‘Appropriated to her own use and benefit’: women, larceny, and race in post-Civil War South Carolina

This article examines Black and White women's trials for larceny in South Carolina between 1865 and 1900. County-level court records demonstrate that most women defendants stood accused of appropriating food, clothing, or household items from their workplaces. Larceny cases provide important insights into poor and working-class women's lives, survival strategies, and desires, revealing commonalities across the colour line of the postbellum U.S. South. However, White southerners racialised larceny in ways which meant African American women were more likely to be accused and convicted of theft. The essay also explores the myriad ways in which women strategically fought for acquittal.