Overwork and undernourishment made slave childbirth dangerous and deadly
Evidence
Breeding was oppressive to all fertile black slave women. Undernourished, overworked women were rarely in a physical condition that would allow for safe easy childbirth. Repeated pregnancies without proper care resulted in numerous miscarriages and death. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 132
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to hooks’s earlier-argued theme that slavery was worse for Black women than men. — connects to: Enslaved pregnant women were subjected to brutal treadmill labor and floggings — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 251; Enslaved women in Barbados toiled in the fields while heavily pregnant and nursing infants — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 196; Louverture equated disorder with idleness and demanded child labor on plantations (+1 more)
Related
- Slave working lives lasted only ten to twenty years under colonial conditions (similarity 0.88)
- Enslaved women in Barbados toiled in the fields while heavily pregnant and nursing infants (similarity 0.81)
- Matrilineal inheritance of slave status made black women’s breeding economically central (similarity 0.79)
- Enslaved women limited their fertility to strike at the plantation system (similarity 0.79)
- Enslaved pregnant women were subjected to brutal treadmill labor and floggings (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Enslaved women in Barbados toiled in the fields while heavily pregnant and nursing infants
#corroborates(0.80) — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 196 - Enslaved pregnant women were subjected to brutal treadmill labor and floggings
#corroborates(0.75) — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 251