5 Assignment 03

In the first chapter of Jennifer Morgan’s book, she talks of how English writers depicted black women as taking the beauty of the female body but introduced a black savage nature to themselves as beings that only had two purposes in life. To produce crops and to produce other people, one writer talks about how the body of a black woman was similar to a monster with how when they bent over they looked like they had six legs. The nudity of African woman as well as having sagging breasts made them targets for Europeans to call uncivilized and savage in comparison to white women. This was done to show that people that black women only looked female but where something else when compared to Europeans. This description could have been used by some to justify their enslavement and what slaveowners were to do with them. The other tales of African women such as their ability to give birth to a child and not be hindered by it to still do field work only helped others think that labor was what they were born for and would be of use in the Americas. Other examples of how African women show their ability for labor was with even when working because of their sagging breasts, they merely had to throw it over their shoulder and have it that way to feed their children. With more ways of how African woman were described Europeans thought themselves to be superior because each tale made them look less and less human. With the extreme differences between the cultures of both Europeans and Africans, Europeans saw them as inferior due to their openness to nudity, how their women were based on their masculine looks and could work while with child. Morgan shows how the looks of African women were used by Europeans to portray them as animals fit only for work and creating more workers. They used these depictions as a justification to enslave the African people as they were to different in comparison to them.

Question: Why did the Europeans think that people of a completely different land would have the same culture as them and when they didn’t, immediately concluded that they were inferior because of it?

One of the ways in which Jennifer Morgan approaches the issue of racism and its connection to the female body is through physiognomy of women as a whole. The word itself is defined as a person’s facial characteristics. However, she makes a point to note that Europeans had a cataloged view of what indigenous people looked like based upon the writings of people from the past. And this perspective, whether accurate to the time period, or the people being documented or not, was what shaped their understanding, and later, their perspective of superiority towards women of color, and people of color in general. One of the main ways that this is addressed is through the promiscuity that is perpetuated throughout the old literature that is being digested by the Europeans of this time period. What’s curious about this is that women of other nations, typically those of color, are described in almost complete contrast to their European counterparts. Either as being naked, long-breasted, savage, and most curiously whether they are able to have a lot of children or only a few. What’s even more interesting is that both ends of this position are seemingly bad. It’s bad for a woman to only have one child in her lifetime, but it’s also bad if she has too many as Aristotle would describe Egyptian women. For fear of risking a bad apple, apparently. That’s a curious oversight, though, I think because it shows that perhaps the intention when examining people outside of their culture and understanding, their was already initial feelings of superiority. And this natural feeling of superiority is something that perhaps biased the initial perspective of the people documenting the indigenous folk. This initial bias is probably laid the groundwork for the initial perpetuation of racism that would later give reason to enslave women and people of color in the future.

In chapter 1 of  Jennifer Morgan’s book, Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and Racial Ideology, Morgan goes on to describe how many Europeans ethnocentric view points to justified their actions and racism against Africans, especially African women. It was clear in the minds of the conqueror, that from a physical appearance of his own people were greatly different than those he had came upon. They would criticize how women were dress, African women would wear very little clothing and they would consider them as sluts to some extent. They would also criticized they way a women fed her child, aligning them to animals and savages. Simply put from the eye of the westerner the indigenous people were completely inferior and behave just like an animal. White women were often compared to African women and if an African lady did something a white women wouldn’t normally do, the act the white men would be shocked. In one example, the breast size of an African women was compared to an white women, African women generally had larger barest and that was seen as a bad thing, a bad trait. It was also described how the the sagging nature of the breast of African women were made them look like an alien when they were bending over while tending the fields. From the westerner’s point of view what they’re doing is not wrong, they’re showing them how to “properly” live and treat them as what they thought them as.

Due to the assumption that African women were like beasts, many believed that they would also be really strong, being able to take heavy blows without feeling much. Since they were though to be really strong, slavery and branding them wasn’t considered as immoral rather commonplace.  Overall Morgan tries to relay the message of how the white men used the differences among the two groups to bring up a valid reason for all this and to make themselves think less of what they actually done.

Q: Do you think people still have ethnocentric views today? If so far are people willing to go to prove that view or idea?

In chapter one of  Jennifer Morgan’s book she talks about the Male Travelers,  Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology.  In this chapter the connection between the female body and racism are talked about especially by the analysis of the male travelers/writers. I realized that the words monstrous and human savage was repeated multiple times in this chapter. Many of the men used these words to describe the African female bodies. Richard Ligon mentions the breast of a black women, how they hung down below their belly buttons and at a distance they look like they had six legs. This implication states that they thought of the women’s body as inhuman and  monstrous. The breast of the women are mentioned a lot throughout this chapter as well. Felix Spoeri, a Swiss physician, stated that the length of enslaved women breast are long due to the fact that they are naked all the time. Also since they have long breast they would just throw the breast across there shoulder and feed their babies on their backs. This leads to another racist idea they came up with which is that since the babies are on the back feeding, their noses are flattened due to knocking them continually against the back and shoulders of the mothers, concluding why all of their noses look the same (flat). Going back into the female body, Theodor de Bry depicts Indians as  aggressive and savage. He shows women eating from a grill with human body parts that are being cooked. With that going on the women were presented with long breast falling below their waist. From those contexts women with long breast were considered savages to English readers.

Question: Why was the length of a women’s breast so important and why does long breast automatically have an association with being monstrous and a human savage?

Semir Mulic

In Jennifer Morgan’s Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and Racial Ideology, Morgan describes how the racism is sought to be justified by the characteristics of the female body. Morgan states in the very first chapter that Europeans viewed an African woman’s features such as hair, color of their skin and facial features as things that were flawed with the race. She goes on to say that the “flaws” of these women would make the act of forcing them into slavery somewhat more justifiable. I believe Morgan states that they had different body types to European women, and instead of just understand that they were different they had to make the connotation that they were inferior, even seen as “beasts”.

I think you can see the awful portrayal of women on the last paragraph of page thirty six. The Europeans seem to believe that because of their ability to carry around their large breasts to breastfeed their children, and the ridiculous assumption that they go through childbirth without experiencing any form of pain, they would not be phased by the hard labor they would endure if they were enslaved. In the paragraph it’s stated that the English believed the pain of childbirth was a mark of a woman in the christian community, this wouldn’t be the only time they use religion to justify themselves because it’s also stated that the African’s large breasts were that of a beast and only the devil was depicted with large breasts. Wealthy women in England would sometimes send their children to wet nurses to be breast fed, observations like these were said to create a barrier between the English and the Africans. All these differences would lead the English to believe that not only could the African Women perform hard labor but also the “trait” that makes them immune to pains of breastfeeding and childbirth would allow them to take abuse from things like beatings, lashings, and even branding. Morgan states that because of all these “flawed characteristics” from these women, the English were able to justify themselves that the Africans were able to deal with slavery.

Q: With how “strong” women were seen by the English how come there were so many more men sold into slavery?

In Jennifer Morgan’s Male Travelers, Female bodies, and Racial Ideology, the correlation between the female body and racism is explained through different passages and some important historical events. One of the passages she mentions was written by De Marees on page 31. Through that passage the body and motherhood of African women was graphically described. In the scenario there was a mother feeding her two or three month old child with her breast over her shoulder. The wording he uses gives us a sense of a brutal behavior from the mothers towards their children. When he uses the word “dugs” to describe women breast he is aligning them to animals to deliver the idea that they are like animals. Even though that was the term use during that time it shows how inhumane women were seen by others. Morgan shows how the idea of savagery of African women was reinforced and used to categorize African women as the “over-shoulder breastfeeding” race. In other similar ways other writers were able to imprint such observations of women from various places and target their “physical imperfections” that will make them fall under certain groups or races.

Body descriptions made by the travelers persuaded them to write about sex and reproduction. Therefore as a society begins to reproduce new individuals labor is maximized and starts togenerate more profit. Unfortunately, the bodies of black were exposed to all the traders and incoming sailors which record every detail of their physical appearances. Women were objects to their racial ideologies. Seen black women naked bombarded their thoughts with features that classify that group of people by race according to their own perspectives as superior or inferior. Based on the behavior of those women scholars were allowed to argue the definition of a race and what characteristics made them different. Unfortunately there was not time to appreciate their hard work, instead they were driven by the white superiority and just encoded the racial difference.

Question: To what extent are ideologies about race and gender able manipulate one’s behavior towards humanity ?

Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery by Jennifer Morgan details the emergence of racism through distinguishing factors and features the indigenous in comparison to white European women and men (32).

In chapter one, “Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology,” Morgan references many European authors who began expeditions and constructed observations that paved way for a more savage view of the African and native women they came into contact with (43). The degradation of the African women and in turn the African men was needed in order to enslave them into forced labor for the Europeans in the Americas (28). This was known as the Transatlantic slave trade (8).

European authors and journeymen–when in contact with black women–described them as unwomanly. Only in some cases were they were able to differentiate between men and women and the only physical feature that did distinguish them were their breasts. Lynda Booze considered this a threat to the patriarchy (48).

Women were focused on to provide the distinguishing factors amongst the races. They were considered savages due to their habit of being naked constantly and the absence of marriage. They had sexual intercourse with anyone in their culture, worked while pregnant, and bore the scars of many children. In the European perspective, the lack of shame and disorder in their societies led the white Europeans to believe that these “races” they came into contact with where inferior to them (79).

One physical feature of black women that allowed the white Europeans to give support to their ideas of white supremacy and attitudes toward race were the breasts of black women, which were described as “sagging”. When working on weeds they were described as having “six legs” (43).

Women were described in various accounts as monsters and sexually dissatisfying, but sexually active enough to produce laborers. These observations and descriptions of black women produced ideas that they on equal grounds as animals and can be domesticated, thus giving reason to classify them as inferior to the white Europeans and to provide them with racial differences. (56)

How did the perspective on black women by the European narratives affect black men?

In chapter one of Jennifer Morgan’s Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery, Morgan describes the development of white supremacy and the connection that is made by Europeans between the female anatomy and racism. A reoccurring image is portrayed throughout the chapter; colored women were depicted as abnormal beings, possessing grotesque qualities such as plummeting breasts and unusual strength. As demonstrated by Pieter de Marees who wrote about his own personal encounters in Guinea, a black woman’s femininity was consistently targeted and used to belittle her. It was through these physical perceptions that female blackness became equated with monstrosity. A constant comparison was made between women of different races, and the more a black woman’s appearance strayed from that of a white woman, the more revolting she was found to be. Despite how off-putting the Europeans found certain elements of black culture, it did not prevent them from recognizing the physical prowess that they embodied. Europeans observed the impressive endurance of black female workers and black mothers as they delivered their children. Black women were quick to return to normal function after labor, and were often accompanied by their young as they worked. White women were quite the opposite,  and experienced great pain during and after pregnancy. Although they heavily criticized the way in which black mothers tended to their children, it was part of what lead them to believe that they were well suited for hard labor.

This combination of slumping breasts, experience in manual labor, and quick ability to recuperate almost immediately following labor closed the distinction between black females and domesticated animals in the minds of Europeans. Black women were not regarded as creations of God, which in the minds of Europeans justified their harsh treatment and reputation and made them subject to European domination. The black image became twisted by these same men, who insisted that a black woman’s worth was dependent on the amount of physical labor she could produce and her reproductive function. More European travelers would hear of these beliefs towards indigenous cultures and arrive with plans to exploit the people who were wrongfully oppressed because their unique customs and appearances.

Discussion question: Europeans did not consider black women descendants of Eve and therefore were not related to them because they did not experience the same labor pain as white women. Do you think, had black women exhibited signs of labor pain, that to Europeans would view them more equally, or would they find another element to target to separate their races?

Jennifer Morgan in, Male Travelers, Female bodies, and Racial Ideology, discussed about a lot of themes on a very strong topic. The most interesting from my perspective was a topic about how different writers and travelers implemented different ideas about white supremacy in the early sixteenth century. I believe that, Morgan probably connected the female bodies and racism through presenting us different opinions of those famous writers and travelers.

At the time when colonization began, Europeans didn’t really know what was out there in the world. And, as colonization gained a momentum, many people travelled to different parts of the world. They found something new in the horizon and it was definitely very strange and exotic for them. So, they wrote stories about these indigenous people and especially women. For some travelers, these indigenous women were very beautiful and others saw them as some kind of devils and unnatural monstrosity. So, the special propaganda began. Although, the propaganda word might be strong but for my purposes in serves well. Therefore, writers wrote that black people were animalistic and cruel. Black women and men were physically strong but they didn’t have any civility. Many travelers of that time saw indigenous people as a work force because they thought they could give them a purpose and use them as slaves. So, the propaganda played a huge role in validating the use of black people as slaves and Europeans would feel sorry for them. All those horrible stories about childbirth, child scarifies and cannibalism had an impact on European people and the idea of white supremacy. European people just simply thought that they were better. The black females’ bodies were compared to white female bodies and slave owners figured that black female were better in labor work. They were physically stronger and they presumably didn’t feel pain. Black female bodies were always shown as devils in women form as well as other forms such as six legs form and sagging breasts. Thus, Europeans writers and travelers implemented the idea that black people didn’t matter and it was used to justify the strict control and supremacy over the black indigenous males and females.

Question: Why most of the writers of that time concentrated mostly on women and not men? Was it Jennifer Morgan’s choice to do that?

Racism became evident as England began searching in West Africa for strong and profitable workers to migrate to America and establish new colonies. English writers wrote about their views of African women’s bodies, viewing them as nonsexual animals whose sole purpose was for childbearing and labor. English explorer Richard Jobson wrote about how the African man’s penis and the women’s breast were not sexual organs but more like troubled appendages. As part of their culture the women did not wear clothes. White European’s more or less so called African women animals, describing their breast as low low hanging animal utters. There were also Mexican, Floridian, and Virginian women who were dark skinned and walked nude, however these women had breast that did not hang low and appeared unused and because of this, these women were not seen as savages,for the mere appearance of their breast. African women were seen as savages whether it was because of the shape of their body or their loud behavior, people did not view them as real women,and compared with the beastly behavior of the Garamantes women (Morgan 28,29). The beauty of these women was not allowed to be talked about, instead they were continually depicted as beast who were picked and sold into slavery for labor and reproduction for more labor. These images stuck with the African women all the way through into America where their differences between themselves and the white woman became even more and when racism flourished. White women could not understand how the African women would give birth in front of everyone without the help of a nurse or midwife (Morgan 27). They believed that black women were not cursed because they seemingly experienced pain free child delivery, and it further solidified the racial barrier because they saw them as witches and animals.

Had the Richard Jobson wrote about the beauty of African women instead of making them out to be savages, would people have accepted and been more open to their culture?