Black Baptist journalists framed exploited wives as slaves cheaper to replace than chattel

Evidence

Reporting the suicide of a woman in Chicago, an article in the Baptist Headlight added that her husband overworked her and treated her like a slave: “Even in the days of the ‘institution’ in the South human chattels were not worked to death. They were too valuable. But a wife costs nothing. If she dies another may be had for the asking. It is this fact that makes such bondage possible.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 376

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the slavery metaphor thread and to the economics of women’s domestic labor — parallels arguments in feminist economic history. — connects to: Black Baptist women’s columns openly challenged domestic and marital norms — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 375; Calling enslaved Black women prostitutes misdescribed their coerced sexual exploitation — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99; Black women under slavery were doubly enslaved by race and sex — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 26 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Enslaved black women were valued for labor, reproduction, and resale #expands (0.88) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 51
• Calling enslaved Black women prostitutes misdescribed their coerced sexual exploitation #expands (0.82) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 99
• Black women under slavery were doubly enslaved by race and sex #expands (0.76) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 26
• Black Baptist women’s columns openly challenged domestic and marital norms #expands (0.75) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 375
• Slavery-era myths branded black women masculinized to defend patriarchal ideology. #complicates (0.74) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 210
• Sexual exploitation dehumanized black women more than labor exploitation did #qualifies (0.72)