Victims or Strategists?

Creole Performance in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

“…31 The money to set up these businesses probably came from white men, either lovers or fathers, and this, along with the fact that their patrons were mainly white military men, coloured even legitimate establishments with the taint of the illicit. 32 While there has been productive debate as to whether these business women were merely victims 'held in a sexual bind to white men who created the situation to further their own gain' or women who 'strategised rather than [give] into her circumstances', 33 like the coloured population as a whole, female hotel keepers attempted to carve out comfortable social and economic positions for themselves. Indeed, their status was further complicated because they had no 'natural' allies; their colour, personal relationships and economically-enhanced social position made for tense -though nonetheless interdependent -relations between these women and white men and women, as well as black women and men.…”