What were Southern slave women (plantation mistresses) like?
At the time, there was one of those idiotic theories floating around that only civilized societies could come up with. The theory was that proper ladies did not enjoy sex. It was a duty to be performed for the sake of creating a family, but lady of good breeding did not engage in it any more than than she had too. Women were supposed to be paragons of virtue. They were the moral compass of society. Blah, blah, blah. At the same time, it was understood that men enjoyed sex and often. This part they got right. I mean a the word for a woman obsessed with sex nymphomaniac. There is no word for a man obsessed with sex because it would be redundant. Remember, slave owners had absolute power over their slaves. A slave owner would be unmarried or have a frigid wife, but scociety understood he was a man with needs. A slave owner might find himself attracted to slave and there was nothing she could do about it. It wold take a man of incredible moral fortitude not to be tempted to use that power.
