Kennedy's systematic and thoughtful study distinguishes southern approaches to childbirth and motherhood from northern ones, showing how slavery and rural living contributed to a particularly southern experience.
In Born Southern, V. Lynn Kennedy addresses the pivotal role of motherhood in slave and 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 systematic and thoughtful study distinguishes southern approaches to childbirth and motherhood from northern ones, showing how slavery and other regional concerns contributed to a particularly southern experience.
"This treatment of antebellum southern maternity takes the issue beyond women's history and the often too-tight frame of family and community history and places it at the center of southern power relations."--Journal of Southern History
"A must read for those with interests in the Old South, gender, African American history, and women's studies."--Choice
"An important book that offers a fresh perspective on childbirth and maternity in the antebellum South; transcends the boundaries of social, cultural, legal, and political history; and highlights the value of close readings of sources."--H-Childhood, H-Net Reviews
"A useful addition to an admittedly sparse field; Kennedy joins scholars such as Sally McMillen and Marie Jenkes Schwartz in analyzing what birth meant to southern women."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
