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Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia
Kathleen Brown examines the origins of racism and slavery in British North America from the perspective of gender. Both a basic social relationship and a model for other social hierarchies, gender helped determine the construction of racial categories and the institution of slavery in Virginia. But the rise of racial slavery also transformed gender relations, including ideals of masculinity. In response to the presence of Indians, the shortage of labor, and the insecurity of social rank, Virginia's colonial government tried to reinforce its authority by regulating the labor and sexuality of English servants and by making legal distinctions between English and African women. This practice, along with making slavery hereditary through the mother, contributed to the cultural shift whereby women of African descent assumed from lower-class English women both the burden of fieldwork and the stigma of moral corruption. Brown's analysis extends through Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, an important juncture in consolidating the colony's white male public culture, and into the eighteenth century. She demonstrates that, despite elite planters' dominance, wives, children, free people of color, and enslaved men and women continued to influence the meaning of race and class in colonial Virginia.
512 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 4, 2010
I LOVE the title of this book. And the subject matter is fascinating. You will find vignettes here you won't find elsewhere, such as when two slaves realize they've seen their mistress commit a criminal act and - since they can't testify in court - what they do to see the crime comes to light.
That said, and this may be entirely my brain atrophying but, it was a bit of a slow read. As in academically dense, not as in boring. If you're at all interested in colonial Virginia, this is definitely the go-to book.
That said, and this may be entirely my brain atrophying but, it was a bit of a slow read. As in academically dense, not as in boring. If you're at all interested in colonial Virginia, this is definitely the go-to book.
February 4, 2026
So good! Took me so long to get through
March 3, 2013
Kathleen M. Brown’s 1996 work Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs serves the double purpose of providing a gender history of colonial Virginia and using gender theory to complicate the portrait of slavery’s emergence drawn by Edward Morgan in American Slavery, American Freedom. Motivated by a concern that studies of the origins of slavery in colonial America “had been laid to rest without any sustained attention to the uses of gender in constituting racial categories and legitimating political authority,” Brown’s account rests on two main ideas. First, following Joan Scott, Brown approaches gender as a social construction employed to legitimize power relationships by grounding them in a category perceived as the natural order of the world, beyond question and debate. Second, Brown makes the point that racial slavery must by definition involve the regulation not only of labor, but of women’s bodies and biological reproduction. Brown opens her work with the gender roles which were evolving in England at the beginning of the 17th century, when “[r]eferences to Gaelic savagery and African wildness peppered English travel accounts, reinforcing the proximity of native peoples to untamed nature and denying them the rights of civilized peoples.” An integral part of the identity which the English believed set them apart from uncivilized peoples was the patriarchal household. Women who were legitimized by the oversight of the patriarchal household head were deemed good wives, while women who worked outside the household were consigned to the more suspect category of nasty wenches. In the early years of settlement the meanings and political uses of gender were well established, but ill-fitted to colonial conditions where labor scarcity required women to labor outside the home and keeping male laborers working for established planters rather than themselves was an obsessive preoccupation.
It was into this fluid world of frustrated identity that unfree Africans were imported. Brown carefully traces how ill-defined racial categories were and the successful integration and sometimes intermarriage of the first generation of Africans in Virginia. Unlike Morgan, she identifies the beginning of the codification of racial slavery to a generation prior to Bacon’s rebellion, with the introduction of a tax on African women in the 1640s that made it more difficult for the men who married them to establish an independent household. Laws that followed a generation later imposed steep fines on white women who procreated with African men and ensured the enslaved status of children born to African women. The instruments of law and courts removed both female voices and the negotiated statuses of the prosecuted within their own communities from consideration. By the third generation of Virginian life women had become essential markers of political and economic status, with only African women conceived of exclusively as nasty wenches and English women elevated almost unalterably to good wives, creating conceptions of slavery and gender which were mutually reinforcing. The prevention of Africans from forming socially legitimate households rooted the system, while class distinctions fiercely preserved between white women, as well as the unfree labor of slaves, allowed their husbands and sons to create an egalitarian culture of free white manhood. “Taverns, hospitality, gambling, horse racing, and free-wheeling elections, for which Virginia became famous by the early eighteenth century” anchored a distinctive male culture that gave great planters a way of seeing themselves as something other than second rate English aristocrats and common white men a space to assert their political and social worth. It was, as Brown explains, a status rooted to their mind in a natural racial and gendered order, and it would emerge in the revolutionary generation in a fierce advocacy for the rights of men whose political authority was authored by nature, “defined in contrast to seemingly natural dependents: he was not a slave, and he was not a woman.” The Virginian man, “participated freely in political life, not as a consequence of his ability to coerce or dominate dependents, but because he was the rightful heir to such a political legacy.”
It was into this fluid world of frustrated identity that unfree Africans were imported. Brown carefully traces how ill-defined racial categories were and the successful integration and sometimes intermarriage of the first generation of Africans in Virginia. Unlike Morgan, she identifies the beginning of the codification of racial slavery to a generation prior to Bacon’s rebellion, with the introduction of a tax on African women in the 1640s that made it more difficult for the men who married them to establish an independent household. Laws that followed a generation later imposed steep fines on white women who procreated with African men and ensured the enslaved status of children born to African women. The instruments of law and courts removed both female voices and the negotiated statuses of the prosecuted within their own communities from consideration. By the third generation of Virginian life women had become essential markers of political and economic status, with only African women conceived of exclusively as nasty wenches and English women elevated almost unalterably to good wives, creating conceptions of slavery and gender which were mutually reinforcing. The prevention of Africans from forming socially legitimate households rooted the system, while class distinctions fiercely preserved between white women, as well as the unfree labor of slaves, allowed their husbands and sons to create an egalitarian culture of free white manhood. “Taverns, hospitality, gambling, horse racing, and free-wheeling elections, for which Virginia became famous by the early eighteenth century” anchored a distinctive male culture that gave great planters a way of seeing themselves as something other than second rate English aristocrats and common white men a space to assert their political and social worth. It was, as Brown explains, a status rooted to their mind in a natural racial and gendered order, and it would emerge in the revolutionary generation in a fierce advocacy for the rights of men whose political authority was authored by nature, “defined in contrast to seemingly natural dependents: he was not a slave, and he was not a woman.” The Virginian man, “participated freely in political life, not as a consequence of his ability to coerce or dominate dependents, but because he was the rightful heir to such a political legacy.”
August 31, 2018
Awful. She ascribes 21st century motives, aspirations and views to 16th and 17th century societies. Perhaps a better approach would be trying to understand their world rather than force them into our mindset.
March 1, 2018
In Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs, Kathleen Brown seeks to argue that the construction of gender in the seventeenth century serves as foundation to the systemization of race in Virginia. This conceptual bridge allows Brown to revise traditional understandings of slavery's development in Virginia. In this respect, she posits that Virginians constructed race and gender simultaneously through gendered lenses. Indeed, such a methodology permits Brown to focus her attention on gender differences and identify aspects of Virginian life affected by such systematic implications. Furthermore, she contends that Virginians did not create a wholly patriarchal system until the eighteenth century. Drawing on recent works of religious, cultural and political history to inform her narrative, Brown's work encompasses a true Atlantic history. Moreover, she wrestles with rich primary material on colonial Virginia, from tax rolls, deeds, county court records, government documents, oral histories, court minutes, newspapers, statutes, and wills and inventories, to secondary literature. Her effort is a work both of original research and of synthesis. She challenges dominant interpretations put forth by Winthrop Jordan, Edmund Morgan, Rhys Isaac, Allan Kulikoff, Lois Carr and Lorena Walsh, among others.
Throughout ten chapters, Brown explains her argumentation by focusing on three main points of analysis. First, she discusses the conditions of existing gendered relations in seventeenth century England. She juxtaposes the metamorphic role of women which embodied that of a good wife, and nasty wench. The problem with such terminology coincidentally emerged with the English's exploits in North America. Whereas such established hierarchies prevailed in England, early encounters with Indians on the American frontier disrupted the definitions of gender. Concentered, the English were forced to further refine what was essential about masculinity and femininity in order to maintain their own sense of superiority. Property became central to this contrasting distinction. Good wives were characterized as home-bound women whom took care of familial concerns. Contrastingly, nasty wenches reflected women working outside of their gendered borders. They were unmarried, lacking domestic skills, and poor. Brown argues that this gendered distinction was not just a human classification, but also theoretical affirmation of power that applied to the English's view of colonization. Englishmen viewed foreign civilizations, particularly their lands through gendered lenses. Conquered territories and people personified feminine categorization, susceptible to domination. Indeed, Brown continues this discussion in Part II of her monograph. The issue of engendering racial difference takes center stage, as Brown argues that race is in part a social construct, and that the concept here was used to further define English identity in the New World. The implementation of tax laws that differentiated between black and white women, the existence of hereditary slavery based on the mother's race and status, and legal definitions of a "Christian" placed greater emphasis on patriarchal distinctions. Additionally, Brown contends that Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 became a pivotal moment in Virginian history. It enabled Virginian men to redefine masculinity in a more usable form. The uprising led to a political makeover in the colony, when anxious white men aspiring to higher status achieved their goal of attaining similar privileges to those of the gentry patriarchs. As such, in the Part III, Brown examines the formulation and manifestation of class and power. She asserts that in the eighteenth century, white male Virginians sought to formulate an identity with which they could find comfort, one whose origins could be traced to English tradition. Elite white men enjoyed the greatest range of social contacts, whereas elite white women experienced greater limitations. They were restricted by concerns for respectability and safety to interactions within their own class, household employees, and under certain conditions, men of their own class. The non-elite also faced similar restriction. Common Women who aspired for a respectable reputation avoided evenings drinking and accommodations in taverns. As for afro-Virginian and Indian women, they were the most susceptible to abuse and attacks. To support such a claim, Brown points to how afro-Virginian and Indian women were vulnerable to sexual predations of men of all ranks along Virginia's roads.
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarch is a remarkable study propelling the issues of race, gender and power to the forefront in colonial Virginia. Consequently, good wives were white, nasty wenches were black, and anxious patriarchs resembled insecure white males whom fought to maintain control over rebellious servants, slaves, wives, and children.
Throughout ten chapters, Brown explains her argumentation by focusing on three main points of analysis. First, she discusses the conditions of existing gendered relations in seventeenth century England. She juxtaposes the metamorphic role of women which embodied that of a good wife, and nasty wench. The problem with such terminology coincidentally emerged with the English's exploits in North America. Whereas such established hierarchies prevailed in England, early encounters with Indians on the American frontier disrupted the definitions of gender. Concentered, the English were forced to further refine what was essential about masculinity and femininity in order to maintain their own sense of superiority. Property became central to this contrasting distinction. Good wives were characterized as home-bound women whom took care of familial concerns. Contrastingly, nasty wenches reflected women working outside of their gendered borders. They were unmarried, lacking domestic skills, and poor. Brown argues that this gendered distinction was not just a human classification, but also theoretical affirmation of power that applied to the English's view of colonization. Englishmen viewed foreign civilizations, particularly their lands through gendered lenses. Conquered territories and people personified feminine categorization, susceptible to domination. Indeed, Brown continues this discussion in Part II of her monograph. The issue of engendering racial difference takes center stage, as Brown argues that race is in part a social construct, and that the concept here was used to further define English identity in the New World. The implementation of tax laws that differentiated between black and white women, the existence of hereditary slavery based on the mother's race and status, and legal definitions of a "Christian" placed greater emphasis on patriarchal distinctions. Additionally, Brown contends that Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 became a pivotal moment in Virginian history. It enabled Virginian men to redefine masculinity in a more usable form. The uprising led to a political makeover in the colony, when anxious white men aspiring to higher status achieved their goal of attaining similar privileges to those of the gentry patriarchs. As such, in the Part III, Brown examines the formulation and manifestation of class and power. She asserts that in the eighteenth century, white male Virginians sought to formulate an identity with which they could find comfort, one whose origins could be traced to English tradition. Elite white men enjoyed the greatest range of social contacts, whereas elite white women experienced greater limitations. They were restricted by concerns for respectability and safety to interactions within their own class, household employees, and under certain conditions, men of their own class. The non-elite also faced similar restriction. Common Women who aspired for a respectable reputation avoided evenings drinking and accommodations in taverns. As for afro-Virginian and Indian women, they were the most susceptible to abuse and attacks. To support such a claim, Brown points to how afro-Virginian and Indian women were vulnerable to sexual predations of men of all ranks along Virginia's roads.
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarch is a remarkable study propelling the issues of race, gender and power to the forefront in colonial Virginia. Consequently, good wives were white, nasty wenches were black, and anxious patriarchs resembled insecure white males whom fought to maintain control over rebellious servants, slaves, wives, and children.
September 25, 2014
This book is fascinating for its historical insights. It also has one of the greatest titles of in the history of history books. However, this book took me a long time to read because of the dense, abstract, highly academic prose. Definitely not for the general reader.
April 25, 2007
I thought this book was excellent. I loved the interplay between the various classes of women in Colonial Virginia and the descriptions of the social heiarchies they created.
November 7, 2012
Superb. Who knew gender frontiers could be so fun.
September 23, 2013
fantastic description of the emergence of modern racism - and how dependent it is on gendered categories. a model of academic work.
November 23, 2021
This is an excellent book on the early history of Virginia, and how colonialism played out in Virginia, how authority was constructed, and along the way, in particular, race. Brown has a wonderful coup d'œil in her grasp of the historical landscape and the factors in play, and how they interacted. In particular, I was struck by how clearly she shows the construction of race from an effort to tame problems created by class and gender based oppression, and also how the ideology of terra nullius (that land which was not cultivated in the very specific ways that elite Englishmen chose to see as characterising civilisation was in fact unoccupied or belonged by right to the "civilised") was imported into Virginia from the rhetorical strategies used in the English conquest of Ireland. She is also a very perceptive reader of primary sources, and has an impressively broad grasp of the secondary literature on just about every aspect of colonialism and colonial America, so this is a good book to begin researching this are.
September 10, 2024
Illuminating!
The book is a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the complex interplay between gender, race, and power dynamics in colonial Virginia. Authored by Kathleen M. Brown and published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture along with the University of North Carolina Press, this book offers a detailed examination of how societal norms and roles were constructed and challenged. Brown adeptly uses a variety of sources to illustrate how identities and social hierarchies were shaped by both gender and race, providing a nuanced understanding of the period. Her analysis contributes significantly to the fields of gender studies, American history, and colonial studies, making it a valuable resource for scholars and students alike.
The book is a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the complex interplay between gender, race, and power dynamics in colonial Virginia. Authored by Kathleen M. Brown and published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture along with the University of North Carolina Press, this book offers a detailed examination of how societal norms and roles were constructed and challenged. Brown adeptly uses a variety of sources to illustrate how identities and social hierarchies were shaped by both gender and race, providing a nuanced understanding of the period. Her analysis contributes significantly to the fields of gender studies, American history, and colonial studies, making it a valuable resource for scholars and students alike.
July 13, 2025
Good Wives is a classic book on the role of women in colonial Virginia. This book explores the role of femininity in the new world and how it contrasted with Europe. It looks at how women who were white, native American and black had different roles. It explores the fragile hold that men had on the colonial world and where women did have power. The idea of the good wife vs the wench is a motif that is covered in many books but this remains the authoritative source. If you are interested in the emergence of gender and racial roles in Colonial Virginia than this book is for you. It is probably not for the casual reader but overall I found it engaging and enjoyable.
November 21, 2021
Brown packs a lot of information into this work, but I still found it easy to read — I want to say it took me about a weekend? Some academic works I can only take in small doses, but this wasn't one of them. Certainly, I don't agree with every single assertion, and I snickered when she referred to wealthy women tight-lacing their stays (spoiler alert: not actually a thing in the eighteenth century). It is pretty well documented though, so if you don't like something she says, then just check her notes and go check out the source. That is how history should be studied anyway.
January 31, 2018
Her reliance on William Byrd in the third section is problematic, though I understand the lack of source material made it necessary to do so. Even still, reading about the perverted peccadilloes of one of the Protestant English Patriarchs did nothing for me.
June 15, 2018
One of my favorite books from my history MA.
September 5, 2019
For Grad School.
I really enjoyed this book, I honestly really enjoyed it for the discussion of masculinity because some part of me is obsessed with toxic masculinity.
I really enjoyed this book, I honestly really enjoyed it for the discussion of masculinity because some part of me is obsessed with toxic masculinity.
April 23, 2021
The title alone should have you hooked but wait until you dig in. Fantastic!
October 6, 2025
Review soon
February 6, 2026
Real dearth of nasty wenches
November 27, 2018
This is a whopping tome, but it's quite good. Brown investigates how sixteenth-century English concerns about unrestrained women, colonizing Ireland and Africa, and exercising state control were translated to colonial Virginia. The rhetoric used to regard the Native Americans as lesser evolved from language the English used against the Irish and, after the 1560s, the "Blackamoors" of West Africa. In England and in Virginia, white Britons combined racism with a sense of cultural superiority over other countries. As Virginian society expanded in the 1600s, white male elites deployed a fear of slave revolts, a benign (but false) rhetoric of paternalism toward slaves and women, and a culture of conspicuous consumption to maintain their power. Brown shows in detailed asides how Afro-Virginians (slaves and freedmen) exploited loopholes in Virginia's racist and misogynist legal system to obtain some privileges.
The question I have after reading this book is how, due to the colonization of West Africa, white people in England came to equate white skin with cultural superiority, and black skin with primitivism. Brown sketches the transition briefly (basically: colonial power, spoils of empire, increased Atlantic slave trade), but I'd like to know more.
The question I have after reading this book is how, due to the colonization of West Africa, white people in England came to equate white skin with cultural superiority, and black skin with primitivism. Brown sketches the transition briefly (basically: colonial power, spoils of empire, increased Atlantic slave trade), but I'd like to know more.
April 12, 2019
I'm making steady progress with this fascinating history. I mainly read it at my volunteer job, which has gotten busy with spring weather.
Brown provides good and much-needed details about women's roles and experiences in English colonial America.
Brown provides good and much-needed details about women's roles and experiences in English colonial America.
July 11, 2024
Kathleen Brown offers amazing perspective on gender, race and power. I underlined, circled and starred so much in this book, it's almost more doodles than text at this point. Don't be intimidated by the length -- it's worth every page. Loved it.
February 23, 2007
I enjoy women's history but sometimes I felt that the analysis was dense. A very academic book, not light reading.
July 4, 2007
Title is more exciting than the book. Fairly boring.
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August 7, 2011good
Read
March 20, 2013Hiked the Kings Mountain battlegrounds today. The day inspired my Fall read.
November 15, 2012
Very well written for a dissertation. Entertaining and an ingesting look at our fore fathers.
April 15, 2013
This is still one my favorite books from undergrad.
September 13, 2015
Meh. Very lackluster. It was well written but I feel as though the argument was weak. To say the author was reaching would be an understatement. Very forced.
September 9, 2016
4.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews