While reading BLACK SOLDIERS (Civil War Series, National Park Service: 1996) text by Joseph Glatthaar, I was struck by the following passage:
"Twenty-four year old Elijah P. Marrs was a most unusual slave. Born in 1840 to a bondswoman and a free black man, infant Elijah assumed the status of his mother, according to standard practice in Shelby County, Kentucky."
Matriarchy was for black bondswomen; patriarchy for free men and for whites, was the rule of thumb, and yet another American distinction based on one's birth status.
African society was itself matriarchal. Yet, its prevalence today, would seem to be more akin to that antebellum practice, noted above, than to remote African roots.
Monday, November 10, 2014
BIRTH STATUS
While reading BLACK SOLDIERS (Civil War Series, National Park Service: 1996) text by Joseph Glatthaar, I was struck by the following passage:
"Twenty-four year old Elijah P. Marrs was a most unusual slave. Born in 1840 to a bondswoman and a free black man, infant Elijah assumed the status of his mother, according to standard practice in Shelby County, Kentucky."
Matriarchy was for black bondswomen; patriarchy for free men and for whites, was the rule of thumb, and yet another American distinction based on one's birth status.
African society was itself matriarchal. Yet, its prevalence today, would seem to be more akin to that antebellum practice, noted above, than to remote African roots.