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I heard that when a slave had a baby she had to be working in the fields the next day. So, who was taking care of her baby while she worked? If she had the baby with her while she was working, was she allowed to take breaks to change diapers and clean the baby up??
More than likely the slaves' children were the result of rape (by their owner's and/or overseer's children) and I don't think slaves had diapers.
What you wrote, however, gets at the dire circumstances of American chattel slavery. Historically, there was ancient, old world slavery and the American variety. The latter is considered by scholars as the most harsh. They call it "social death."
Various forms of slavery still exist, like taxpayer slavery that American conservatives howl about and sex slavery that exploits many Asian women in this country and abroad. Author Taylor Branch likened the NCAA scholarship system for American football and basketball players as a kind of slavery in his recent Atlantic Monthly article. None of these, except for sex slavery, approaches social death. Yet slavery hasn't gone anywhere.
Last edited by DiogenesofJackson; 01-16-2012 at 01:05 AM..
Reason: missed OP's title
I heard that when a slave had a baby she had to be working in the fields the next day. So, who was taking care of her baby while she worked? If she had the baby with her while she was working, was she allowed to take breaks to change diapers and clean the baby up??
Most slaves were granted a reprieve from manual labor on the plantation for one month before and then one month after giving birth. After that they would either leave the infants with older family members or simply carry the babies with them while they worked. They were generally given 3-4 breaks during the day to nurse their babies. As for diapers, what we recognize to be diapers really didn't exist until the late 1800's. Up to that time children were often swaddled and they were infrequently cleaned. In some cultures they would use pieces of animal skin and pad it with leaves or grass for some absorbency, still others simply let their kids go naked. So, "changing diapers" wasn't something that was often done even among non-slaves of the time.
Most slaves were granted a reprieve from manual labor on the plantation for one month before and then one month after giving birth. After that they would either leave the infants with older family members or simply carry the babies with them while they worked. They were generally given 3-4 breaks during the day to nurse their babies. As for diapers, what we recognize to be diapers really didn't exist until the late 1800's. Up to that time children were often swaddled and they were infrequently cleaned. In some cultures they would use pieces of animal skin and pad it with leaves or grass for some absorbency, still others simply let their kids go naked. So, "changing diapers" wasn't something that was often done even among non-slaves of the time.
oh thank you for explaining that to me. I don't know why I would always hear that slave women went to work the very next day after giving birth.
oh thank you for explaining that to me. I don't know why I would always hear that slave women went to work the very next day after giving birth.
There may have very well been instances or plantations where this was the case, and some pamphlet historian who didn't believe that the harsh reality of American Slavery sounded bad enough to get his/her point across as it was, decided to take worst case scenarios and make them sound commonplace..
oh thank you for explaining that to me. I don't know why I would always hear that slave women went to work the very next day after giving birth.
I wouldn't go so far as to say none ever did, I simply stated what was typical based on what I've read. In all honesty, it wouldn't surprise me if there were women who gave birth and immediately went back to work on some plantations.
The one thing you need to remember is that while a slaves life was nowhere near decent, it was pretty much minimal for survival, the owners viewed slaves having children as a positive. The more children that the slaves had, the more slaves the owner would have. It was in the owners interest, especially on larger plantations where they could spare the labor, to allow the mothers to care for their infants, especially following birth.
Every case was different, obviously. Larger Plantations often had an older slave that wasn't much use in the fields anymore care for the young children while their mothers worked. But like NJGOAT said, newborn slaves were valuable to the owners so they more than likely made sure that newborns were given at least the basic nurturing.
Because status as a slave followed the mother's situation, hence matrilineal, female slaves were sexually exploited by their owners and owners' family. This, of course, caused all kinds of problems for the "lady" of the plantation, who resented her husband for extramarital relations and who oftentimes punished female slaves for being sexually exploited by their owners.
The reality of white Planters raping their black slaves (or in the instances of mere sexual exploitation) presents a formidable historical problem when taken in conjunction with nascent racial segregation.
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