Born Southern: Childbirth, Motherhood, and Social Networks in the Old South

A social history of childbearing and motherhood focused on black and white women in slave-owning households in the antebellum and Civil War South.

In Born Southern, V. Lynn Kennedy addresses the pivotal roles of birth and motherhood in slaveholding families and communities in the Old South. She assesses the power structures of race, gender, and class—both in the household and in the public sphere—and how they functioned to construct a distinct antebellum southern society.

Kennedy's uni...