They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South

Jones-Rogers posits that white women significantly contributed to the growth of slavery as a domestic market in the 19th century. She remarks on the growth of the slave trade as it morphed from an international phenomenon into a domestic market in which enslaved people born in the United States are exchanged. According to Jones-Rogers, the slave market grew more formal and regimented, a development that white women were enthusiastic about.

Jones-Rogers criticizes the narrative of slavery’s expansion in the 19th century as  “masculinized” (126). She argues that women are mere footnotes in this narrative. In response, Jones-Rogers offers the main point of Chapter 6: that women were active and enthusiastic contributors to the development of the slave marketplace.

Jones-Rogers proceeds to list the various capacities in which white women across all socioeconomic classes participated in and benefitted from the new slave marketplace of the 19th century. The slave market was not hidden but commonplace. White women could easily access slave trading as traders clearly marked their establishments. Jones-Rogers says that enslaved people acknowledged women as having the money and authority to purchase them. The author also addresses evidence from bills of sale and slave traders’ account books that show women bought and sold enslaved people regularly.