Part I: How the patriarchy does it

In our white patriarchy Women of any color are rarely recorded well in history or genealogy. During their enslavement African American women and their descendants usually had no recorded name left to us in official documents. Certainly some wills and personal documents might have recorded names. But generally speaking, the enslaved were recorded by their gender and age alone. Sometimes also their estimated sale price. But no name. Without a name, without a name and only a price, you are certainly more property than person.

Early records, early censuses, mostly recorded women in a household only as wife. Only men could hold property, only men could act as soldiers, so only men had a reason for their names to be recorded. Patriarchy only cares about paters, by design. Our foundations are made of this.

It was not unusual to have a child before marriage in the colonies and early states. Women were valued for their ability to have children. But those women were extremely disposable. Men could have 2 to 3 wives wearing out one after another in bearing children. Saving the last one to help them in their old age, usually. These women’s lives are largely unrecorded. Unless they owned property.

So that is another pillar in our foundation. The concept of ownership giving you control. Creating a situation in which you are designated as the one who controls it. Land. Children. Wives.