The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800

I'm reading The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800 (2002) for my Tuesday seminar. It's a collection of introductory essays with titles such as "Economy," "Race," and "Religion." This week's readings include "Gender" and "Class." Page 123 falls in the middle of the "Gender" essay by Sarah M.S. Pearsall:

The inherited nature of chattel slavery meant that intimate matters of sexuality and reproduction were put into a distinctive socio-economic framework. It also meant that slavery descended through the mother, creating an anomalous and unfortunate matrilineality in the British colonies. Slave women suffered from sexual attention from owners.

The essays are decent - someday, I may use them when I teach a class. That's about all I have to say, though.