Plantation Wives

During 1820-1860, wives of plantation owners gained their identity through “housework” and family.  Idealized notions about the feminine home and the masculine workplace gained acceptance in the 1830s (and well beyond) because of the cultural dominance of the middle and upper classes of the Northeast, expressed through books and periodicals that reflected these gender ideals (Roark, et. al., 2009).  Plantation wives typically married at the age of twenty.  The plantation wives of higher classes of society had husbands that brought home majority of the money.  However, if you were a plantation wife of poorer classes of society, they were not able to depend solely on their husband for majority of the income.  They had to gain money by being a servant.   All plantation wives of every class worked leisurely hours cleaning the house, preparing meals, tending to children, disciplining the slaves, sewing, and tending to the sick.  Even when the plantation wives became pregnant, they were expected to work at the same pace as they did before pregnancy. 

Being a plantation wife did not mean you were able to socialize with nearby neighbors because your husband made a good earning.  They worked as hard as the house slaves they owned, and in some cases harder (Gustafsson, 1999).  These wives were so distracted with “chores.”  They did not get the privilege to mingle with friends and neighbors.  Not only did they have to tend to every person that lived in the plantation, they also had to tend to visitors that might stay.  When plantation owners died, it was not unknown for his widow to successfully take over the running of the land (Gustafsson, 1999).

-Amanda Tyus