The Black Mistress of Blue Spring Farm

The Black Mistress of Blue Spring Farm

Presented by the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society

This talk focuses on the lives of Julia Chinn and her daughters at Blue Spring Farm, a slave plantation owned by Julia's husband, Richard M. Johnson. Julia, the mistress of the thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves that made up Blue Spring Farm, was in charge of the land during the long and frequent periods Richard was gone for war and politics. On the surface, Julia and her daughters appeared to have been accepted by the whites in their community. The women did business with, were educated by, and socialized with the local whites. Julia and her daughters reveal how enslaved women in interracial families, even in rural areas, had suprising authority in their households, a wider range of rights and privileges, and more acceptance from white persons in their communities than might have been imagined given their race, gender, and legal status.

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