"White women owned slaves in 19th century America" In your opinion, is that a historically accurate statement?

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is.

No, it is not historically accurate.

I don't know/ See results.

[BeMuse]

Very few people owned slaves in the USA to begin with. The man was the head of the household and typically owned all the property up until The Married Women's Property Act of 1848 which technically allowed property ownership by married women from that point on. I suppose that makes it possible for slave ownership... After all the extremely wealthy were the slave owners, so a women from an extremely wealthy family could potentially have owned slaves when married off. The US Homestead Act in 1862 made it easier for single, widowed and divorced women to claim land in their own names. The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was passed in 1865. So there was a very small window for a very small portion of the elite women to own slaves for a few years before slavery was ended.

[BeMuse]

Probably a better way to think of it is, men owned the property and signed contracts legally. Women managed the household/domestic labor, thus they would have ordered slaves to do specific tasks that needed to be done around the homestead. Major labor projects would have been managed by the men. Either way, very few people were wealthy enough to own slaves. It's not like buying a pack of gum. If you convert the price of a slave into 2022 dollars, a slave would cost $207,215. How many people you know that have that kind of bank sitting around in cash today? Who can throw a million or so dollars to have a few hands around the homestead to do some work? Not many... Slave owners were on the level of today's billionaires.

[BeMuse]

Normal people of them just like normal people of today just paid other people for doing work short term...

[BeMuse]

*then

[BeMuse]

Average slaves lived to about 22 years old. They were not considered full fledged workers until they were 16 years old. So you're dropping $207,215 for 6 years of work on average. Slaves have provend to be about 50% as effective as normal paid workers. Thus you are basically getting 3 man years of work for $207,215 which means you would have to be willing to pay $69K for each labor year. That's a pretty high price point. I guess you get a little discount on child slave labor until they are 16, but still it wasn't exactly an amazing business decision. You had to have money to throw around because you wanted people to bend to your will. Kind of like how billionaires have highly priced live in maids and cooks today. Same shit.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure, but if White men owned slaves you can bet that White women were benefiting from it.

[SmokinAces2000]

Probably, white men did so some white women probably did too

[TroyDT2]

Some did. What's your point?

[imfreeze95]

Yes it is this is historical

[Guy13]

No….