It seems contradictory that a person can be simultaneously treated as both completely worthless and completely inexhaustible. Despite the paradoxical nature of this statement, it perfectly describes the plight of black women in the early days of American slavery. Slave women, although legally considered property, were vitally necessary not only for their physical labor, but also for their biological ability to reproduce. Women were a highly exploited group of people who, although not afforded any rights, identity, or sympathy, formed the foundation of the very institution of slavery in the New World. The book Laboring Women by Jennifer L. Morgan details the specific struggles a woman, and a woman alone, would face during her life as a slave. While some historical accounts tend to group men and women together when discussing slavery, Morgan details how the female slave experience specifically affected and defined the institution of slavery. Her argument shows that a deeper understanding of the experience of enslaved women, particularly their reproductive potential, can help understand the culture and psychology of a slave-owning society as a whole. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Laboring Women, Morgan makes a point of challenging existing historical analyzes of Southern slavery by arguing that reproduction and motherhood in slavery were not only evidence of the exploitation of slave women, but in fact central to understanding the society of the time. Morgan calls her research “a study of…the impact of slavery on women’s lives and the impact of women on the development of slavery.” The author's study begins at the very beginning of a slave's life experience, even before her arrival in America. It begins with an assessment of how an African woman was perceived. Overtly sexual descriptions of African women by European travelers created the expectation of a black woman in slavery. A black woman defied conventional beauty standards and “embodied a profound threat to the patriarchy” that invoked white men’s need to control her. Not only were they desired as workers, but also as sexual beings and objects of pleasure who, conveniently, had the biological capacity to produce more free labor through sex. This was based on the white man's privilege of viewing a slave as less than himself. Being a woman in a society dominated by wealthy white men was already challenging: the objectification of enslaved women in particular was a direct result of disregard for the physical and mental health of African Americans. In other words, slave owners did not care whether bearing child after child negatively affected the slave woman's body. She was an object and property: a slave owner would do with a slave whatever he wanted, without regard for humanity. Jennifer L. Morgan's research attempts to explain how womanhood and white supremacy should be studied together for a better understanding of racial division. One piece of information that tends to be understated in discussions of slavery is the extent to which slave owners needed slaves. and depended on the labor of their slaves, especially women, as they were not only involved in heavy labor but also worked as.