chapters 6-10 Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 6, the history of this period and before tends to overlook half of the population due to its gender. The merchants, landholders, political figures, military and explorers were all men often making women invisible. In some cases women were treated no better than slaves when it came to invisibility. Therefore black female slaves suffered the worst of oppression. It is true that women were the child bearers and that should have made them more important but it did not. Women were more often than not seen as sex partners, companions, servants, and warden/teacher of the children.

Zinn discusses in detail the treatment in other societies. The Indians are matriarchal in nature. When a South western Indian woman marries her husband comes to live with her family, something that was not done in other cultures. The Plains Indian...