A Woman of “Weak Mind”: Gender, Race, and Mental Competency in the Reconstruction Era

Felicity M. Turner

doi:10.1515/9780823298181-007

A Woman of “Weak Mind”: Gender, Race, and Mental Competency in the Reconstruction Era

Felicity M. Turner

History

Research output: Contribution to book or proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This essay examines how racial and gendered expectations influenced the ways in which courts addressed infanticide across the United States during Reconstruction. While black women’s legal rights undoubtedly expanded during Reconstruction, infanticide cases demonstrate that those expanded rights did not necessarily translate into favorable outcomes in relation to criminal law. Cases of infanticide show that prevailing attitudes about race and gender encouraged the view that biology shaped one’s abilities, sanity, and morality. Although black women successfully exploited those racist and sexist assumptions to reduce jail or death sentences, they did not fare as well in the criminal justice system as white women in similar situations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Freedoms Gained and Lost
Subtitle of host publication	Reconstruction and Its Meanings 150 Years Later
Editors	Adam Domby, Simon Lewis
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Fordham University Press
Pages	121-142
Number of pages	22
ISBN (Electronic)	9780823298174
ISBN (Print)	9780823298167
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823298181-007
State	Published - Jan 1 2021

Scopus Subject Areas

General Arts and Humanities
General Social Sciences

Disciplines

Legal
United States History
Women's History
African American Studies

Keywords

Reconstruction
capital punishment
courts
gender
incarceration
infanticide
insanity
race

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1515/9780823298181-007

Cite this

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note = "Contributions: Bruce E. Baker Bruce E. Baker is Reader in American History at Newcastle University. He is the author of What Reconstruction Meant: Historical Memory in the American South (2007) and coeditor of After Slavery: Race, Labor, and Citizenship in the Reconstruction South (2013); he has also written several other books and articles covering Reconstruction, labor history, lynching, and the cotton trade.",

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AB - This essay examines how racial and gendered expectations influenced the ways in which courts addressed infanticide across the United States during Reconstruction. While black women’s legal rights undoubtedly expanded during Reconstruction, infanticide cases demonstrate that those expanded rights did not necessarily translate into favorable outcomes in relation to criminal law. Cases of infanticide show that prevailing attitudes about race and gender encouraged the view that biology shaped one’s abilities, sanity, and morality. Although black women successfully exploited those racist and sexist assumptions to reduce jail or death sentences, they did not fare as well in the criminal justice system as white women in similar situations.

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A Woman of “Weak Mind”: Gender, Race, and Mental Competency in the Reconstruction Era

Abstract

Scopus Subject Areas

Disciplines

Keywords

UN SDGs

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