Slavery in greater context
In early letter to her parents after meeting Benjamin, Sarah mentioned the Williams family had "300 slaves between them" . While Sarah and Benjamin take part in elite plantation society early in the marriage, when they moved to Georgia, they became respectable members of the planter class. Like most white slaveholders, Williams referred to her slaves as servants. She used slave to describe blacks on the plantation. Instead, used servant, almost as a way to ease her parents into her new life.
At the start of her marriage she frequently wrote to her parents about her surprise at her husband's interactions with slaves. Williams believed Northern papers exaggerated the ill-treatment of slaves, after observing her husband showing kindness to their slaves. Sarah Williams adopted a paternalistic point of view towards the master-slave relationship. Though she wrote her parents about her work in the household, she did not indicate at any point that she feels any "plight." Williams did not write of any connection to her female slaves, as historian Catherine Clinton would suggest (Clinton, 18). Rather, paternalism is a term in the 1980s Elizabeth Fox-Genovese used to describe the plantation system at work. Everyone worked on the plantation for the betterment of the plantation; women black and white worked as part of the system through contrasting experiences. The plantation mistress was racist and elitist (Fox-Genovese, 35). Williams is representative of the plantation mistresses' views on slavery.
Williams felt responsible for slaves under her charge, out of necessity and duty, rather than actually caring for the emotional and physical well-being of a slave. She does not share problems or mistreatment of slaves to her parents. Although Williams's emerging views on slavery shaped her everyday interactions with slaves in her household, it is apparent she chose carefully her words and thoughts regarding slavery to her northern kin who did not share her outlook. There is apparent tension surrounding slavery in Williams's letters and she carefully wrote about her interactions with slaves.
Sarah Hicks Williams wrote her parents of her children play with slaves, her relationship with slaves, and how she felt about being in charge of the plantation during her husband's absences. Williams chose her words carefully when writing about slavery particularly early on in her marriage. Williams, while aware that while her parents may not be as focused on the abolitionist movement as her sister Mary, Sarah does not want her parents to think of her in the same way the northern papers write about slaveholders. Williams attempts to justify slavery to her parents by describing paternalism as beneficial for blacks and whites.
Because Williams came to depend on her slaves, she lamented the additional burdens she faced when slaves posed challenges to her authority or could not work due to illness. Her success as a plantation mistress depended upon how well she could manage household domestics (King, 84). Williams often wrote of how she has to take care of not just her own children but her slaves, and hardly had time for herself. Williams complained her slaves affected her work and how annoyed she becomes when she needed to do additional work. It is interesting to note that she never mentions any relations between her husband and domestic female slaves or any violence that occurred on the plantation. While there could be a number of reasons for this, Williams is continually attempting to convey slavery as a necessary good to her parents.
Like many slaveholders, Sarah Williams lamented the poor work habits of her slaves. She complained about their subpar sewing and cooking. True to her paternalistic views, these episodes reinforced the need for her continued oversight of her slaves. Wilma King argues that plantation mistresses would do the work themselves because slaves could not live up to the expectations of home (King, 84). Though annoyed at slaves for lack of work ethic, slowness in completing tasks was a form of slave resistance. Female slaves were less likely to run and would find other ways to bring annoyance to their mistresses, including slowdowns at their jobs (Glymph, 70). Williams also noted the everyday intimacy that occurred in their household, as her children and those of her slaves played together. Williams found it amusing that her daughter Virginia plays and kisses her black playmates as if they were white. But she also voiced concern about her children picking up bad habits from their slaves.
Disciplining slaves could be difficult for the mistress of the household, but Williams did not write about how she handled her slaves. Her husband Benjamin was more likely to enforce punishment. Attempts at discipline by plantation mistresses could be shaped by passion and temper (Weiner, 285). We can infer that she faced similar difficulties, when she wrote to her parents about her discomfort at being in charge during her husband's absences. Initially, she welcomes her mother-in-law's presence. Lifestyle guides in the South recommended that women be kind to slaves when managing on your own (Weiner, 281). Williams always infers that she treats her slaves with kindness and care.
Not until after the Civil War did Sarah Williams reveal that she found former slaves to be filthy, ungrateful people. She wrote to her parents about how she could not find decent help after the war, with freedpeople working for others or simply moving away. Former plantation mistresses could no longer coerce former slaves into doing work. Confederate ideology had only further affirmed feminine dependence on men and female vulnerability (Faust, 211). After the Civil War, plantation mistresses, did not attempt to rectify their new position in life but pushed back against it. Williams is resentful of her loss of status and had to come to terms with no longer having someone to blame for failed domestic tasks.
