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Assignment #4 Morgan and Davis

The concept of motherhood is seen in both Davis and Morgan’s work. Black women were often seen as just reproductive bodies in society, more so than mothers. Black women would often be pushed to have more children in order to increase the slave population. In Morgan’s work, she discusses how females were being called devils for having too many children. If women were to give birth to more than one child, than their children would be considered monsters. Women never got too truly experience being a mother. Black pregnant women were being sold with no conscious. Morgan uses motherhood to discuss the division of races and how black mothers were being depicted as animals. Enslaved black women would often have their children sold so it was difficult to even be a mother at this point. They were looked upon as more of a breeder. Morgan describes motherhood as giving birth and increasing the population, not raising their child and caring for them. Davis introduces motherhood, stating how the perfect woman would be them becoming the perfect mother. Davis shows us how women would often be forced to become mothers making it an involuntary choice. Women would constantly being forced to have children to increase population. She discusses how white women were able to care for their children, whereas black women would give birth and have their children sold to slave owners. In other cultures, women were being shamed for giving birth and would often have their children killed and buried immediately after birth. Davis and Morgan’s work both show how women were dehumanized for having children and how their reproductive systems would often be used against them and make them as breeders and not mothers.