å September 2017

A topic that can be found in the works we’ve read so far is motherhood. Specifically, the exploitation and unnatural abuse of motherhood towards women. What makes this topic so peculiar is how universal the documentation of similarities are between the works that we’ve read so far. In Davis’s analysis of motherhood in enslaved women, it’s no surprise that the first thing we’re reading is how the more fertile the enslaved women, the more desirable she becomes. This is entirely due to the fact that the banning of slavery made this a necessity for slave owners to continue exploiting cheap labor. Yet, Davis describes the treatment of these women as not being mothers at all, but simply instruments guaranteeing the growth of the slave labor force (Davis,  11). They were essentially breeders, useful for nothing more than cheap labor and the production of even more cheap labor. In Frederici’s work, we learn that motherhood was yet again a burden to women this time instead of having their motherhood exploited, it became a burden. When women were unable to adapt to being nomadic much in the same way that men could, it was due in part to either being pregnant, or simply being unable to do so because of possible abuse and exploitation of men. They had children to take care of which would slow them down, and it was much more dangerous for women to travel than it was for men. An interesting comparison into how both of these author’s talks about motherhood, is that Davis focuses on the specific physical components of motherhood that further enslaved women. Whereas Frederici focuses on how these particular physical aspects of being women are what held them down from being able to do the same things that men could. Though the concept of motherhood prevented these women from, in this case, further abuse it’s the how that makes it curious. Perhaps in large part due to the color and social status of these women is why the exploitation of motherhood affects them so differently, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the effects of it are universally felt.

Alfie Corteza

Professor Bullock

Assignment #4

A concept that Morgan’s work and Federici’s work share is motherhood. However, there is a disjunction regarding the quality of childcare when there is a comparison between the indigenous African motherhood and the parenting of Europe women. The comparison in Morgan’s literary includes Peter Kolb’s reference in his 1731 narrative that these savages have no feminity and their actions, and customs stray far away from the social norms of women in Europe, and as a result, it is inferior. With the way the literary piece states the considered barbaric parenting, it can be easily perceived that European maternal care to be held in high praise and superior to African motherhood. But, when you read Federici’s piece, it is stated that women in France and Germany were constantly monitored by everyone surrounding them to make sure that the mother is taking proper care of the child. By having no trust with the mothers with their children, it reveals that a significant factor as to why European women take the utmost care for their child is due to public scrutiny if she was deemed unfit. By being under constant judgment, Federici shows a flaw in the ruling of adequacy. Morgan article states that European women take proper care of their children compared to the “savages,” but Federici’s reports reveal that European women are not putting the effort required to raise a child properly.

By having two different ideas regarding the effectiveness of the European women’s childrearing, it sends confusing messages as to whether or not women, in general, are capable raising a child. Also, it sends a difficult comparison as it does not make a clear separation of how proficient African and Indigenous women raise their children compared to European women. It is confusing as it states that women of color cannot take care of children to the same level as European women, and yet they harshly criticize European women. By denouncing European mothers of their effectiveness as parents, it begs the question who raises the children the best then? Furthermore, these two articles do not complement each other as they contradict their argument as to which race has superior maternal care.

Industrialization caused a rise in the demand for labor. Women have been exploited for their labor in the oppression that resulted in the capitalistic wage system. Federici discusses the advent of the full-time housewife whose image and role in society seem to be institutionalized in order to exploit their ability to produce children and replenish the labor force. The exploitation of women is the product of a male controlled wage system in which women were separated from. This increased their dependence on men therefore they were molded into their limited roles as housewives that birthed, and mothered children without any recognition, or reward.

The exploitation of reproductive labor seems to have been catalyzed the creation of the housewife role, but ideas of molding women into such an image had been apparent throughout history. Morgan discusses how traveling men viewed women from around the world. Through their lens, they also generalize cultures. This is concept is critical in understanding how the exploitation of women is rationalized.

As fascinated as they were, European travelers found the appearance and behavior of women barbaric. Women body parts were not an exhaustive topic. The ongoing analysis of animalistic breasts does also happen to appropriately follow the topic of giving birth. Writers emphasized how astonishingly high the rate of birth was as well as how public they were. Their ability to reproduce seemed to be far greater than that of a their European counterparts, yet they were still viewed as being barbaric.

Through observing women, these seemingly uncontrolled family structures of these different cultures were at constant discord with what Europeans considered civilized life. Between Morgan and Federici, the reproductive labor of women had been exploited due to both capitalism and years of rationalizing that their oppression of women in the home is appropriate in the context of civil life.

Labor was given depending on gender and race, Morgan and Federici developed similar arguments regarding this concept. Both authors focused on the positions women had in the labor industry during the start of capitalism. Labor is the physical work where one expose their body to perform a task in exchange of a piece of valued printed paper that will allow them to fulfill the requisites of survival in a society. However, the intensity and effort one must do varies among each owner or boss leading the group of individuals. Some might not have any ambition of gaining power while other might have being advantageous and exploited its workers. Women were an easy target for the labor oppression. As Federici argued that each shift in the society such as the incrementation the prices of good and food as well as the jobs offered made inferior and powerless. Similarly, Morgan explains how the physical appearances of women deteriorated their value and were not respected by the descriptions of travelers which diffused race ideologies making owners of slaves discriminate and exploit the black race only by the way they look. People depend on what they can they do with their own hand in order to not starve, have a place to live and have a coexistence. However, the divisions created by the people due to their own concupiscence on humanity made labor unbalanced. White supremacy played a role on creating that distinction and women were given the domestic labor which when it comes to the entire system of labor their work is despised. In addition to their arguments, they both mentioned the way women played their role as mother while working. Some women will have to carry their babies on their backs as they also feed them. Their role as mothers was not taken as an important task to be perform but for them to exploit women in labor was of major importance. It was inevitable to not do any kind of work, the exceptions were not allowed. Under all the circumstances labor was a priority for the survival of the African women and men.

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.

In all the reading that we made, I believe the most prominent topic was probably the motherhood. This particular concept of maternity was always in flux and changing. At some moment of time and some places of the world the concept of motherhood did not exist. On the other hand, and another part of the world motherhood was used as a tool to grow future labor force. Some other times motherhood was used just to stop the growth of women.

In Morgan’s work reader can clearly see that the concept of motherhood didn’t really take place in some tribes all over the world. Child birth was considered as something monstrous. As travelers stated they were shocked that these savage women gave birth with ease and no pain at all. In addition, the birth was in front of everyone and travelers were shocked at their absence of shame and dignity. So, these tribal women did not really care for their children and the concept of motherhood was nonexistent for them. On the contrary, in Davis’s work we can recognize that the concept of motherhood was very strong between women. Especially motherhood was solid in slave communities. Motherhood was used as a tool to grow a new labor force. Slave women were always afraid that some master would be able to take away a child to sell him or her to other master. However, the concept of mother hood quickly changed in nineteen century. . The capitalism era began with a bad sign for women because jobs were occupied with men in factories. Women could not find any jobs so they had to stay home. Degradation of women had a huge impact in women’s rights because even nowadays women have to stay home and take care of children and a husband.

The concept of motherhood had gone through a long process of struggle and misrepresentation. It took different forms and meanings. Some considered it unnatural and others thought it was a limitation.

Motherhood is known as the practice of being a mother and having a sense of maternal instinct towards your children. Both Angela Davis and Jennifer Morgan mentioned the concept of motherhood though in different explanation based on historical facts and their opinion.  Morgan starts off the discussion of motherhood by mentioning how the women were seen at first by many accounts written by various explores. The explorer, Richard Ligon, had first seen a black woman as an utmost stunning creature whose beauty and grace match that of Queen Anne. Later, more travelers and explorers had begun to write about how the black women was an object of desire. However black women were also viewed as unwomanly compared to white women and were marked by a reproductive value that was dependent on their sex and the concept of the black women’s lack of femininity. Ligon had changed his views of the black women seen them as monsters with breast the size of their torso appearing to look as if they had six legs. Through this concept, mothers were monstrous and were believed to have only had one child in their lifetime. According to The Travels of Sir John Mandevill, when women have children they may give them to what man they had conceived the child with. Painting the native women as a foul vision of a woman further dissociating the concept the Europeans have about motherhood. To add to the concept of being as a foul mother by The Europeans was that according to BattelJ, women were extremely fruitful with fertility. However, they were not interested in their children so they would be buried alive so that there was no child to care of. The image of Savagery had begun with cannibalism and ended with the mothers who had consented to the killing of the children they bore. (Morgan, 1997:13-30) Davis starts off the discussion of motherhood by mentioning that black women were seen no less than                black men, they were viewed as an equal profitable labor-units, to the point of being genderless in the eyes of the slaveholders. To quote one scholar, the slave woman was at first a full-time worker for her master and then a wife, mother and homemaker outside of their work from the needs of the master. However, the concept of Black men and women seen as genderless. Black women were practically an anomaly due to the developing nineteenth century philosophy of femininity which emphasized women’s roles as nurturing mothers and gentle companions and housekeepers for their husbands.as well as the fact that many Slave owners saw that slave women were not mothers at all but more of slave breeders. (Davis, 1981:9-11). The concept of motherhood for black women were not seen as mother until the publication of the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Where the creation of the mammy stereotype had helped view black motherhood in a different light with the traits of having a superior Christian morality, an unfaltering maternal instincts, gentleness and fragility with the character of Eliza, who Davis sees as white motherhood personified in blackface. (1981:31).

The concept of motherhood is addressed in both Davis and Morgan’s work, and in both works it is used to show the contrast created between black motherhood and the ideal mother. Black women were seen as breeders rather than mothers during the time period discussed. They both seem to place an emphasis on the fertility of black women being appreciated in order to increase the slave population. In Morgan’s work, the contrast was used as a way to create a division between the races. The physical differences between the races were observed in great detail from body types and hair texture to the shapes of noses. The role of the black mother was not only to create more children, but to pass along their genetic traits to sustain the racial hierarchy that allows slavery to exist, and all of the benefits that comes with free labor. Morgan also wrote about Moota who was an enslaved woman who had children that never truly belonged to her. Women like Moota gave birth, but they never got to understand what is was like to be a mother  She also wrote about the difficulties black mothers had forming a motherly connection with their children while being enslaved.This proves that for these women, motherhood went as far as giving birth to increase a population and not really much after this point. The black woman’s ability to be a good mother was attacked by making her the scapegoat for the physical differences between the races, thus making black people inferior.When Davis talks about enslaved mothers being seen as breeders, we know that this view is used as a way to justify the selling and buying of children. Mothers were legally stripped of their claim to their children. The division of motherhood and what black mothers were seen as, made it easier to pass such outrageous laws. Morgan and Davis both showed us how mothers were dehumanized in order to justify all of the terrible thing that are done to them, and how motherhood was used a weapon against them.

In the works of Morgan and Davis, there seems to be a tremendous amount of importance in the concept of labor. Davis explains that first and foremost, slaves were viewed as economic property. Slave women particularly, were not considered wives and mothers. This idea is reiterated in Morgan’s work when she mentions that many Africans were enslaved and brought to the Americas to do forced labor through the the Transatlantic slave trade. Both women touched upon the fact that women were valuable because not only could they perform manual labor, but they were also useful for reproductive labor.
With respect to manual labor, the slave system knew no gender. In her work, Davis explains that women toiled in the same field alongside men from sunup to sundown. They were not subjected to preferential treatment even if they were pregnant or had a young child. They still had to work in the field while caring for their infants. In respect to their reproductive labor, slave owners sought out to guarantee that their “breeders” would produce children quite often (Davis, 1981:12). Morgan speaks on the common misconception made by European settlers that Africans and Native people were made to do manual labor. Race and the “monstrous nature of the African and Native females body played a big role in this conclusion of white superiority. In their writings, a few of the European explorers Morgan mentions talks about how African females had long sagging breasts and that would hang down to the ground and that was the reason they were nothing but laborer and reproducers.
Another point that bridges the works of Morgan and Davis is that they describe how Europeans and Slave owners alike tried to justify forced labor. More specifically with reference to the female body, they both described the common view of the masculine features of the African female and how that equated to physical labor. They also elaborated that in contrast, the white female body was viewed as dainty and feminine, therefore, they were not equipped to do manual labor. Morgan and Davis focuses on the concept of labor and its role in the lives of enslaved people.

A woman who embodies traits that are caring, giving, strength, kindness and love could be considered to have the qualities a mother figure should have. Motherhood is expressing these characteristics towards a woman’s child. In the readings by Angela Davis and Silvia Federici, the joy that is supposed to accompany the motherhood status is practically obsolete. There are no sweet stories of mothers and their children in either piece; the roles women had to endure during those times were that of fear and pain. Given that the African women entrapped in slavery were seen only as laborers, the acts of mothering children was subsequently taken away, and the label of “breeder” was pasted unto them (Davis, 11). This also made it easier for the slave owners to yank young children away from their mothers and sell them as slaves as well. In this respect the women were somewhat overvalued than their male counterparts, because they could do work in the fields and bear children which could be sold off and therefore increase profits of the slave owners. They were able to disassociate the beauty of motherhood from female African slaves and turn them into breeding appliances. Similarly in the Federici reading, women were degraded and their rights were controlled by the European government. Expecting mothers were no longer able to rejoice in childbirth surrounded by the other women in their community and midwives were scrutinized by male doctors, who eventually stole their roles in the delivery room. The government put precedence to the unborn child over that of the women requiring midwives and doctors to save the child and not the mother in life or death situations. Women were victimized and punished under false allegations of infanticide or even reproducing without the government’s consent. The European government wanted full control over the population during the era of accumulation and just as the slave owners did in Davis’s reading, were able to turn women into baby making machine (Federici 102,103).