Mothering Slaves: Comparative Perspectives on Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies

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This research network will bring together scholars who are investigating the lives of enslaved women in Brazil, the United States, and the Caribbean, paying particular attention to issues related to motherhood, the care of children, and childlessness. The title, 'Mothering Slaves', draws attention to the multiple forms of 'mothering' that took place in slave societies. Enslaved women acted as mothers to their own children, thus mothering children who would live out their lives under slavery, but also--with varying frequency in different parts of the Americas--undertook mothering work of their owners' children, including sometimes breastfeeding them. These issues are important because slavery was transmitted by inheritance from the mother, and because women's experience of enslavement was very significantly influenced by whether or not they were mothers. In addition, motherhood and/or women's childlessness has often been interpreted as a site of trauma for enslaved women; in particular literary and visual artists have frequently focused on motherhood in order to convey the horrors of slavery. We want to bring scholars together in order to consider how enslaved motherhood worked similarly across Atlantic slave societies, to find out what the important differences were in different slave societies, to compare representations of enslaved motherhood in the arts, and to consider the best methodologies for investigating these issues. This network will draw out points of similarity and difference, and seeks to encourage new ways of thinking about enslaved women in the Atlantic world through the benefit of comparative perspectives. This work will help historians and other scholars develop future research on slavery and enslaved women.The network will involve three main events. The first, in Newcastle, will focus on comparing slave societies and non-slave societies, particularly in relation to breastfeeding and wetnursing. The second, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, will bring the best current scholarship on women in Brazilian slavery (particularly that focused on motherhood, childlessness, and the care of children), into dialogue with similar work on other slave societies. The third event, a conference in Reading, will consider questions relating to motherhood, the care of children, and childlessness in the context of the transition from slavery to post-slave societies, and will also seek to review what has been learnt from the series of events. The network will create relationships between scholars in several different countries, enabling them to develop plans for future research. In particular, it will consolidate links between scholars based in the UK and those in Brazil, in order to design future research on relevant questions in the study of comparative slavery.Within a more public context, the network will foster collaboration between academic historians and the wider public through two public events held at the Reading International Solidarity Centre as part of Reading Borough Council's Black History Month activities. The first, a public lecture delivered by writer Andrea Stuart, author of the 2013 book Sugar in the Blood (Faber) will use personal and familial stories to consider the theme of motherhood in enslaved women's lives, and its relevance for contemporary society. The second, an illustrated talk with the visual artist Joscelyn Gardner, will use Gardner's creative response to enslaved women's mothering to open up a public discussion of the significance of the history of slavery to contemporary debates about motherhood, pregnancy, birth, and the care of children. Additional funding will be sought for an exhibition of Gardner's work to coincide with the conference. These events will be filmed and made available on the network's website, which will also include short articles and an interactive bibliography of work on the network's themes, and information about its events.