Fancy girls explained

A Fancy Girl, sometimes called a Fancy Maid, was a young woman of African descent with a lighter complexion sold with the intent of forced prostitution and concubinage.^[1] This sale was often referred to as the Fancy Trade within the larger history of Slavery in the United States.

History

Fancy girls were purchased and sold within the southern United States by slave traders such as Rice C. Ballard and Robert Jardine. The young women were often sold at auctions with other enslaved people, though it was common for the Fancy girl to be sold in New Orleans.^[2] The young women were often sold at prices much higher than the average enslaved person was sold for. One bill of sale for the purchase of a young woman named Clary declared she was purchased for fifty pounds,^[3] or nearly five-thousand dollars in modern currency.

Fancy girls were often kept either in the home or in a special building on the slave owner's property. The white wives of the slave owners and traders were not fond of these women, often blaming them for the choices of their husbands.^[4]

Notable Fancy girls

Avenia White was a woman purchased by Rice C. Ballard and kept on his plantation for many years. Her importance to Ballard is highlighted by her continuous time living on his plantation and traveling with him and his family during repeated moves.

White and Ballard had known each other for a long time when she, along with fellow Fancy girl Susan Johnson, were freed and sent to live in Cincinnati by their previous owner Ballard. Cincinnati was highly populated with previously enslaved women and their mixed children, it functioned as somewhat of a safe-haven for those in situations similar to White and Johnson.

Further reading

• Book: Baptist, Edward E. . "Cuffy," "Fancy Maids," and "One-Eyed Men": Rape, Commodification, and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States . 2005 . The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas . 165–191 . Johnson . Walter . Yale University Press . 10.12987/yale/9780300103557.003.0008 . 978-0-300-10355-7.
• Book: Clinton, Catherine . Breaking the Silence: Sexual Hypocrisies from Thomas Jefferson to Strom Thurmond . 2010 . Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies . 213–228 . Brooten . Bernadette J. . New York . Palgrave Macmillan US . en . 10.1057/9780230113893 . 978-0-230-10017-6 . 696332790 . Hazelton . Jacqueline.
• Finley . Alexandra . September 2017 . 'Cash to Corinna': Domestic Labor and Sexual Economy in the 'Fancy Trade' . . 104 . 2 . 410–430 . 10.1093/jahist/jax174.
• Book: Finley, Alexandra J. . An Intimate Economy . 2020 . University of North Carolina Press . 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469661353.001.0001 . 978-1-4696-6135-3.
• Green . Sharony . 2011 . "Mr Ballard, I am compelled to write again": Beyond Bedrooms and Brothels, a Fancy Girl Speaks . Black Women, Gender + Families . 5 . 1 . 17–40 . University of Illinois Press . 10.5406/blacwomegendfami.5.1.0017 . 10.5406/blacwomegendfami.5.1.0017 . 143768520.

Notes and References

1. Book: White Gray, Deborah . Ar'n't I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South . W.W. Norton & Company . 1985 . 978-0393314816 . Revised . February 17, 1999.
2. Gordon . Tiye . 2015 . The Fancy Trade and the Commodification of Rape in the Sexual Economy of 19th Century U.S. Slavery . University of South Carolina Scholar Commons.
3. Web site: Bill of Sale for a Girl Named Clary Purchased by Robert Jardine for 50 Pounds . Museum of African American History and Culture . 29 October 2024.
4. Book: Green, Sharony . Remember Me to Miss Louisa: Hidden Black-White Intimacies in Antebellum America . Northern Illinois University Press . 2015 . 9780875807232 . DeKalb, Illinois 60115.