Women as wives, servants and slaves: Rethinking the public/private divide

Canadian Journal of Political Science

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 29-54

  Arneil, Barbara ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0035644712     PISSN: 00084239     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0008423901777803     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. Carole Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public Private Dichotomy," in S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds., Public and Private in Social Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281-303; Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford University Press, 1988); Carole Pateman, The Disorder of Women (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989); Susan Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); and Susan Moller Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," in Janet A. Kouraney, ed., Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 116-44.
2. Carole Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public Private Dichotomy," in S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds., Public and Private in Social Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281-303; Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford University Press, 1988); Carole Pateman, The Disorder of Women (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989); Susan Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); and Susan Moller Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," in Janet A. Kouraney, ed., Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 116-44.
3. Carole Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public Private Dichotomy," in S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds., Public and Private in Social Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281-303; Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford University Press, 1988); Carole Pateman, The Disorder of Women (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989); Susan Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); and Susan Moller Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," in Janet A. Kouraney, ed., Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 116-44.
4. Carole Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public Private Dichotomy," in S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds., Public and Private in Social Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281-303; Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford University Press, 1988); Carole Pateman, The Disorder of Women (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989); Susan Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); and Susan Moller Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," in Janet A. Kouraney, ed., Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 116-44.
5. Carole Pateman, "Feminist Critiques of the Public Private Dichotomy," in S. I. Benn and G. F. Gaus, eds., Public and Private in Social Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281-303; Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford University Press, 1988); Carole Pateman, The Disorder of Women (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989); Susan Moller Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); and Susan Moller Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," in Janet A. Kouraney, ed., Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 116-44.
6. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government ed. by Peter Laslett, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). Unless otherwise stated, emphases in quotations from Two Treatises are in the original.
7. There is a body of analysis which does examine the relationships between the free citizen, servant and slave in the Two Treatises, but much of it is based around class differences; with very little reference to either race or gender. Thus it tends to focus on men as wage labourers and owners, without seeing female servants and slaves, who can only be understood as part of the economy and authority of a private family. C. B. Macpherson provides the standard example of a class analysis based on "male" servants and slaves only (as "wage-earners" "owned by" mercantilists, as opposed to domestic help engaged by a household). In respect to serfs or servants versus property owners, Macpherson notes: "Locke has read back into the state of nature a class division, of whose existence in his own society he was fully aware, between those who had accumulated and those who had not - between owners and wage-workers." Thus, servants are implicitly male in Macpherson's analysis, their racial identity is left obscure and their role is implicitly linked to public wages rather than domestic authority (John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, edited with an introduction by C. B. Macpherson [Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1980]), 238. See also, C. B. Macpherson, The Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
8. There is a body of analysis which does examine the relationships between the free citizen, servant and slave in the Two Treatises, but much of it is based around class differences; with very little reference to either race or gender. Thus it tends to focus on men as wage labourers and owners, without seeing female servants and slaves, who can only be understood as part of the economy and authority of a private family. C. B. Macpherson provides the standard example of a class analysis based on "male" servants and slaves only (as "wage-earners" "owned by" mercantilists, as opposed to domestic help engaged by a household). In respect to serfs or servants versus property owners, Macpherson notes: "Locke has read back into the state of nature a class division, of whose existence in his own society he was fully aware, between those who had accumulated and those who had not - between owners and wage-workers." Thus, servants are implicitly male in Macpherson's analysis, their racial identity is left obscure and their role is implicitly linked to public wages rather than domestic authority (John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, edited with an introduction by C. B. Macpherson [Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1980]), 238. See also, C. B. Macpherson, The Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).
9. The late 1980s and 1990s have witnessed the emergence of third-wave feminism(s). Compared to second-wave feminist analysis, which often viewed "women" as a singular and essentialist category caught in a dualistic world, third-wave feminist analysis embraces the multiplicity, and potentially contradictory, nature of identity in order to find new methods of empowerment. "People in the world who are facing and embracing their contradictions and complexities and creating something new and empowering from them are important voices leading us away from divisiveness and dualism" (Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism [New York: Anchor Book, 1995], xxxv). For examples of some third-wave feminist analysis, see Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seattle: Seal Press, 1995); special issue of Hypatia: Third Wave Feminisms 12 (1997); and Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). For an overview, see Barbara Arneil, Politics and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), esp. chap. 6.
10. The late 1980s and 1990s have witnessed the emergence of third-wave feminism(s). Compared to second-wave feminist analysis, which often viewed "women" as a singular and essentialist category caught in a dualistic world, third-wave feminist analysis embraces the multiplicity, and potentially contradictory, nature of identity in order to find new methods of empowerment. "People in the world who are facing and embracing their contradictions and complexities and creating something new and empowering from them are important voices leading us away from divisiveness and dualism" (Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism [New York: Anchor Book, 1995], xxxv). For examples of some third-wave feminist analysis, see Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seattle: Seal Press, 1995); special issue of Hypatia: Third Wave Feminisms 12 (1997); and Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). For an overview, see Barbara Arneil, Politics and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), esp. chap. 6.
11. The late 1980s and 1990s have witnessed the emergence of third-wave feminism(s). Compared to second-wave feminist analysis, which often viewed "women" as a singular and essentialist category caught in a dualistic world, third-wave feminist analysis embraces the multiplicity, and potentially contradictory, nature of identity in order to find new methods of empowerment. "People in the world who are facing and embracing their contradictions and complexities and creating something new and empowering from them are important voices leading us away from divisiveness and dualism" (Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism [New York: Anchor Book, 1995], xxxv). For examples of some third-wave feminist analysis, see Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seattle: Seal Press, 1995); special issue of Hypatia: Third Wave Feminisms 12 (1997); and Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). For an overview, see Barbara Arneil, Politics and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), esp. chap. 6.
12. The late 1980s and 1990s have witnessed the emergence of third-wave feminism(s). Compared to second-wave feminist analysis, which often viewed "women" as a singular and essentialist category caught in a dualistic world, third-wave feminist analysis embraces the multiplicity, and potentially contradictory, nature of identity in order to find new methods of empowerment. "People in the world who are facing and embracing their contradictions and complexities and creating something new and empowering from them are important voices leading us away from divisiveness and dualism" (Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism [New York: Anchor Book, 1995], xxxv). For examples of some third-wave feminist analysis, see Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seattle: Seal Press, 1995); special issue of Hypatia: Third Wave Feminisms 12 (1997); and Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). For an overview, see Barbara Arneil, Politics and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), esp. chap. 6.
13. The late 1980s and 1990s have witnessed the emergence of third-wave feminism(s). Compared to second-wave feminist analysis, which often viewed "women" as a singular and essentialist category caught in a dualistic world, third-wave feminist analysis embraces the multiplicity, and potentially contradictory, nature of identity in order to find new methods of empowerment. "People in the world who are facing and embracing their contradictions and complexities and creating something new and empowering from them are important voices leading us away from divisiveness and dualism" (Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism [New York: Anchor Book, 1995], xxxv). For examples of some third-wave feminist analysis, see Barbara Findlen, ed., Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seattle: Seal Press, 1995); special issue of Hypatia: Third Wave Feminisms 12 (1997); and Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). For an overview, see Barbara Arneil, Politics and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), esp. chap. 6.
14. Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha and Other Writings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
15. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 78.
16. Ibid., II, para. 82.
17. Ibid., II, para. 174. Servants are not mentioned in this chapter either but, as shall be argued in the next section, they seem to be seen by Locke as equivalent to children and to be commanded as such, under a time limited or temporary authority of the head of household (II, para. 85) in accordance with the terms of the employment contract.
18. Ibid., I, para. 49.
19. Ibid., I, para. 48.
20. Ibid., II, para. 81.
21. Ibid., I, para. 47.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., I, para. 123.
24. Ibid., I, para. 135.
25. Gregory King, Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) printed as an appendix to George Chalmer, Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain . . . (London, 1804) and also in Charles Davenant, Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, cited in Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix 1, 279. Macpherson notes at one point: "Using King's figure of 560,000 in-servants . . . 260,000 are male," in order to discuss the issue of the male servant and the vote. He makes no mention of the other 300,000 in-servants who are presumably female (Possessive Individualism, 284).
26. Gregory King, Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) printed as an appendix to George Chalmer, Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain . . . (London, 1804) and also in Charles Davenant, Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, cited in Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix 1, 279. Macpherson notes at one point: "Using King's figure of 560,000 in-servants . . . 260,000 are male," in order to discuss the issue of the male servant and the vote. He makes no mention of the other 300,000 in-servants who are presumably female (Possessive Individualism, 284).
27. Gregory King, Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) printed as an appendix to George Chalmer, Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain . . . (London, 1804) and also in Charles Davenant, Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, cited in Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix 1, 279. Macpherson notes at one point: "Using King's figure of 560,000 in-servants . . . 260,000 are male," in order to discuss the issue of the male servant and the vote. He makes no mention of the other 300,000 in-servants who are presumably female (Possessive Individualism, 284).
28. Gregory King, Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) printed as an appendix to George Chalmer, Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain . . . (London, 1804) and also in Charles Davenant, Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, cited in Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix 1, 279. Macpherson notes at one point: "Using King's figure of 560,000 in-servants . . . 260,000 are male," in order to discuss the issue of the male servant and the vote. He makes no mention of the other 300,000 in-servants who are presumably female (Possessive Individualism, 284).
29. Gregory King, Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) printed as an appendix to George Chalmer, Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain . . . (London, 1804) and also in Charles Davenant, Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, cited in Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, appendix 1, 279. Macpherson notes at one point: "Using King's figure of 560,000 in-servants . . . 260,000 are male," in order to discuss the issue of the male servant and the vote. He makes no mention of the other 300,000 in-servants who are presumably female (Possessive Individualism, 284).
30. Mildred Campbell, The English Yeoman under Elizabeth and the Early Stuarts (New York: A. M. Kelley, 1960), 398. Locke also refers to the work of the servant as "drudgery" (II, para. 24).
31. Ibid., II, para. 85.
32. John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures, in The Works of John Locke, 10 vols. (Dublin: Thomas Tegg et al., 1823) Vol. 7, 146.
33. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 85.
34. Ibid., II, para. 85 (note).
35. Locke, Reasonableness of Christianity, 146. Locke refers to "the lowest capacities of reasonable creatures" (emphasis added), again distinguishing children and servants (who have a low capacity for reason) from slaves (who have no need of moral instructions or commands as they have no capacity for reason at all).
36. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 24.
37. Ibid., II, para 85.
38. Ibid., II, para 172.
39. Ibid., II, para. 86. "Mistress of a Family" emphasized in original; other emphases added.
40. Locke compares those inhabiting "the wild woods and uncultivated wast of America . . . without any improvement" with those living on the land in "Devonshire where they are well cultivated," concluding that the latter are citizens in a civil society worthy of government; the former continue to exist in a state of nature, and are not yet ready for proprietorship or citizenship (II, para. 37). It should be noted that the Devonshire farmer is compared not only to the American Indian, but also to the Spanish conquistador, both in colonial documents of Locke, as well as writings on trade in the Americas. For Locke, it is a specific Protestant, English form of labour which begins property and citizenship.
41. Locke states: "God gave the World . . . to the use of the Industrious and Rational, (and Labour was to be his Title to it)" (II, para. 34).
42. Ibid., II, para. 48.
43. See for example: John Locke, "Notes for an Essay on Trade," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, Folio 18, 1674; "Notes on Trade in Sweden, Denmark, and New England," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, folio 38, 1696; and Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money, in Patrick Kelly, ed., Locke on Money, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
44. See for example: John Locke, "Notes for an Essay on Trade," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, Folio 18, 1674; "Notes on Trade in Sweden, Denmark, and New England," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, folio 38, 1696; and Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money, in Patrick Kelly, ed., Locke on Money, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
45. See for example: John Locke, "Notes for an Essay on Trade," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, Folio 18, 1674; "Notes on Trade in Sweden, Denmark, and New England," Bodleian Library, MS c. 30, folio 38, 1696; and Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money, in Patrick Kelly, ed., Locke on Money, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
46. This is not to say that Aboriginal people do not have the potential to become property owners, if they choose to be "industrious and rational," but as Locke makes explicit in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in order to become truly "rational," one must accept the first principles of understanding, namely a monotheistic religion and the "arts and sciences" of European learning, as well as the principles of European commerce (Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975]). The difficulty is that in meeting all the requirements of Locke's property owner, the Amerindian must in so many significant ways become European. For a more extensive treatment of the role of colonialism and America's First Nations in Locke's theory of property, see Barbara Arneil, John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
47. This is not to say that Aboriginal people do not have the potential to become property owners, if they choose to be "industrious and rational," but as Locke makes explicit in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in order to become truly "rational," one must accept the first principles of understanding, namely a monotheistic religion and the "arts and sciences" of European learning, as well as the principles of European commerce (Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975]). The difficulty is that in meeting all the requirements of Locke's property owner, the Amerindian must in so many significant ways become European. For a more extensive treatment of the role of colonialism and America's First Nations in Locke's theory of property, see Barbara Arneil, John Locke and America: The Defence of English Colonialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
48. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 28.
49. Ibid., II, para. 24, note 284. See also, "The First Set of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina," in B. R. Carroll, ed., Historical Collections of South Carolina (New York, 1836). For a discussion of Locke on slavery and the slave trade, see Wayne Glausser, "Three Approaches to Locke and the Slave Trade," Journal of the History of Ideas 51 (1990), 199-216.
50. Ibid., II, para. 24, note 284. See also, "The First Set of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina," in B. R. Carroll, ed., Historical Collections of South Carolina (New York, 1836). For a discussion of Locke on slavery and the slave trade, see Wayne Glausser, "Three Approaches to Locke and the Slave Trade," Journal of the History of Ideas 51 (1990), 199-216.
51. Ibid., II, para. 24, note 284. See also, "The First Set of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina," in B. R. Carroll, ed., Historical Collections of South Carolina (New York, 1836). For a discussion of Locke on slavery and the slave trade, see Wayne Glausser, "Three Approaches to Locke and the Slave Trade," Journal of the History of Ideas 51 (1990), 199-216.
52. Peter Laslett, "John Locke, the Great Recoinage and the Board of Trade (1695-1698)," William and Mary Quarterly (Williamsbury: Institute of Early American History, 1957), 14:3.
53. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 24 (note). For an analysis of the "just war theory" and race in Locke's thought, see Charles Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), 67-68; and for comments on American First Nations, see 86-88.
54. Locke, Two Treatises, II, para. 24 (note). For an analysis of the "just war theory" and race in Locke's thought, see Charles Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), 67-68; and for comments on American First Nations, see 86-88.
55. In 1674, Locke invested 400 pounds sterling in the Royal African Company and 200 pounds more the following year (Maurice Cranston, John Locke: A Biography [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985], 115).
56. e Governor and Council of Carolina," Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society V (Charleston, 1897), 367.
57. For an analysis of the modern liberal contract tradition in terms of race, see Mills, The Racial Contract. Interestingly, Mills, using Pateman's model as the basis of his own work, makes the same mistake of assuming that a "gendered analysis" of the social contract tradition is encompassed within an examination of the relations between the wives of citizens and their husbands, and does not address the specific experience of female slaves in the liberal tradition.
58. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds., Woman, Culture and Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 23.
59. Linda Nicholson, Gender and History: The Limits of Social Theory in the Age of the Family (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 102.
60. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, "The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on Feminism and Cross-Cultural Understanding," Signs 5 (1980), 389-417.
61. Elizabeth Spelman, Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought (Boston: Beacon Press), 1988.
62. Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, 9. While Okin does not examine Locke's writings as fully as other political theorists, she was included because of both the general importance of her contribution to Western political thought and the particular relevance of her views on slavery and marriage.
63. This is not to say that many female slaves and servants were not also subject to sexual labour, as shall be discussed, but the general notion of pro-creation, child-rearing within the context of the family is largely in reference to the free citizens' wives role in the private sphere.
64. Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, 200.
65. Ibid., 274-75. The last part of this quote refers to Plato and Aristotle.
66. Okin says, in relation to Aristotle, "the justification of slavery as natural . . . the same considerations apply to . . . the natural position of women" (ibid., 81). In the conclusion, she writes again of slaves and women as two different groups of people: "Aristotle's entire political philosophy is founded . . . on the premise that all the other members of the population-slaves and artisans as well as women -exist in order to perform their respective functions for the few free males who participate fully in citizenship" (276; emphasis added).
67. bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981), 7; emphasis added.
68. Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," 129. Some of this critique is also included in the "Afterword" of Women in Western Political Thought (7th ed., 1992).
69. Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," 129. Some of this critique is also included in the "Afterword" of Women in Western Political Thought (7th ed., 1992).
70. Okin, "Feminism and Political Theory," 128.
71. Okin, "Afterword," Women in Western Political Thought, 327-28.
72. It should be noted that feminist analyses which use "wives" also exclude lesbians and unmarried straight women. For more on this see Arneil, Politics and Feminism, esp. chaps. 3 and 6.
73. Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, 275.
74. Okin, " Afterword," Women in Western Political Thought, 328.
75. Pateman, The Disorder of Women, 120.
76. Ibid., 121.
77. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, 113.
78. Pateman, The Disorder of Women, 45.
79. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, 2.
80. Ibid., 3.
81. Ibid., 110; emphasis added.
82. bell hooks, Feminist Theory from Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984), 68.
83. Shaftesbury tells Stephen Bull, his deputy in Carolina, that it would be "very agreeable to our design . . . to get and continue the friendship and assistance of the Indians and make them useful without force or injury" (Letter from Shaftesbury to S. Bull, August 13, 1673, Shaftesbury's Papers, Public Record Office, London, Bundle 48, No. 55, 136). It was also assumed that "Indian" women would not be taken as wives of English colonists either, even though there are some famous historical exceptions.
84. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, 148. Pateman states: "The wife was the first slave of the master" (125).
85. Ibid., 230.
86. Ibid., 65; emphasis in original.
87. Ibid., 65.
88. This is not to say that the difference of experience between male and female slaves is not of importance in our understanding of the gendered nature of slavery, rather, I am arguing that female slaves have similarities and differences with both wives and male slaves; all aspects should be analysed if the female slave is to be fully understood.
89. Aida Hurtado, "Relating to Privilege: Seduction and Rejection in the Subordination of White Women and Women of Color," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14 (1989), 833-55, 841.
90. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, 221.
91. Spelman, Inessential Woman, 38.
92. Ibid., 54.
93. Ibid., 13. While Spelman rightly insists on the incorporation of multiplicity into the feminist analysis of Aristotle and political theory generally, her own analysis seems to return us to an essentialism based on the concept of masculinity. Although she criticizes Western political theory for giving priority to masculinity, can it not be shown that the distinctions made between Greeks and non-Greek "barbarians" are important ethnic distinctions which cannot be reduced to the purely gendered ideas of "masculinity" versus "non-masculinity?"
94. Heywood and Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda, 3.
95. Donna Haraway, "Ecc Homo, Ain't (Ar'n't) I a Woman, and Inappropriat'd Others: The Human in a Post-Humanist Landscape," in Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott, eds., Feminists Theorize the Political (New York: Routledge), 86-100, 95.
96. Ibid., 93-94.
97. hooks, Ain't I a Woman? 22.
98. hooks, Feminist Theory, 68-69.
99. This analysis of different groups of women fulfilling different roles in the private sphere, is not an entirely abstract or theoretical project. The construction of the private sphere in Western political theory has enormous implications, for example, in the discussions about policy areas such as child-care and domestic household work. Some feminist commentators have analyzed the extent to which childcare workers can be defined by both gender and ethnicity, in explorations of the "the racialization of household work." As Danzy Senna comments: "In Manhattan, I see playgrounds filled with black and Latino women caring for white children" (Danzy Senna, "To Be Real," in Walker, ed., To Be Real, 5-20). For an analysis of this phenomenon in Canada see Abigail B. Bakan and Daiva K. Stasiulis, eds., Not One of the Family: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997).
100. This analysis of different groups of women fulfilling different roles in the private sphere, is not an entirely abstract or theoretical project. The construction of the private sphere in Western political theory has enormous implications, for example, in the discussions about policy areas such as child-care and domestic household work. Some feminist commentators have analyzed the extent to which childcare workers can be defined by both gender and ethnicity, in explorations of the "the racialization of household work." As Danzy Senna comments: "In Manhattan, I see playgrounds filled with black and Latino women caring for white children" (Danzy Senna, "To Be Real," in Walker, ed., To Be Real, 5-20). For an analysis of this phenomenon in Canada see Abigail B. Bakan and Daiva K. Stasiulis, eds., Not One of the Family: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997).