Black women, mothering, and protest in 19th century American society
by Marci Bounds Littlefield
Part 1
Antebellum Society and the Construction of Black Motherhood
By definition, motherhood suggests a unique relationship between the mother and child, one which is seen as the basic requirement for child development. Mothers nurse their children, provide love, affection, and guidance, and shape primary development. In 19th century American society, motherhood was seen as a necessary act of procreation that ensured the lineage of a particular family. Motherhood for white women was viewed as the moral role for women. The era between 1820 and 1860, the "cult of true womanhood," was the era in which womanhood was represented as pious, pure, submissive, and domestic (Welter). Women were encouraged to embrace these traits and take their rightful place in the home.
This new way of thinking about women's roles represented a change in American society from a family-based social system to a market-based social system that ultimately undermined the rights and position of white women in society (Farrell). Before industrialization, women were a vital part of the family economy and their labor inside and outside of the home was respected. After industrialization, women's labor in the household was defined as inferior to wage labor and women's position in society was thus diminished (Farrel). The
cult of domesticity represented societal attitudes concerning women's roles and their proper place in society. Motherhood and caring for the home was seen as the rightful place of a true woman. Motherhood for white women was viewed in this context, with black women giving birth to property and white women producing heirs and leaders.
The representation of true womanhood as defined by the cult of domesticity excluded black women and placed them in a peculiar position as slaves, not "true" women. In an antebellum novel, this position was thus described: "The idea of modesty and virtue in a Louisiana colored girl might well be ridiculed; as a general thing she has neither" (Carby 26). This idea that black women were not "true" women further established the societal inferiority of black women, placing them in a unique relationship with the slave economy. Womanhood and the experience of motherhood for black women were completely connected to the social system and could not be perceived in the same way as motherhood for white women. In fact, Hazel Carby argues that "two very different but interdependent codes of sexuality operated in the antebellum South, producing opposite definitions of motherhood and womanhood for white and black women which coalesce in the figures of the slave and the mistress" (20). Unlike white women, who could identify motherhood with privilege and social status, motherhood for slave women was connected and rooted in a social system of bondage.
The forced motherhood experienced by black women defined their existence and influenced their survival. One woman interviewed in the Federal Writer's Project comments on this phenomenon: "You know, there was an overseer who used to tie mother up in the barn with a rope around her arms up over her head, while she stood on a block. Soon as they got her tied, this block was moved and her feet dangled, you know, couldn't touch the floor. This old man, now, would start beating her naked until the blood ran down her back to her heels ... I asked mother what she done for them to beat and do her so. She said, 'Nothing other than refuse to be wife to this man'"(Hine and Thompson 79).
Slavery as a system of social stratification in American society defined the social relations of American society. The social hierarchy of American society created a system of apartheid that placed white men at the top and slaves and minorities at the bottom of the social system. In American society, African slaves were at the very bottom and were considered property without legal rights. This caste system of racial inequality, which relegated Africans to inferior positions, was implemented and reinforced by institutional discrimination and became a central way of life in the antebellum South. In order to really understand the context of motherhood for black women, it is important to understand the roles and expectations of slave women.
The roles of African men and women slaves centered on the slave economy and the labor of black women was not separated from black men. Another slave interviewed for the Federal Writer's Project elaborates: "Master had four overseers on the place, and they drove us from sun up 'till sunset. Some of the women plowed barefooted most of the time, and had to carry that row and keep up with men, and then do their cooking at night"(Hine and Thompson 78). One scholar notes: "It is estimated that in the Cotton Belt slave women spent approximately thirteen hours a day in the fieldwork, engaged in such diverse and traditionally masculine tasks as plowing fields, dropping seeds, hoeing, picking, ginning, sorting and molting cotton"(Hine and Thompson 283). The labor of black women was a crucial part of the slave economy and is critical in understanding the multiple roles of black women. One woman interviewed in the Federal Writer's Project said of her work: "These same old eyes seen powerful lots of tribulations in my time, and when I shut them now I can see lots of children, just like my grandchildren, toting hoes bigger than they is, and they poor little black hands and legs bleeding where they scratched by the brambly weeds, and where they got whippings 'cause they didn't get all the work the overseer set out for them. I was one of them slave girls my own self, and I never seen nothing but work and tribulation till I was a grown woman, just about.... It was the fourth day of June 1865 I begins to live"(Hine and Thompson 66). Again, the labor of black women encompassed multiple and complicated roles.
These multiple roles and expectations of black women--mothers, field hands, breeders, nannies, servants, wives and concubines--help us to understand the complexity of their lives. The nature of slavery demanded that women fully participate in work, including farming, cleaning, cooking, and all of the other domestic tasks, and reproduction was a necessary part of life for a slave woman. Motherhood was connected to the success of the institution of slavery, and this created a very unique and dynamic relationship between black women and their children. On one hand, black women nurtured their children and operated in the roles of wife and mother. At the same time, they were faced with the reality that their children could be sold or violated. Black women were not in a position to physically protect their children from slavery.
Black women were important not only for their labor, but for their reproductive ability, a vital part of the slave economy; they were solely responsible for supplying the slave work force and, in many ways, these women were the most vulnerable and valuable group. Black women were a commodity as breeders, laborers, and concubines, but their motherhood was not separated from their slave status. One narrative from the Federal Writers Project describes of how a North Carolina slave woman, the mother of fifteen children, used to carry her youngest with her to the field each day and "when it get hungry, she just slip it around in front and feed it and go right on picking or hoeing...,"symbolizing in one deft motion the equal significance of the productive and reproductive functions to her owner (Jones 198). Motherhood for black women was bittersweet; the joy of motherhood combined with the reality of breeding property for the slave society.
Motherhood for enslaved women thus translated into an all-inclusive role that incorporated the roles of black men and white women in antebellum society. "True" black women were nonexistent, as they were expected to complete the same tasks as men, operate in a continual state of reproduction, replenish the slave economy, and operate as wet nurses and domestic servants for white women. Motherhood for black women was truly extraordinary; it embodied an identity which suggested in many ways that black women "specialize in the wholly impossible" (Amott and Matthaei). Gender for black women was only important in the context of motherhood and this created a separate and unique identity for black women.
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