorite book?

I have so many, I used to work for a bookstore along with volunteering at a library. Books are my life. What Alice Forgot is really good along with 13 Reasons Why, Heiresses by Sara Shepherd is another favorite. I could go on and on for days haha.