Racial stereotyping ranked slave women by ethnicity with Circassians at top
Evidence
There was a well-established hierarchy of labor that constructed the work and world of the slave in Egypt in the nineteenth century and was itself a construction of stereotyping about the qualities of different races and ethnicities. Circassian women were at the top of this ladder and were welcomed into the harems of the wealthiest and most prestigious households. Ethiopian women came next, bought often as concubines for the middle class.They were prized for their beauty, not for their ability to do household work, as were other African women, who stood much lower in this hierarchy. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 665
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- ADDENDUM: Relevant to the immodesty article: the harem/concubinage hierarchy is another site where European observers moralized about Muslim domestic customs.