Slavery elevated white women’s social status above black people

Evidence

The social status of white women in America has to a large extent been determined by white people’s relationship to black people. It was the enslavement of African people in colonized America that marked the beginning of a change in the social status of white women. Prior to slavery, patriarchal law decreed white women were lowly inferior beings, the subordinate group in society. The subjugation of black people allowed them to vacate their despised position and assume the role of a superior. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 449

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White women, not white men, were slavery’s most direct beneficiaries — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 450; Nineteenth-century prosperity shifted white women’s image from temptress to pure goddess — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 95; British officials equated blackness of household women with enslaved status (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• White women, not white men, were slavery’s most direct beneficiaries #qualifies (0.50) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 450