little freedoms essays

little freedoms essays Freedom is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. If there is one group of people in American history who are subjected to more coercion and constraint in choice and action it has to be the black female slave. Slaves in general face constraints on their freedoms by nature of being slaves. Women, on the other hand, have been oppressed into submissive roles throughout human history. These constraints on the freedoms of women are reinforced by laws and customs in many parts of the world, even today. Women do almost all of the worlds domestic work and childcare without pay. In total it is estimated that women work two-thirds of all hours worked, and yet only receive a tenth of the worlds income. With that said it is difficult to imagine what small freedoms, if any, a female slave had so many years ago. Deborah Gray Whites book Arnt I a Woman takes a hard look the issues and horrible conditions the female slave faced in America. Throughout the book White makes it evident that women in American slavery had fewer freedoms than anybody, even male slaves. As White points out early, the female slave was black in a white society, slave in a free society, (and) woman in a society ruled by men. (p.15) Female slaves had less power than any other people in America and more constrains on their personal freedoms than any other group of people. Not only did female slaves suffer all the bondages of being a slave, they suffered for being female at the same time. Slavery was different for women and men. As White is clear to point out, the enslavement was not necessarily worse for female slaves than it was for male slaves, but I think it is clear from the evidence she presents that female slaves were less free than male slaves. (p.89) For instance, women were sexually exploited virtually as soon as they were enslaved. Women wer...