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

这个研究网络将汇集正在调查巴西、美国和加勒比地区被奴役妇女生活的学者，特别关注与母性、照顾儿童和无子女有关的问题。标题为“为奴之母”，让人们注意到在奴隶社会中存在的多种形式的“为母”。被奴役的妇女充当自己孩子的母亲，因此养育的孩子将在奴隶制下度过一生，但在美洲的不同地区，她们也承担了主人孩子的母亲工作，有时包括母乳喂养他们。这些问题很重要，因为奴隶制是通过母亲的遗传而传播的，因为妇女的奴役经历受到她们是否为母亲的重大影响。此外，母性和（或）妇女无子女往往被解释为受奴役妇女的创伤；特别是文学和视觉艺术家经常关注母性，以传达奴隶制的恐怖。我们希望把学者们聚集在一起，以探讨大西洋奴隶社会中被奴役的母亲是如何相似地工作的，找出不同奴隶社会中的重要区别是什么，比较艺术中被奴役的母亲的表现，并考虑调查这些问题的最佳方法。这个网络将引出相似点和不同点，并寻求通过比较视角的好处来鼓励对大西洋世界中被奴役妇女的新思考方式。这项工作将有助于历史学家和其他学者发展对奴隶制和被奴役妇女的未来研究。该网络将涉及三个主要事件。首先，在纽卡斯尔，将重点比较奴隶社会和非奴隶社会，特别是母乳喂养和哺乳。第二场在巴西圣保罗举行，将把目前关于巴西奴隶制妇女的最好的学术研究（特别是关注母亲、无子女和照顾孩子的研究）与其他奴隶社会的类似研究进行对话。第三个活动是在雷丁举行的会议，将审议在从奴隶制向后奴隶制社会过渡的背景下与母性、照顾儿童和无子女有关的问题，并将寻求审查从这一系列事件中吸取的教训。该网络将在几个不同国家的学者之间建立关系，使他们能够为未来的研究制定计划。特别是，它将巩固英国学者和巴西学者之间的联系，以便设计未来对比较奴隶制研究中相关问题的研究。在更公开的背景下，作为雷丁自治市议会黑人历史月活动的一部分，该网络将通过在雷丁国际团结中心举行的两场公共活动，促进学术历史学家和更广泛的公众之间的合作。第一个是作家安德里亚·斯图尔特（Andrea Stuart）的公开演讲，她是2013年出版的《血中的糖》（Sugar in The Blood）一书的作者，将用个人和家庭故事来思考被奴役妇女生活中的母性主题，以及它与当代社会的相关性。第二部分是与视觉艺术家乔斯林·加德纳（Joscelyn Gardner）进行的一场配有插图的谈话，将利用加德纳对被奴役妇女母性的创造性回应，开启一场关于奴隶制历史对当代关于母性、怀孕、生育和照顾孩子的辩论的意义的公众讨论。为了配合这次会议，将为加德纳的作品展览寻求额外的资金。这些活动将被拍摄下来，并在该网络的网站上提供，该网站还将包括关于该网络主题的短篇文章和互动书目，以及有关其活动的信息。

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.