Women of color
Amanda America Dickson or also known on her family’s plantation in Hancock County, Georgia as “Miss Mandy,” was born to Julia a housekeeper at David Dickson’s plantation. David Dickson a 40-year-old white male raped her mother at the age of 13 and later she gave birth to Amanda. Amanda was extremely lucky to have been in favor of her father and grandmother in which she was treated very well and received a lady’s upbringing despite being legally enslaved to her father. Amanda eventually married a white male that was her father’s nephew and had two children of her own. The marriage would end prematurely and she would return home with her children where her father became very fond of his grandchildren. She would tend to do this throughout her life where she would move away from her home and her father but when she would return back to her house her father would welcome her back with welcome arms and always had a special place in his heart for his daughter Amanda. I believe the author is trying to show that Amanda was not unique in that her father was a white male plantation owner and her mother was a black and enslaved to her father and that encounters of white males and black slave women were not uncommon and happened quite frequently depending on the plantation. The author could have used many different types of sources including oral history, newspapers, diaries and court documents to build her evidence and show that Amanda’s situation was not unique. She does challenge a few historians such as: Bertram Wyatt-Brown and Steven Stowe. The strengths of this book I feel are the points it brings up that relationships between slaves and whites all depended on the owner of the slaves and it was different from plantation to plantation but with that they all each had stuff in common. Like white males sleeping with black female slaves. Some weaknesses I feel in this book is that sometimes the author is hard to follow and she has messages that only her mind can