Author Description

"African American women both accepted and defied conventional definitions of private and public spheres. As freed women and men tried to minimize interference by their former owners, practically everything considered private became a public issue: marriage, mobility, parenthood, housing, and control over African American women's sexuality. Experiences such as pregnancy, nursing, the preparation of meals, and washing clothes, certainly viewed as private by freed women, became areas of heated debate between employers and employees."--BOOK JACKET.