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--- horton_freedom_s_yoke [2026/01/29 23:46] – hprior
+++ horton_freedom_s_yoke [2026/01/30 07:11] (current) – [Gender and the Struggle for Racial Equality] khamilt3
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 The book claims similar to the marriage dynamics of white families during the antebellum era, black men tended to have more financial and professional freedom than their wives. The typical model was for the mother to tend the house and the kids while at the same time work domestic jobs like house cleaning to make ends meet. However, some women like Elleanor Eldridge who didn't marry were able to get more prestigious jobs like in Eldridge's case where she became a successful business owner who could buy a sizable property. (Henry Prior)
+Black's analysis from Tuesday explained that one way West African men could practice their manhood was by teaching their sons to be proper men as well. Horton's analysis explains that while free Black men did play a role in teaching their sons manhood, parenting was largely a woman's responsibility. The mother was expected to ensure their children's well-being and pass on the proper ways of being a woman to their daughters and through motherhood women practiced womanhood. This is interesting because White families generally operated with the same notions of parenting. So all groups, West African families, Free Black families in America, White families in America, and White families in Europe all had similar ideas of what parenting should entail and by being a father or mother one could practice their womanhood or manhood respectively. However, Black families in America had the additional pressure of having to be perfectly polite, unproblematic, sociable, etc in public because they were pressured to actively disprove racial stereotypes about them. (Katherine Hamilton)
 ===== Gender and the Struggle for Racial Equality =====
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 This reading demonstrates that in the antebellum south, slave owners sought to emasculate enslaved black men in ways like punishing them in front of their women and children to demonstrate the manliness of the owner but also helplessness of the enslaved man's position, therefore, in the eyes of the owner making him less of a man. However despite these efforts, the reading claims that enslaved women weren't convinced by this and instead respected enslaved men knowing what was and was not possible their circumstances in a way resisting the power of the owner. (Henry Prior)
+Horton shows that free Blacks struggles for racial equality were deeply shaped by gender conventions that tied respectability, citizenship, and political legitimacy to patriarchal norms of manhood and womanhood. Black men’s claims to equality were often framed through ideals of male authority, breadwinning, and protections, while Black women’s political labor was frequently marginalised or rendered invisible despite being essential to community survival and activism. The section reveals how gender became both a tool of resistance and a constraint, reproducing inequalities within Black communities even as they fought white supremacy. — (Caitlyn Edwards)
+The fact that women's groups meetings often happened at someone's home so that the women there could do their work simultaneously is the perfect example of how even when these groups were abolitionist groups, their roles as women came first. They couldn't solely focus on abolition because their schedules (which included domestic work, paid jobs, childcare, etc. due to necessity) prevented them from doing so. While Black men were denied autonomy in their lives when it came to what jobs they wanted because of racism, Black women were denied autonomy when it came to jobs due to their predestined duties as women and the economic necessity of them completing domestic work, plus the limited options due to racism. (Katherine Hamilton)
+Having paid work outside of the home for Black women was multilayered when it came to what it meant socially. In regards to sex, it meant they were not stuck purely at home doing domestic labour. In regards to race, it was an economic necessity, since Black men were stuck in lower paying jobs and were paid less than White men. This often made it impossible for their family to live off of one income thus Black women had to provide a second income in addition to the domestic work they provided. So, having a paid job outside of the home on one hand meant they were not adhering to the norms of women staying at home which may have provided them with a sense of resistance to the patriarchy. On the other hand, having a job outside of the home plus domestic duties was not their choice, it was decided for them by their circumstances which only served as a reminder to their racial inequality. (Katherine Hamilton)