David, 
Sandra (courtman) and I have been discussing these same mythologies of
uniqueness which can be traced to overlapping practices in the performance
and maintenance of a social order that is capitalist, white supremacist and
patriachal. I am searching for some work I know I have that do analyses on
how all three intersect (besides Angela Davis') and that contain a deep
theoretical treatment of this. Contemporary feminist theories of male
violence, especially in non-white and immigrant communities, have also
tackled the issue of male dominance expressed violently (rape and violence
within the family etc.)and the inappropriateness of legal (and often
cultural)defences of alcoholism, drug dependence, racism, poverty and
alienation.  Even the 'more acceptable' cultural defence of an enslaved past
and a racially marginalized present is suitably treated as not unique to
black (or white) manhood at all, but rather deeply embedded in patriarchal
constructions of masculinity.

Donna St. Hill
PhD Candidate
Department of International Relations
London School of Economics

-----Original Message-----
From: David Lambert
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask];
[log in to unmask]
Sent: 7/25/00 2:20 AM
Subject: White mental health

Dear all,

I read Sandra's e-mail about planter mental health with interest, and as

luck would have it, spent the day working on the Fitzherbert Papers 
(microfilms of which are located here in Barbados; I think the originals
are 
at the Derbyshire Record Office, UK). Anyway, there was a surprising
amount 
of material about the mental health of plantation managers and chief 
overseers in the late 18th/early 19th centuries.  Various bouts of 
'derangement' and 'insanity' amongst this group required their
replacement 
by their employers.

As far as determining the actual psycho-medical problems these
individuals 
were experiencing, I'm afraid that's not my area. What did strike me, 
however, was that descriptions of 'insanity' amongst plantation managers
by 
plantation owners seemed to be a discursive feaure of a 'paternalist' 
mythology. Violence, indiscipline and cruelty on the plantation in
question 
was attributed to the 'derangement' of the manager, rather than being a 
feature of enslavement per se. In other words, 'unstable' 
managers/'irrational' management was represented by the plantation
owners as 
an abberation of an 'ideal' way of running a West Indian plantation.
This 
discourse of 'insanity' contributes to a white elite self-image of 
'paternalistic' plantership. This, of course, brings me back to my
initial 
request about responses to Genovese's _The World the Slaveholders
Made_...

Anyway, just some initial thoughts.

David

------------------------------------------------------------

David Lambert,
Ph.D. Student,
Department of Geography,
Downing Place,
Cambridge, CB2 3EN.

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%