SLAVERY, PART I: MISTRESSES OF MISERY

Photo credit UC Berkeley.

We're calling this season "The Haters" and focusing on the women involved in the dirtiest institutions of white supremacy. Starting right off the line with the kidnapping and enslavement of African people, we're learning that white women were deliberately and intricately involved in upholding slavery. It's going to take some time to sort through, so prepare yourself for some hard truths. Many thanks to the work of the historian Stephanie Jones-Rogers and her incredible book They Were Her Property: White Women As Slave Owners in the American South. 

Caroline Gilman, editor of The Rosebud -- one of the nation's first children's magazines that doubled as a slaveowner manual. 

Matilda McCrear, last known survivor of The Clotilda—the last known slave ship to the United States despite it being illegal.