Masterful Women: Slaveholding Widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War

Many early-nineteenth-century slaveholders considered themselves “masters” not only over slaves, but also over the institutions of marriage and family. According to many historians, the privilege of mastery was reserved for white males. But as many as one in ten slaveholders — sometimes more — was a widow, and as Kirsten E. Wood demonstrates, slaveholding widows between the American Revolution and the Civil War developed their own version of mastery.

Because their husbands' wills and dower l...