Morton, Patricia 1945–

PERSONAL: Born 1945; Canadian citizen; children: two. Education: University of Toronto, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home—39-300 Franmor Dr., Peterborough, Ontario K9H 7R2, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, worked as professor of history, now professor emeritus.

WRITINGS:

Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women, Greenwood Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Principal editor and author of introduction) Discovering the Women in Slavery: Emancipating Perspectives on the American Past, University of Georgia (Athens, GA), 1996.

SIDELIGHTS: As a professor of history at Trent University in Canada, Patricia Morton was instrumental in the publication of two works dealing with the way African-American women have been portrayed in the writing of American history. In 1991, Morton, who specialized in the history of women, authored Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women, a work in which she explains how stereotypical images of African-American women were created historically and why they have continued to be promulgated in prominent books and journals. She points out that most of these slavery-and segregationist-era stereotypes were constructed and perpetuated by white, male historians and social scientists, but she also maintains that many white women, as well as some black male scholars, espoused opinions about black women that were just as damaging. Morton also discusses the case of mulatto women, who she argues are tragic figures because they could not escape the influential, negative images of their racial heritage. J.R. Feagin of Choice called the work a "detailed analysis." Sheila L. Skemp, reviewing the book for the American Historical Review, assessed it as "useful." Despite this praise, Skemp did find some structural problems with the book, and wrote that it "tends to be extremely repetitive and is badly in need of an editor."

In 1996, Morton was the compiler and principal editor of Discovering the Women in Slavery: Emancipating Perspectives on the American Past, a work for which she also wrote the introduction. Both books garnered their share of critical praise for adding a fresh perspective to the evolving historical analysis of the African-American woman's place in this nation's past. Critical opinion of Discovering the Women in Slavery was generally favorable. Susan Westbury, reviewing the book for the William and Mary Quarterly, called it "wide-ranging and stimulating," and felt it was an indication of "the breadth and depth of current research on the issue of women in slavery." Hilary McD. Beckles, writing in the Journal of American History had a similar assessment of the work, stating that it "serves to move us along, and certainly closer to a settlement of the contest between historians of women and historians of gender." J. Wishnia in Choice characterized the volume as "an excellent introduction," though one "clearly meant to appeal to a wide readership."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1992, Sheila L. Skemp, review of Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women, p. 1585.

Choice, November, 1991, J.R. Feagin, review of Disfigured Images, p. 510; June, 1996, J. Wishnia, review of Discovering the Women in Slavery: Emancipating Perspectives on the American Past, p. 1711.

Journal of American History, June, 1997, Hilary McD. Beckles, review of Discovering the Women in Slavery, pp. 219-220.

William and Mary Quarterly, October, 1997, Susan Westbury, review of Discovering the Women in Slavery, pp. 863-866.