Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery Book

I like the historiographic, feminist, multivalenced-and-constructed-identities elements of the text. But it was so frequently bogged down with statistics and dry charts that I had a tendency to skim. (I guess they were convincing bits of evidence for Morgan's points on the exploitation of women for hegemonic, race-defining, labor-providing ends...but only if you actually read them.)
Overall, it's an interesting and convincing read. I'm not keen on the amount of technical evidence, especially since it gets depressing to read for pages and pages about the objectification of women (e.g. being equated to cows, paired off in presumable breeding couples, set aside in wills with implicit hopes that they will accrue a sort of interest by reproducing). That said, some of the statistical information was revealing (such as the surprising amount of female slaves brought to the Americas, and the contrary-to-presumptions-of-domestic-work tendency for women to work in the fields). There were several other little nuggets of information for which I'm thankful to have read this little book. It certainly reinforced my liberal artsy appreciation of historical complexity, constructed identities and a pervasive hegemonic force against which our enlightened understanding of these complex issues has had to struggle.
I'm sure there's a more succinct way of addressing my response to this book. I guess I just found it really repetitive and its arguments somewhat obvious, so I'm having a hard time pinpointing what makes it a valuable read. The analysis of iconography of African woman was revealing. And such detailed accounts of intellectual hypocrisy used to rationalize the institution of slavery is always comforting to read in that whole look-how-far-we've-come, we-can-fix-things kind of way. Plus, the historical nature of this text makes this sentiment more valid and less pandering/self-congratulatory than feelgood fiction addressing the oppression of black women might (*cough* The Help *cough*)...