It seems contradictory that a person can be treated as completely useless and completely insatiable at the same time. Despite the paradoxical nature of this statement, it perfectly describes the plight of black women at the beginning of American slavery. Female slaves, although legally considered property, were vitally important not only for their physical labor, but also for their biological ability to reproduce. Women were a highly exploited group of people who, although given no rights, identity, or sympathy, formed the foundation of the very institution of New World slavery. The book Laboring Women by Jennifer L. Morgan details the specific struggles a woman, and only a woman, would face during her life as a slave. While some historical accounts tend to lump males and females together when discussing slavery, Morgan goes into detail about how the slave experience specifically influenced and defined the institution of slavery. Her argument shows that a deeper understanding of the experience of female slaves, particularly regarding their reproductive potential, can help understand the culture and psychology of a slave-owning society as a whole. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Laboring Women, Morgan aims to challenge existing historical analyzes of Southern slavery by arguing that enslaved reproduction and motherhood were not just evidence of the exploitation of female slaves, but actually central to understanding the society of the era. Morgan calls her research a “study of the impact of slavery on the lives of women and the impact of women on the development of slavery.” The author's study starts from the beginnings of a slave's life experience, even before her arrival in America. It begins with an assessment of how an African woman was perceived. European travelers' overtly sexual descriptions of African women create expectations of a black woman in slavery. A black woman defied standards of conventional beauty and “embodied a profound threat to the patriarchy” that invoked white men with a need to control her. Not only were they desired as workers, but as sexual beings and objects of pleasure who, conveniently, had the biological capacity to produce more free labor as a result of sex. This was based on the white man's privilege of seeing a slave as inferior to him. Being a woman in a society dominated by wealthy white men was already a challenge: the objectification of enslaved women in particular was a direct result of the disregard for the physical and mental health of African Americans. In other words, slave owners did not care if having one child after another would negatively affect the slave's body. It was an object and a piece of property: a slave owner would do with a slave whatever he wanted without regard for humanity. Jennifer L. Morgan's research attempts to explain how femininity and white supremacy must be studied together for a better understanding of racial division. One piece of information that tends to be overlooked in discussions of slavery is the extent to which slave owners needed and depended on the labor of their slaves, particularly women, as they were not only involved in forced labor, but worked as nurses , custodians and rulers. Morgan fiercely argues that the entire structure of slavery is based on the dehumanization of female slaves by slave owners and the way in which they.