5 Assignment 04

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).

Being far away from their own country, African slaves were forced into a life in America where they would be dehumanized and manipulated into tools for labor. They had to leave behind their whole lives and give up their way of living. However, according to the works of Davis and Morgan, contrary to their working environment, a home became a place where African slaves could actually live like a human being, similar to how they would have lived back in Africa, a life abundant with tradition and culture. Davis first introduces the concept of African slaves’ home and family through the work of Herbert Gutman and his book, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom. In it, Gutman emphasized how a family in slavery still flourished and exercised autonomy by living under traditional customs, in a way relieving themselves from the reality of being a slave (Davis, 1983:18). In an environment that was demoralizing and unrelenting, these slaves found the strength to live on by holding onto a part of their old life, remembering that they are part of a distinct culture and society. Davis shows that a home was a means of reminiscing their former lives and holding onto their African tradition and culture.

Morgan similarly portrays a home as a place of carrying out their African tradition. One example that Morgan provides is circumcision. The ritual of circumcision, particularly for female children, was meant to signal the start of adulthood, further symbolizing the linkage between a daughter and her mother, grandmother, and even ancestors (Morgan, 1997:65). Because of the environment that they lived in, where their social status was almost non-existent, it was necessary to find a substitute and alter the ritual in some way. Nonetheless, African slaves strived to carry on their tradition and customs even in Americas. This act of holding onto their origins and practicing traditional rituals within their families represent an effort to humanize themselves, and to not forget that they are more than what they are treated as. This further insinuates the importance of a home, a place that allowed them to live like a human being.

Both Davis and Morgan portray a home as an important aspect of lives of African slaves, because it provided comfort and familiarity by allowing them to carry out their traditional customs.

I found the concepts of labor in relation to the female body to connect through the works of Federici and Morgan. We are able to see in two different narratives how women’s bodies are exploited in terms of labor through different means of manipulation. For instance in Federici’s Caliban and the Witch” which covers the fourteenth through sixteen-hundreds we are introduced to labor changes through the anti- enclosure riots. When these Lords took away the land that was being farmed by both men and women it also aided in taking away manual labor jobs from women thus forcing them into reproductive labor. Another way in which Federici’s works demonstrated the exploitation of a woman’s body in terms of labor was through the population decline that was disguised as the faults of women for not reproducing enough. Another direct link to the female reproductive system and reproductive labor. These examples shown by Federici highlight an internal mark on the female body for her place in the work force among society. Versus Morgan’s work which I feel demonstrates the more external links to the exploitation of the female body. In multiple references throughout this work, Morgan quotes the work of English European travelers who refer to indigenous women’s breasts as low and sagging. Specifically in reference to the African woman, this false visual was to used in English European literature as a means to reinforce that their place was solely that of enslaved labor. This racist depiction of low sagging breast’s was explained by these English travelers as a means to actually be so heavy and low hanging that it would act as a “natural” anchor to hold them in their work station which would in turn allow the person to be able to produce more, over a longer period of time. ( Morgan 14) The reason I am revisiting Morgans work is due the way in which indigenous women were depicted in this literature. These indigenous women masculinized through the false exaggeration of their bodies, which was a way in which to link them only to manual labor. Also in Morgans work, we are able to see how differently the white women were depicted. In contract to the Indigenous female, the white women were describes as perky breasts while embodying extreme femininity exiling them from any manual labor. This is the factor in which helped me bridge these two works together. In Morgans work extreme femininity exiled these women from manual labor but it acted as another force in which to confine them to reproductive labor as well, thus connecting the two works by Federici and Morgan.

Due Sunday, September 24th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. No quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA). Late assignments will be accepted for partial credit if they are submitted no later than one week after the original deadline.

Each of the works we’ve read to date address concepts of “motherhood,” “home,” “monstrosity,” and “labor.” Choose ONE concept and find a specific place in the text where it is considered in two works, by Morgan and either Federici or Davis. Describe how the concept bridges these works and / or any disjunctions that can be affiliated with how the concept is used by these two authors.