The Plantation Mistress

Rating:
Summary: Revisionist History
Review: Catherine Clinton successfully parts the heavy drapes of Tara to reveal the truth behind the Scarlett myth created from the chimera of charming belles and courtly balls in the antebellum south. In The Plantation Mistress, the author skillfully reconstructs the realities facing a restricted and repressed class of women who have been historically eulogized by Hollywood and the popular press for over 150 years. The premise is simple: the leisure status of the planter's lady is a fairy tale told to spruce up the Lost Cause image. "The planter's wife was in charge not merely of the mansion but the entire spectrum of domestic operations throughout the estate, from food and clothing to the physical and spiritual care of both her white family and her husband's slaves." (Pg. 18)

With a writing style that effectively holds the reader captive, Ms Clinton also douses the romantic candle glow in the bedchamber to shine a more accurate spotlight on the relationships of men and women in this complex and euphemistic society. By artfully weaving contemporary observations such as -- "John Bernard, a British traveler, commented concerning southern women: `The one thing I did not approve of was the juvenile period at which they bloomed and decayed." Pg. 61 -- into the narrative, the author sculpts a dimensional profile of both gender and marital dynamics. Ms Clinton demonstrates that the view from a `lady's pedestal' was tainted by a dark cloud of ennui and the dismal fog of slavery.

A rich trove of letters, diaries and plantation records supports Ms. Clinton's scholarly conclusions without interfering in the textual flow. She also manages the pace of the material with a precision that unfolds each element eloquently and efficiently. I could not put this enlightening book down, as it is more than a treatment of women in the south. It is also a compendium of thought provoking issues, which encompass the horror of slavery as well as the inequality for women in the North.

The highest compliment that I can pay is that The Plantation Mistress did not sate my curiosity, but instead expanded my curiosity to search more thoroughly the intriguing directions pointed out by Ms. Clinton. However, I am positive that the next time I watch Scarlett threaten Miz Ellen's portieres, I will applaud her tenacity for taking charge of her life instead of thinking `the green dress is coming'. The Plantation Mistress in fact convinces me that an energetic, intelligent woman like Scarlett had few options in the old South for achieving any goal except by using subterfuge and manipulation. After reading The Plantation Mistress I want to compliment Scarlett for her determination, instead of slapping her for being a selfish brat.

Rating:
Summary: overall good book
Review: I browsed through it to get to parts that were the most interesting but overall the book was good. nice read for anyone interested in plantation life.

Rating:
Summary: Political Commentary Not History
Review: It is true that the authoress quotes much from some primary sources, however the book is basically an expression of her political/social opinions and is not a history. Her liberal biases, ardent feminism, lack of respect for Christian values, and her very limited understand of Southern culture and history, are overwhelmingly expressed. If you are an historian who was taught to evaluate primary sources without your personal biases, and if you are interested in a true history that reflects these values, you'll be sadly disappointed with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not as Scholarly as I had hoped
Review: The author gives a fascinating insight into the world of the plantation mistress, which has been a subject of much romantic myth. She dispells this by quoting correspondence from women of the time, and summarising the dilemmas and problems faced by these ladies. She effectively dispells the notion that women of the Old South led idle, glamorous lives and shows, in eloquent style, the exhausting, often isolated existence they led. I believe this book is a wonderful introduction to the lives of women of the Old South and has increased my interest in other related areas, such as the lives of Black slave women.

Rating:
Summary: honest review
Review: The Plantation Mistress by Catherine Clinton was an overall good book, and I recommend it for anyone interested in the lives of women in the Old South. I read it for a school project, however it was actually interesting. Some parts were boring, andthe author went into too much detail about some aspects of the life of a southern women, but other parts were really interesting. You will finish the book with a greater appreciation for women's status today, and a better understanding of women's role during the period 1780-1835. AN enjoyable read considering its a history book!!

Rating:
Summary: Revisionist History
Review: This is an amazing example of what I've only heard about heretofore: The feminist attribution of motives that probably didn't even enter the minds of the plantation ladies Ms. Clinton has written about. Her research sample is small and perhaps overused, but quite interesting when letters are included in the text, and therefore there is some worth to the work. Often foolish, this book says more about the author's politics than the lives of plantation mistresses.